Sons For The Return Home

This is my response to the novel “Sons For The Return Home”, written by the acclaimed Samoan Professor Albert Wendt. I personally like the idea of not naming the characters because it makes the story focus on the differences between two cultures and does not focus on the relationship between the couple. This focus is relatable to immigrants, such as myself who is neither of Samoan or European descent.

In this novel, I found the Samoan mother’s role a significant one. She has many flaws as a person but those flaws made her a very important character because without her the novel would not be interesting to read. She can be viewed as a person who is highly prejudiced and in denial. Moreover, I do not feel empathy towards the couple but I do feel sympathetic towards them as both of them lost their child and were separated from each other.

The mother is in denial. This is seen in her conversations with her son after meeting his girlfriend. The mother said that she liked the girl but did not look at him. By not looking at him proves his mother does not want him to see her because she knows that he will find out that she truly does not like the his girlfriend as his son’s potential lover. This relates to the saying that the eyes are the mirror/window to someone’s soul.

I think it is like two parallel worlds- the Samoan world and the Palagi world. Parallel worlds mean one cannot exist together. This is because a person living in the other world can cause harm to himself and an imbalance to the equilibrium because that person is believed to be different from others. 

Sometimes due to the difference between cultures, people tend to see only the negativity and compare one world with their own. In any country, in any culture not all people are good and are all people bad. There is always a mixed of two; we believe that they are either good people or bad people because of what we perceived them to be.

I also cannot blame the mother because how she perceives the Palagi culture. Her perception of the Palagi may be rooted from her ancestors. A perception, which was possibly, passes down through generations to her generation because the Palagi people have a history of killing Samoans.

This could possibly be due to New Zealand’s negligence by causing an outbreak of Spanish Influenza, which killed thousands of Samoan people and the New Zealand military police shooting nine Samoans including Chief Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III. However, I do not agree to the mother’s judgement about Palagi. I believe that it is prejudiced to label all Palagi people as bad people, just because of what other Palagi people have done.

I both agree and disagree with the mother. I agree with her concern for her child, but disagree to diminish her grandchild just because the unborn child is not a full-blooded Samoan. She is also probably concerned that the Samoan people because of the same reason may not accept her grandchild. I also think that she may be too concerned with what other people may think about their family and believing that it may bring shame to their family- having a non-full blooded Samoan grandchild.

This story is still relevant due to stereotyping and racism. It can be due to differences in culture, but not always. I think it is no longer about the colour of one’s skin anymore but their belief in life. Sometimes people tend to connect themselves to certain groups, who share their beliefs. Sometimes each group has a list in which people who do not share the same beliefs will not be part of the group and sometimes they will try to judge outsiders according to their beliefs.

I can relate to this story because of my family experience. Both my sibling and I are full-blooded Filipinos born in Philippines. I was born and raised back in my homeland for 19 years and migrated to New Zealand after my 19^th birthday. On the other hand, my brother is raised in New Zealand for 20 years. I myself would not expect my brother to have the same strong connection to the Filipino culture and everything that comes with it. For my brother to have that strong connection, he probably needs to accept everything about the culture and the Filipino community. However, it is not something that can be forced on a person. A person needs to have that desire to live that culture for them to have a strong connection.

As the boy in the story, he has less experience of what life is like in Samoa and the fact that he needs to live up to his mother’s expectations. These may be the cause of why he does not appreciate the Fa’asamoa. In comparison to his mother who was raised in Samoa, which would give her a greater connection towards the Fa’asamoa. She has lived the culture and has been part of the community for many years. Moreover, the boy’s weak connection to his homeland can be seen in his return to Samoa as a man, he admits that he likes the place but cannot see himself living in Samoa.

He has been serving and obeying his mother, and disrespecting her will make him an outcast in his homeland. It was stated in the novel, “finally, the sharp final slap of his forgiving hand across her face [his mother] broke open the womb of his grief and guilt, and he was free at last”. Being seen as an outcast unbound him from his mother’s expectations for him.

He is free does not mean he does not identify himself as Samoan. I think he still identifies himself as a Samoan, but he probably lost his sense of belonging. I think he needs time to unwind and explore the world. He might come back to Samoa or he may not, but there can only be two endings for him. It is either he will find the place he can truly call home or not.

