Sex And Sexuality: "Woman At Point Zero" By Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal El Saadawi’s Woman at Point Zero portrays an unsympathetic, patriarchal society and focuses on a pain-stricken prostitute who escapes a childhood full of oppression to find power in prostitution. Sex is commonly used as an abbreviation to refer to sexual intercourse and sexuality refers to being either male or female. Nawal El Saadawi presents sex as a burden but also as a sense of empowerment to women in this book. Additionally, sex and sexuality is very significant, because it demonstrates the advancement of Firdaus as a character, as her understanding of sex changes and becomes less about pleasure but more about power. Firdaus is able to have power and takes control of her life for the first time and uses what she has discovered to fight the circumstances that have dominated her life for a very long time. Firdaus’s perception of empowerment develops alongside her changing views of sex and sexuality. She finally becomes aware that her sexuality is no longer inferior but rather superior where sex is involved. The focus of this essay is to explore the means by which Nawal El Saadawi employs to present the significance of sex and sexuality in Woman at point zero.

Nawal El Saadawi makes use of descriptive diction to describe the emotions and feelings of the protagonist Firdaus. Firdaus’ encounter with Mohammadian as a child initiates a starting point for her understanding of sexual pleasure. “From some part of my body… sharp pleasure”, the writer here uses the words “sharp pleasure” to describe her feelings. This is very significant because, regardless of the fact that Firdaus doesn’t understand what sexual pleasure is, she is exposed to it a very tender age and she will therefore be able to notice differences later on in her life. Through these descriptive words “sharp pleasure” the writer portrays sex as satisfying and enjoyable on Firdaus’s first sexual encounter with Mohammadian. These words are also simple and this is important because it allows the readers to fully grasp the intentions of the writer. “She brought a woman who was carrying a small knife. . . They cut off a piece of flesh from between my thighs”. Visual imagery once more is employed to vividly show us the pain in which Firdaus was enduring because the knife was described as “sharp”. There is no indication of pain yet, but her comprehension of herself and the previous experiences she had gone through were no longer there. She feels a powerful incoherence between her inner self and her body, and this dire change can be directly linked to her experience with female genital mutilation. “ I no longer felt the strong sensation of pleasure”. This is very significant because not only does Firdaus go through a physical reorientation through the genital mutilation process, but part of herself that she had just begun to identify had now been taken away. This is evident in the novel “Part of me, of my being, was gone and would never return”.

The significance of sexuality is once again explored when the writer addresses that it was compulsory for women in Firdaus’s culture to undergo female genital mutilation. It was believed that after the process is done she will not be able to practice infidelity in the future. This illustrates the extent to which male superiority influenced the life of Firdaus. Once more, her sexuality is portrayed as her affliction. Before undergoing the procedure she had just experienced sexual pleasure with Mohammadian which is very significant because after undergoing the genital mutilation, Firdaus’s description of sex is very much different than her experience with Mohammadian. Firdaus’s husband Sheik Mahmoud is the first outstanding man we see in the novel who sexually takes advantage of her. The writer employs the use imagery to vividly depict the significance of sex and sexuality. For instance “I surrender my face to his face, and my body to his body, passively, without any resistance” the words surrender and passively give us an image of Firdaus being violently attacked by her husband but not fighting back because it was her duty to please her husband by submitting to his sexual desires and she had no say when it came to her married life. These words too, induce the feeling of sympathy for Firdaus from the readers. The use of visual imagery in this part of the novel portrays sex and sexuality as a burden to Firdaus because it’s causing her pain instead of pleasure.

Sex and sexuality gives us a glimpse of the nature of power in Firdaus’s world, where the married woman is identified as a sex object whom the husband can have as he pleases. Bayoumi is the male character that tried to help Firdaus by letting her leave with him when she ran away from her husband’s house. Throughout her stay with Bayoumi the book says that she “felt the touch of him, like a dream remembered from the distant past”. At this point of the novel the writer’s choice of words are very important because the word “dream” portrays sex as a fantasy, but the word “remembered” brings hope that Firdaus will soon break free from the oppression and the captivity of sex and sexuality in her society, where sex is used to subjugate women. So once again the writers choice of words evidently portrays sex as a fantasy which is so ironical because when later Bayoumi sexually assaults Firdaus, sex is no longer described as a “dream” but returns to describing as a “weight” that made her feel “empty of all desire, or pleasure, or even pain”.

The importance of sex at this particular point of the novel is put across because Firdaus has been stripped of emotions and once again sex is being used as a tool to oppress her. Firdaus’s life changed entirely when she met Sharifa who was a strong, independent woman. Firdaus had never come across a woman who made her change her mentality on her sexuality. She only believed in male superiority because all the women in her life were all being oppressed by the superior figure of the man; she also realized that she could have power too. Quoting Sharifa “A man does not know a woman’s value, Firdaus; she is the only one who determines her value”. The use of dialogue in this part of the novel is very important because it shows the character's personality, emotions, and actions, in this case which its Sharifa, highlighting the significance of sex to Firdaus. Firdaus learns and understands that she can take advantage of men with her body which had been taken advantage of for a very long time. Sex is very essential because it gives her control; she uses this control she has, to get more money and a better standard of living. This makes a connection between the theme of sex and sexuality to the theme of money and beauty. Firdaus becomes aware of the fact that her body is hers to have ownership and control of.

Moreover, the significance of sex and sexuality is vividly put across through the use of symbolism, in which money is used to represent the money-oriented side of Firdaus which drives her to use sex to gain it. She now uses her body to gain what she wants, and she is becoming aware and also fighting against her suppression. At this point of the novel her sexuality is no longer a burden but a strong hold.

In conclusion, Nawal El Saadawi asserts that sex and sexuality, is a tool for women to use in their lives. As a result of the astonishing oppression felt by women in the Egyptian society, women are forced to use what men want (their bodies) to obtain some sort of power. El Saadawi does not condemn the decision of prostitution, but instead fully explains the choices made by Firdaus. The writer also uses descriptive diction and simple diction for the readers to distinctly give an understand the feelings and situations of the character, the use of visual imagery was also essential because it enables the readers to graphically understand the characters feelings and emotions, in addition to symbolism and other literary devices the writer was able to vividly portray the significance of sex and sexuality in woman at point zero.