Iris’s Rice Bowl

1. Iris’s Rice Bowl By: Titus Ong Zhao Jin Qing Teo Po Han Jonathan Quek

2. Contents • Characters + analysis • Themes in the story (Feminism Vs Patriarchy) • Story analysis

3. Characters • Iris- the narrator and protagonist • Robert- the protagonist’s brother • Mother • Dad • Angie- protagonist’s cousin • Ellie- maid • Linda- protagonist’s secretary • Alex- protagonist’s boyfriend

4. Iris • 29 years old • From NUS • Has a boyfriend named Alex • Working

5. High career status • “… my secretary…” pg. 2o6 • Rich boyfriend Alex: “fiddling with his Armani tie” pg. 207 • Armani- designer brand • “ten years since I last took a bus… take a taxi” pg. 207

6. Theoretical (likes to give reasons for something) • “I have a theory. Well, two” pg. 201 • “My second theory explains why…” pg. 208

7. Robert • 26 years old • America University • Single • Working

8. Not as smart as sister • “got only two A’s and two O’s… couldn’t get into the university here, so he went to America” pg. 202 • Yet his sister got into NUS • Pampered by parents • “Mum smiled at her growing boy” pg. 201 • He’s getting a paunch, pg. 203 (i.e. eats a lot) • “the red sports car Dad bought him” pg. 202

9. Normal employee (white collar) • “at an office party” pg. 204 • Influenced by westernization • “accent and hair, slightly browned from the Californian sun and a recent perm and highlight job” pg. 203 • Sports car, blonde girlfriend, American accent, pg. 204 • “Sex is what Robert believes in” pg. 204

10. Mother • Little education • Around 55 years old • Housewife

11. Smart but received little education • “never went to university… did well in the exams” pg. 202 • Traditional • In marriage • “Which man wants a woman who is as smart as he is?” pg. 202 • “Better learn to cook properly” pg. 202 • “by the time she was my age, she had had both me and Robert” pg. 205

12. Traditional • Prefers sons to daughters • “Girls should stay at home and from the start, the funds had been set aside for Robert” pg. 203 • “What do you want for dessert, son?” pg. 203 (asks her son but not to her daughter) • “Then Mum would put more food on his plate” pg. 205

13. Angie • 31 years old • Single • Close to Iris

14. Health conscious, but does not care as much • “can’t resist the things which are bad for her” pg. 203 • “dipped the chicken heavily into the saucer of chilli” pg. 203 • Cheerful • “Angie can always make me laugh” pg. 203

15. Themes of the story • Feminism vs. patriachy

16. But Iris is a modern women. • She have a career • She thinks that men and women should be treated equally

17. Comparison of gender inequalities.(Food)

18. For women…

19. Shows the relative liberty of men as compared to women • It could be a symbol of freedom of men versus women. • However, we see that the men abuse their freedom, and effectively waste their freedom on banal things detrimental to them. (In this case, it is physical and takes the form of obesity.) • Women on the other hand, are restricted by society’s expectations. As a result they have their freedom limited.

20. Gender inequality in attitude towards sexuality:

21. This shows that men are deemed “sexually superior” by the society. Women tend to be the submissive ones and give in to men.

22. Feminism in the story (Iris) • Iris is well aware of the gender biases and discrimination she is subject to. She knows “why mothers tell their daughters that if they eat the last piece of food, they’ll be spinsters. They do this because they want their sons to eat more, to grow bigger. Or maybe because they want to teach their daughters that it’s their place, their duty, to give way to men.” • Although she is conscious of gender biases, shedoes not fight back. Instead, she seems to have largely accepted the double standard in her family and in society. In the story, she never openly questions or challenges the existing status quo.

23. Not only that she obeys her mother and tolerates gender inequality in her household, she has, to a certain extent, internalized such patriarchal double standards, and even uses the same yardstick to judge other women and measure herself. Iris is not a liberated woman – she continues to succumbs to the “male gaze”: • She is overly concerned with diet and body image: “I take mine [chicken rice] without chilli” for she wants to prevent fat from going “straight to my thighs”. She “orders breast meat, shun the skin and fatty pieces and pretend that will make up for it.” • She judges her female friend’s appearance: “Thirty-one and still getting pimples.” • As a result, women, along with men, play the role of perpetuating the pervasive system of gender oppression.

24. Society expects women to conform to the roles that society has assigned to them.  • For example in the story. Iris’s mother expresses genuine concern that Iris is not married by the age of 30 and she finds that very worrying, probably due to her traditional beliefs that women should get married at a very young age.  • However, Iris holds a reasonably high position in the company which she works in (seeing as how she has a secretary), she still falls for Alex and when he makes the smug comment about a buffet being a good symbol of equality

25. Thank you!