Point of No Return Brief 2

Point of No Return by Pesi Fonua

Is it a return to Tonga or a return to a land overseas?

The impossible return of the Tongan people to Tonga from overseas or overseas from Tonga has the same reason. The text suggests that Tongans long for work opportunity, proper education, and freedom of owning land.

The Tonga monarchy and nobles probably kept land on a tenure system and ensured that those in charge have control over land use and access.

Tongans probably depend on natural resources such as farming or fishing but some of them do not have the right to own or occupy lands, especially the women. As the mother said in the short story, “…at least we had food from the allotment garden.. but now the estate owner has taken the tax allotment…” (p.363). This suggests that women do not have land rights. This gives rise to the problem of feminism in Tonga. Women should have the same opportunity as the men concerning the ownership of land. The problem arises in the characters life because his mother is dependent on her husband and the Tongan system favours the men.

As a result, they have lack of money, which made the boy in the story a beggar and the possibility that the mother along with her daughter became sex workers. Moreover, the government framework where the nobles have power over people’s lands, which could also be the cause. There is also that notion that the people, who have total control over the land in Tonga, may have their own preferences as to who is allowed to have the land and equal share is impossible. Sometimes people with a high status in security or authority tend to hinder others below themselves so those people will not surpass them.

It is also known that Tonga’s main source of revenue is remittance from Tongans working in a developed country. The characters in the short story want to migrate to the United States, Australia, or New Zealand. This may be due to work opportunities, education, or the lack of adequate resources due to land ownership.

Fonua probably wants to convey a message through his works that he wants good change in Tonga, a change that will benefit his people.

Zoey Bourgazas’ Creative Response Blog

“Kidnapped” by Ruperake Petaia

The opportunity for education is given to many fortunate people around the world, but whether or not they take advantage of it is up to them. Education seems to be one of those societal privileges that many people take for granted. Petaia’s poem, Kidnapped, touches on the reasons for this young boys rejection of the education system he is placed in. His mother is blamed for carelessly abandoning him in what we uncover as a schooling system, and leaving him to be the victim of the stories and events told by “western philosophers armed with glossy-pictured textbooks and registered reputations.”
        The way I see this poem is a kid taking for granted what he is so fortunate to have; education. I know this may not be the point being made, and that the poem is fueled by the treatment of the native people by the white settlers, but his is written from the perspective of someone who is seemingly rejecting the overbearing and inconsiderate actions done unto his people through means of education. The poems ends with an emphasis on the diploma that the boy earns after 15 years of being “kidnapped,” and how he uses it to decorate his wall. What one gets from school is more than just what is learned, but what is experienced as well. I understand the resistance to the white settlers culture, but I don’t understand the resistance to school. It can be an enriching experience regardless of how engaged and receptive one is to what is being learned.

