1. The situation in “Real Women Have Bodies” follows the narrator as she becomes more aware of the world of “faded women”. She becomes romantically involved with Petra, the woman who delivers dresses to the shop in which she works, who slowly begins to fade herself. Petra also shows the narrator how these faded women are being sewn into the dresses they sell, coming to the warehouse to be sewn of their own accord. The two try to enjoy their time together (and Petra tries to fight off the fading), but it ends up being fruitless as Petra eventually fades, becoming incorporeal, disembodied. The narrator returns to the shop and cuts the faded women out of the dresses, but none of them leave.
2. The story in “Real Women Have Bodies” is about how society views women. Society constantly objectifies them and holds them to high standards, as indicated in the story multiple times. One example that stuck with me was the interaction between a mother and her child in which the mother chides against getting a pretzel, saying pretzels are junk food and would make her fat. As women become more affected by society’s standards, they can become numb and apathetic, analogous to becoming nonphysical like the faded women in the story. The women attaching themselves to the dresses is representative of the way women need to attach themselves to physical things to be considered beautiful by society’s standards. They need to wear pretty clothes, put on makeup, have plastic surgery, etc. in order to be accepted by society. Thus, the faded women cave to society, even after trying to fight against it like Petra. They are broken and attach themselves to the dresses because that’s all they can do anymore.
