I don’t think we fully captured the role of gender in Tharaud's life. Our focus was on the indignities, but there was another thread in there as well. The comment that someone in class made that she can’t get into a fist fight, which was one of her "advantages" is as important as any particular indignity. Even more so, is that her gender makes her "dangerous" since, at least early in her career, opposing attorneys ignored her, underestimated her, etc. ("I, by the way, did not exist – which, Arthur never realized, made me into a very dangerous person. You make someone invisible and you make them into a very dangerous person.") This picture of Tharaud using her advisary's shortcomings against him, I think, is in some way connected to the idea that, beauty and truth (two things invisible to her opponents) are also weapons in her arsenal. I am not sure how to fully bring about that connection, but I do think that the seemingly distinct topics we discussed yesterday are much more unified. Can anybody help me pull them together?

-- AdamCarlis - 03 Apr 2008