“The Unfinished Fence” by Vilsoni Hereniko

When I was in grade school I had a teacher who never really seemed to treat her students fairly; She was always raising her voice at the kids with different color skin than me, but even some white boys as well. I was one of a few white girls in a class of around 20 boys so she was yelling a lot of the time. It wasn’t something I liked. I don’t know why she seemed to like me but not the boys; I was capable of being just as loud and rowdy as they could. She always talked to me so delicately with a crooked smile and her weird twitch, which I later realized was an attempt at a wink. I liked that she was nice to me, but it wasn’t fair to everyone else. Why was I treated with special privileges? It wasn’t right.
Half of the year had gone by before we were welcoming a new student into our class. His name was Abenezer and he had migrated to America with his family from Ethiopa. Abenezer didn’t speak English very well and it was clear that my teacher found this aspect of her new student as tedious and annoying. Whenever Abenezer would try to speak with our teacher she wouldn’t seem to offer him any guiding help, rather stare at him blankly while projecting no reaction.
I became friends with Abenezer, not out of pity, not because no one else had, but because I purely thought he was the kindest and most hilarious friend I’d grown to know all year.Though we didn’t have the best communication, we didn’t need to talk to one another all that much; we could sit in each other’s presence and laugh. That was enough. My teacher began to notice that we were spending a lot of time together, and that when one day she pulled me aside to tell me something that I later realized was the most disheartening thing I had ever heard an adult say at my young age. She leaned over me with her teaching badge dangling near my face and said, “Zoey, do you want the other students to call you stupid?” I looked at her with confusion and worry, “No! Why would they do that?” I said. She got a little bit closer and whispered “Well maybe you should think about spending less time with Abenezer and more time with your other classmates. Now, go on.” I was confused, I had no idea what she was talking about but I left anyway to play by myself.
I went home that day, with a little slump in my shoulders. Why did she tell me I shouldn’t play with Abenezer? What did he do? Did he steal someones cookies at lunch? I just didn’t understand. I told my mother what my teacher had said and my mom told me something that has stuck with me to this day. She said that I should never judge someone based on the color of their skin, their gender, their hair color, or even their favorite color. She continued to tell me that I can play with whoever I wanted, and that each individual has every right to be treated equally. I smiled at my mom she smiled right back.
My mother looked forward to meeting Abenezer and his family because she knew that we had become such great companions. I never really understood why my teacher acted like Abenezer was any different than me. I liked toys; he liked toys. I liked to laugh; he liked to laugh. We both liked to spin around in circles until we felt like we were going be relieved of the copious amount of cookies we had eaten at lunch. It was always fun with Abenezer. Why was he treated differently?
In Vilsoni Hereniko’s “The Unfinished Fence,” Jimi’s treatment reminded me so much of Abenezer. He was a man who was treated unfairly because of the color of his skin. When reading stories like these it always brings me back to the topic of equality for humankind. How far have we come? How far must we continue going? There is always work to be done. Ignorance plays a large role in the inequalities today. Ignorance is not bliss; you don’t know what you don’t understand, therefore there is no room for judgments in such an intricately woven world.

“Sons for the Return Home” by Albert Wendt

I found this book to be extremely well-written, as well as an additional piece of work that helped in educating me about the sentiments and history surrounding the Pacific island people. The one part that resonated with me the most was each set of parents resentment for one anther. They both felt as though their culture and their ways of parenting were superior to the others. The problem with this was that the Samoan parents had never really witnessed the ways in which the Papalagi people raised their children, nor had they really interacted with the Papalagi people in general. This brought me to think about how quickly people come to judge one another without prior knowledge of that person or that culture.
I always have lived by the rule: if you don’t know, don’t judge. I feel as though that is very applicable for the Samoan and Papalagi parents in this story. Though their behavior may be reactive, a way of “protecting” their children, it isn’t a fair approach to evaluating the character of a person or a group of people. It is important to seek to understand, and then be understood, and that’s a practice the parents could have put into work before heavily refuting the love shared between their children.

“Tango” by Michael Greig -- "Tsamiko" by Zoey Bourgazas

Why do you Greek dance, Zoey?
Is there a reason behind the long woven wool skirts swaying from side to side?
Is there a reason behind the black buckled dancing shoes clicking across the stage?

I dance for my people. I dance to stay connected with those relatives who lay at rest while they spectate and applaud above of our plum red hats, tassels hanging left, as they sway side to side in rhythm with the davul.

What I see is a simple remembrance with each twirl, each spin, each clap, and each whistle. This one is for you Yiayia. Three claps for the chickens that follow behind her. A clap for Papou as he spends his days amongst the olive trees in the small village in which he grew up. A twirl for Theo and Thea.

I dance for my generation. I dance to keep a tradition afloat as if the waves of change and alteration keep breaking the mass off the top of our dreamboat. This one is for you dad.

Kefi describes the whole experience. The clarinet softly wales around the edges of the dance floor where we lie within. The experience is complete and kefi remains.

I dance to stay connected.
I dance to find.

“I’m Not Sorry Any More” by Kali Vatoko

I love how strongly worded this poem is, as if the writer is not afraid to hold back any pent up aggression towards those white settlers who took over her family, land, and overall life. Vatoko doesn’t hesitate to uncover the poor treatment done unto her people by the white settlers, and in this it paints a moving picture for those unaware of what had been going on in the regions of New Hebrides, and many other Pacific Island regions during that time. One of the worst parts about the introduction of the white settlers into the Pacific Islands is that they knew what they were doing was wrong, unjust, and unfair, but because they could take over the land and the people, they did. It shows how ruthless a group of people can be if they are making selfish decisions, and that’s exactly what the white settlers were doing.
At the end of the poem, the author clearly states that if the chance arises, she will take advantage of it and essentially take down the white men. I imagine that this attitude was present all over the Pacific but so many voices were suppressed that nothing could be done, they weren't able to stand up for themselves. The aggressive nature of a lot of the poetry written in the anthology comes from a place of reason. In this, the circumstances of many of these poems manages to remove the emphasis from the malicious intentions, rather placing it on the pain felt by those affected by the white settlers. In these poems it is typical to find many moving passages, representing the collective hurt of the Pacific Island people.

