The seismic shift in society’s attitude towards men who expect to be excused for violating women
“That Summer” by Jennifer Weiner talks about the different ways in which women have been violated and manipulated by men.
Last year, I read She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement, the inside story about the New York Times investigation about sexual misconduct by Harvey Weinstein. I remember feeling anguish when I realized how powerful Weinstein was and what it meant for those women to come forward with allegations against him. This sparked the MeToo movement and caused a widespread societal uproar. Thousands of women took to social media to share their stories and thus began a discussion of sexual harassment and abuse in different industries. The book, an investigative journalism piece, received applause all over the world and won the Pulitzer. However, that book left me pinning for a more personal, albeit a fictionalized version of women’s stories and the challenges they faced in deciding to speak up.
Boys will be boys. Boys have always been boys. And nothing — not political correctness, not all of this ‘Me Too’ stuff, not feminism — none of it will ever change that. It’s their nature.
Jennifer Weiner’s That Summer is the best-fictionalized version I could have hoped for. It is a complex look inspired by the MeToo movement, and the shift in society’s attitude towards men who have violated women, pinning the blame on their youth or being drunk. I couldn’t help but draw comparisons with Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony against Justice Brett Kavanaugh. However, this book is not just about sexual assault and its aftermath. This is a well-written piece covering the plight of modern-day women, the struggle they face and how far we still need to go to achieve true gender equality.
That Summer is a story about three women — Diana, Daisy and Beatrice, each with distinct traits but for the men who influenced their lives in different ways. The point of view alternates among the three of them. Diana is a sexual assault survivor. Daisy married young and feels trapped in her marriage. Her daughter, Beatrice, feels burdened by her father’s expectations of what she should be.
In the prologue, we meet Diana, a 15-year-old who takes a summer job as a Mother’s helper at Cape Cod. There, she meets Poe and his friends, a group of prep-school boys from the Emlen Academy. Charmed by Poe, she accepts his invitation to a bonfire party on the last night of the summer. At the party, he gets her drunk. Along with two of his friends, he violates an unconscious Diana, leaving her scarred for the rest of her life. Ashamed of the event, she does not confide in her family and deals with the depression and emptiness alone for half a decade. That night changed her, reshaping her sense of the world and herself, turning her from an aspiring artist and writer to a custodian and a waitress.
She was a broken thing, thanks to her own stupidity, her own dumb, naive, trusting nature. And now, for as long as she lived, she’d be hearing those boys laughing at her. She’d remember what had happened; what they’d done. It would be the first thing she’d think of in the morning and the last thing she’d remember at night.
On the other hand, we have Daisy Shoemaker, a marvellous cook who dreamt of working in a food magazine during her college days. When she was 20, she started dating Hal Shoemaker and married him soon after. She never graduated from college and had an early pregnancy. All her ambitions were swept to the side to tend to the needs of her husband and daughter, Beatrice. Now, she feels trapped in her marriage to her lawyer husband who dismisses her abilities and mocks her small business.
I have everything I want, she told herself. A stable marriage — or maybe just a marriage that would stay stable as long as she didn’t ask questions. A smart, creative, accomplished daughter who was, if not happy, then at least healthy. Financial security. A lovely home. A thriving, if small, business, giving lessons to the cooking-challenged. A husband who didn’t yell, and certainly didn’t hit; a man who still seemed to desire her. Why, then, did she sometimes feel lonely or trapped or incompetent?
Finally, we meet Daisy’s daughter, Beatrice, a rebellious teenager who is discovering herself. She has an unusual style and spends her time knitting, crafting and doing taxidermy. Her father views these hobbies as an embarrassment and constantly admonishes her. She feels frustrated by his expectations and his inability to understand her passion for the arts.
The story starts when Daisy gets emails meant for Diana (because of similar email addresses) and the two begin an online conversation which quickly morphs into a friendship. Little did Daisy know that all those emails are not so accidental and Diana has an agenda of her own.
I loved how unique these three characters are. Their choices are affected by the men surrounding them, which uncovers multiple themes that came together in the end. Another thing that shines out are the secondary characters and their portrayal of different perspectives. Brad and Danny are remorseful of their actions, Hal is ignorant of the power differentials between men and women and Daisy’s and Hal’s parents reflect the thoughts of an older generation who dismiss women and consent.
Diana’s journey of recovering from what she had gone through was relatable. There are some things you can never forget, no matter how hard you try. The ending left me with a mild discontentment, but it also instils a sense of reality. Despite the uproar of the MeToo movement, many accused men (including Justice Kavanaugh) walked free without any repercussions. To align the power dynamics between men and women, we have a long road ahead, but the journey will be bearable if more people speak up against wrongdoings, paving the way for new milestones.
Things are changing if there are people brave enough to come forward, to stand up and say enough is enough.
