Real Women Have Skins: Essay by Jessica Campbell

Métis Identity and Autobiographical Frameworks

Jessica Campbell’s essay is situated within a critical Métis context that explores mixed ancestry and collective histories distinct from, yet intersecting with, Aboriginal and settler narratives. It engages Halfbreed Theory, emphasizing Métis self-identification and confronting racial stereotyping and land ownership struggles. Campbell’s use of autobiographical narrative parallels that of her Métis predecessors, employing personal stories as counter-narratives to dominant historical accounts and affirming Métis cultural identity.

Intersection of Horror and Feminist Narratives

Campbell’s essay connects with contemporary horror literature that explores the body, identity, and trauma, much like the works in Carmen Maria Machado’s Her Body and Other Parties. Machado's collection uses horror and speculative fiction to express complex female experiences, including bodily violation and cognitive dissonance following trauma. The stories reflect a tradition where horror destabilizes norms around the body and identity, illustrating personal and societal horrors through a feminist lens. This aligns with evolving boundaries in horror as an artistic form that challenges everyday realities and power structures.

Literary Genre and Thematic Influences

The essay draws from the tradition of magical realism and feminist speculative fiction, which use elements of fantasy and the uncanny to interrogate social issues. Campbell’s thematic focus on Métis identity and embodiment resonates with the broader narrative strategies seen in Machado’s work—blending fairy tale motifs and contemporary social critique. This genre framework supports a layered reading of Campbell’s essay, where cultural history, personal experience, and political critique intersect in a hybrid literary form that challenges dominant narratives about women’s bodies and Indigenous identities.

Key themes

• Female bodily autonomy under threat and erosion.
• The disappearance or fading of women as metaphor for societal violence.
• Intersection of folklore (enchanted bride tale) with contemporary female experience.
• Queer relationships as sites of resistance and care.
• Horror as embodiment of ongoing feminine social subjugation and violence.
• The body as both a site of vulnerability and power in womanhood.

Motifs & problems

Disappearing or fading bodies symbolize erasure and loss of female agency. Clothing or “skin” articles connect to enchanted bride folklore, representing external control over women’s identities. The story challenges traditional male-centered fears, shifting to women’s anxieties and experiences. Violence—both overt and subtle social interaction—permeates daily life, manifesting in bodily harm and emotional trauma. Queer love offers a counterpoint of mutual care amid societal hostility. The ambiguity between magical realism and harsh reality deepens the interpretive complexities around body horror and feminism.

Study questions

What does the motif of women fading away say about contemporary female experiences?
How does the story reframe the enchanted bride legend from women’s perspectives?
In what ways does body horror reflect societal control mechanisms over women?
How do queer relationships function as sites of resistance in the narrative?
What role does clothing play symbolically in connection to identity and autonomy?
How does the story depict the intersection between physical and emotional violence?
What is the significance of the absence of public panic in response to the disappearances?
How does Machado blend folklore with modern feminist concerns?

Critical approaches & debates

"Real Women Have Skins: The Enchanted Bride Tale in Her Body and Other Parties" by Jessica Campbell is read most often through feminist and queer theory lenses. Campbell argues that Machado’s story flips traditional folklore—shifting focus from men’s anxieties to women’s lived fears, especially around bodily agency and visibility. Formalist critics might highlight how the enchanted bride motif (women disappearing, clothing-as-skin) structures the narrative, while others debate whether the story’s magical realism offers genuine resistance or merely catalogues women’s suffering. Disagreements arise over how much hope the text offers: does female solidarity, especially in queer relationships, provide real escape from societal erasure, or just a temporary reprieve?

Key passages

A powerful moment occurs when the narrator realizes her lover, Petra, is fading away—literally becoming invisible due to an unexplained illness affecting women. The scene uses the metaphor of clothing (dresses at the boutique where both work) as a second skin, reflecting themes of identity and loss. This passage matters because it visually connects the erasure of women’s bodies to societal pressure and control, making the invisible visible. The narrative turn here—from mundane daily life to surreal horror—forces readers to confront the fragility of female bodily autonomy in a world that sees women’s bodies as both spectacle and discardable.

Bibliography

• Campbell, Jessica. “Real Women Have Skins: The Enchanted Bride Tale in Her Body and Other Parties.” Marvels & Tales 33, no. 2 (2020). Offers a feminist/queer reading of Machado’s use of folklore.
• Machado, Carmen Maria. Her Body and Other Parties. London: Serpent’s Tail, 2017. Primary source and story collection discussed.
• “Real Women Have Body Horror.” Horror Homeroom (recent blog). Analyzes body horror and female agency in Machado’s work.
• Universe in Words review blog (2018). Provides a reader’s perspective on themes and style in Machado’s collection.