“Kros” by Albert Leomala

I really enjoyed reading and analyzing this poem for my group presentation in week ten. When I read the poem for the first time, I was struck by the attitude and tone that Albert Leomala did not hide in his writing. I was initially impacted by the poem and everything it stood for, as well as stood against. As I started to delve into the reasons behind why Leomala carried such a tone in his poem, I was presented with so much history that I wasn’t previously aware of.
I came to New Zealand four and half months ago, ready to jump into the culture and explore the country in it’s entirety. I knew that I would be taking classes, as I was studying abroad, but I didn’t think they would have such an impact on me as a student and as a person. I almost feel embarrassed to admit how unaware of the all the history that lies within the boundaries of New Zealand, as well as the many islands that surround it, known as the Pacific. I found A Pacific Reader to be an extremely enriching class for me as an international student. Though my knowledge was limited prior to coming to New Zealand, while having to conduct quite a bit of research on my own time, I will say I came out of this class having learned a lot about the Pacific people. Their history is strong and deep rooted, and the fact that I was able to take a paper educating me on those parts of history, I feel like I have really engaged in the New Zealand and Pacific island cultures. A bit of the Pacific will definitely be following me back to the United States.

Sons for the return home (thinking about the story)

Sons for the return home

Sons for the Return Home is a novel written by Albert Wendt, a Samoan novelist. The novel was published in 1973, and is almost regarded as Wendt’ biography.

The novel begins with a dream of a Samoan family trying to “have good education for sons…and return back as a healer like the ‘papalagi doctor’”, but it ends with a big disappointment when they returns back after twenty years, no papalagi doctor, only their son’s broken heart. The story appears to explain that reality is sometimes quite unexpected, full of resistances and brutal.

In order to explain the reason of no return, Wendt digs deep into the social complex of the time. During the period of the family’s immigration, New Zealand is facing serious problems of discrimination, feminism, and colonialism. The discrimination could be found in words like “Dirty coconut Islander”, and also in the family’s preparation for a papalagi visitor, “mother” has to prepare for the whole week to prove that they are not “ignorant Islanders who didn’t know how to live like New Zealanders”. This explains that the white society has a strong discrimination against the island people. Moreover, with respect to feminism, the article mentions that women need to “obey him all things, give him children” or “disappear in the kitchen”, which stresses that women are only fit for house work and being servants, and may always be inferior to man. The most important thing in the novel is the colonialism. For example, the sentence that “We’d defeated them…in a very un-British-gentlemanly sort of way…make them pay for our war…compensation…we even took large areas form the bribes” sufficiently illustrates the brutality of the war between the white and the local, bloody and unfair. But this might lay a solid foundation of the class division in that society, the white are always higher than the brown, for they are the winners. Thus, this inequality may result in social problems and sometimes even cause personal tragedy.

Because of the above situation, the hero, the youngest son of the family, is intertwined with numerous contradictions with pakehas. In the school, for Samoans are normally quite talented in “rugby”, so, the boy becomes a perfect player, always wins the “the stupid game”. However, to the disappointment of the family, because pakeha often considers that “the brainless Islanders” are not good at “physics, chemistry, and biology”, so, the boy finally fails to meet a doctor’s qualification, which complete destroys the family’s desire of a “papalagi” doctor.

Apart from this, the boy suffers huge attack towards his personal affection because of the stereotypical social influences. The boy has a relationship with a pakeha girl, while, the class difference and social taboo change this beautiful love story into a tragedy. The love story between the boy and the pakeha girl looks like a love romance of their own, but it is actually the relationship between two classes or races. To explain this, the author also introduce the concept of “church”, which implies that religious difference might be the very important factor between them, for the God of pakeha is different from the God of Samoan, just as his mother explains that Samoan God is much earlier than the pakeha God.

No matter how much they love with each other, they may be too weak to overcome the “mountain” between them. This mountain may be the integration of religious belief, social taboos, class division and identities. For example, when she follows him to his Samoan circle, the situation would be that “nearly all people watch her… seem that they had never seen any other papalagi there”. On the other hand, when he goes to her circles, he may be questioned for “an islander…are you invited?”, for pakehas couldn’t imagine an islander being in their party. They are probably the minority, the “odd” people in each others’ group. They should be rebels if they choose to love and get marriage, so, the girl gives up at last, for his mother destroys her final courage. The girl, like an angle, tries to eliminate social discrimination and draws him towards her society, and his mother also manages to keep him in her Samoan circle, they all fail eventually.

Her abortion would definitely happen because of the “mountain”, so, his mother just acts as the starting fire. Just the son finally recalls in the airplane “he has nothing to regret”, he may have forgiven his mother’s deed. The physical girl disappears, but the ideological “girl” rises in his heart. The girl is like a sigh of “home”, while, his home town, Samoa, may be his parents’ home, his root, two of them are all places for him to return. He couldn’t choose where to go, so, he could only be a flying man between two nations.

At last, the family returns back to Samoa, with their disillusion of dream. Life may not always develop along with your desire, but sometimes alter your original desire. They miss the chances of being a “papalagi” doctor, while, they obtain rich life experiences and money. They build a “most expensive house” in the village showing their “success”. Ironically, this “crystal house” may not only express their “achievements” but also hind their sadness and disappointment, because, their beloved son, their incentive of dream, and their excuse of immigration, refuses to return back to Samoa. The novel gives a rich imagination for readers at the end, but I would rather believe that the boy may completely come out of his sadness and face the future with great courage, for, with time passing on, everything will become nice memory, but tomorrow is always waiting him to do. Pakeha and Samoan will become good friends one day.

 

 

'I remember, I remember' by Prem Banfal (Presentation)

Prem Banfal’s I remember, I remember deals with many issues such as migration, cultural identity and the idea of losing something you once had and gaining something new in return. All these three major themes are depicted through Banfal’s reminiscence of her childhood. In her story, she tells us her childhood memories with her late mother. She then reveals us the ups and downs of her life when her father remarried twice after her real mother died. She also shows how studying for a scholarship to go to New Zealand made her distant herself away from her family and culture, “My three years at Suva Grammar school led me to a new awareness of myself, a further estrangement from my father and a growing alienation from my own community.” Moreover, during her school years, she starts to put make up on and shave her legs. To me, these kinds of habits are mostly practiced by people who are from Western countries. Therefore, by practicing these habits, she is losing parts of her Fijian image and is conforming to the idea of being a New Zealander. However, despite the changing variables in her life, there appears to be one consistent figure that continues to support and care about her, her Grandmother. In my opinion, this suggests how important it is to have someone who cares about you no matter what you’re going through. Preparing to move to a foreign country requires a lot of positive thinking and can be a life-changing experience. At the end of the story, she gained a scholarship to go to New Zealand for a better education. Simultaneously, she also lost fragments of her Fijian identity, only to be replaced by a New Zealand identity.

What I also loved about this short story is the narrative structure. The story is written through the use of first person narration. Through this, I was able to compare my previous experiences with her experiences. Although my experiences prior to leaving for New Zealand may be different from hers, they somewhat relate to each other. I also loved how the paragraphs in her story are structured; they seem to alternate between positive and negative feelings. Because of this, I was able to get the impression that the reason why Banfal did this is to show the readers how in our lives, people go through many ups and downs, and sometimes these are the experiences that shape us into the individuals we are today.

To conclude, I think the reason why Banfal decided to write about her childhood memories is to show the readers the importance of not forgetting where you came from. It may sound cliché, but it is quite true. Where you came from is what defines you and one that makes you different from others. In the Filipino culture, we have a saying, “Those who do not know how to look back to their origin, will not reach his destination.”

A womens role, a response to Sons for the return home.

Women in society are know as the carer, a mother, a person who can do no harm which of course is not true. Women just like men can commit murder in cold blood. I'm not saying that the girl in the story commit murder but the person that lead to her making the decision the abort her child is the mother of the boyfriend. A christian who told the girl to abort a live that God gave. To me she commit the ultimate sin against God. Even in the Bible it said that Jesus love the little children and told his disciple to let the children come to him and that we adult should be like children in order to get to heaven. I don't know why she persuade the girl to abort her grandchild but what even her reason is I can never accept it. As it can be seen later on in the story the girl regret her decision and refuse to come back to New Zealand, leading to lost love. Me being a huge romantic person who love to read roman book this to me is such a sad story. I love the story with it depth of culture, it stories of their ancestor, its love, it religion, and it breaking away, I love it all. At the end the guy break away from the control of his mother and hit her. Even though it was wrong to hit a elder or your mother I was so happy. I wish I was in the story so that I can see it in real life.

Response to Wild Dogs (Presentation)

Avia was born and raised in Christchurch, but is of Samoan and Palagi descent. She published her first collection of poetry, Wild Dogs Under My Skirt, in 2004 and her second, Bloodclot, in 2009. She is also a performance poet and the author of two children’s books. Avia spent ten years travelling the world and teaching in Samoa, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa before returning home to New Zealand. She’s won a variety of awards, more recently being the Janet Frame Literary Trust Award this year worth $5000.

Avia’s work, among other things, is mostly about Pacific themes. It also explores the defining lines between custom and contemporary ideas, and many of her poems have a personal touch to them.

We can safely assume that Wild Dogs is set in Samoa, due her talking about how being tattooed by a tufuga or a tufuga ta tatua (master of tattoo). From looking at her other work, it’s clear that the poet has a strong sense of cultural identity. For example, Alofa also appears to be set in Samoa, as well as the string of poems centred on a girl called Nafanua. These feature ones such as: Nafanua is Surprised at Her Birth, Nafanua Talks About Her Body and Nafanua Relates an Incident From Her Childhood.  She also uses a variety of Samoan words constantly in her writing, such as palagi (foreigner) and alofa (love).

 Wild Dogs Under My Skirt seems to be a kind of denial of typical femininity. The author says she wants to “frighten” her lovers, rather than attract them. This is also a reference to Samoan culture, where it is common for women to get a malu, a traditional tattoo covering both legs. It could be a comparison between that and Western culture, where a woman with her legs tattooed is considered unattractive and unusual. Avia could be showing her preference for Samoa’s view on femininity over New Zealand’s.

Mostly however, I think this poem is about repelling men. In Nafanua’s Sister Talks About The Family, she writes about how she (or the character in the poem), was abused by her father verbally and physically, how her uncle possibly raped her mother, and she expresses a lot of hatred towards them. In another poem, Nafanua Goes To Bed With Her Cousin, she talks about sleeping with her cousin and suggests it is forced. Whether these are based on personal incidents or not, a certain degree of wariness towards men is evident in Wild Dogs.

In this poem, she may even be talking about wanting a pe’a, the tattooing males get on their legs. This is a much larger and more defined tattoo, and goes from their hips to their shins. It is also extremely painful, as is a malu. In this case, Avia is not just saying she wants to scare men, but become one in terms of equality and power, thus removing her femininity entirely.

The exact origin of tattooing is unknown, although the Samoans credit the Fijians, and the Fijians credit the Samoans. As said before, it is an extremely painful process and can take up to a couple of weeks. In Samoa, the tatau is a sign of both woman and manhood. Women get a malu before they marry and for men, getting a pe’a shows you are ready to protect and take care of your family. Men without a pe’a are often referred to as telefua or telenoa, which means “naked”. As well as that, men who cannot continue with the pe’a due to the pain are branded cowards, and this shame will extend to his sons. Women are not allowed to have a pe’a, as stated in the Samoan myth of how the tatau came to be.

Wild Dogs’ tone is overall a rough and aggressive one, which matches the author’s desire to appear so as well, which is apparent in the poem. She uses imagery such as wild dogs, the mangy kind that bite strangers, black octopus, that catch rats and eat them and centipedes, the black ones that sting and swell for weeks. These are all things that are either scary or grotesque, that repel us physically and make us wary, which is how the author wants to be. She doesn’t say she wants to be beautiful like the stars or the moon or anything, like most women want to be. I think she expresses the idea that beauty is over prioritised. And that probably, it’s more prioritised here than in Samoa. She says that after it’s done, she wants “the tufuga to sit back and know they’re not his, they never were.” Which I think is her way of saying that instead of conforming to this traditional idea or demand of beauty, she’s retaining her independency and individuality. And that her body is her own, and no one else’s.