Fathers and Daughters, Partners in Freedom

Alice Walker gives a special reading of her latest novel, By the Light of My Father's Smile

By Eileen K. McCluskey

Special to the Gazette

When Alice Walker walked serenely onto the stage at Sanders Theatre last Thursday to celebrate her new novel, By the Light of My Father's Smile, the capacity crowd rose to its feet, applauding and cheering.

"I thank you for the energy of your presence," Walker said, bowing slightly. Walker then offered a synopsis of the book's story line and began to read. One of the first scenes she shared -- with an audience by now completely silent -- showed a father viciously beating his 15-year-old daughter, Magdalena, with a leather belt that her lover had made for her.

Walker looked levelly at those assembled. "If you love to make love, don't be surprised if your daughter loves it too." Thinking she won't or hoping she won't, Walker gently scolded, "is retro." It was not the only time Walker's comments drew laughter and applause from the audience.

Walker's intent was not to paint fathers as their daughters' enemies, but rather as their potential partners in personal freedom. Early on in her talk, for example, Walker said she did not want to vilify Magdalena's father for the beating. She characterized him as "a confused man" Ñ a victim of thousands of years of patriarchal indoctrination.

"Solidarity between fathers and daughters could change the world within a generation," said the poised, soft-spoken Walker.

Expanding on this central message, Walker said that if fathers would support their daughters in their autonomy, "we'd have full control over our bodies." And if that were the case, the world would soon witness a relief from overpopulation, because women would be free to choose whether to have children. Throughout her talk, Walker encouraged fathers to "acknowledge that we are separate beings and that we control our own bodies."

Walker's was the first in a series of six Thursday evening talks addressing "Gender at the Millennium," sponsored by the Committee on Degrees in Women's Studies, the Women and Public Policy Program, and Radcliffe College.

During a lively question-and-answer period, a member of the audience asked Walker if she were not encouraging promiscuity with the "soft porn" material in her latest book.

"Sexuality celebrated is not pornographic," Walker replied. She said she showed, in the novel's sexual scenes, the many layers and nuances of intimate human relations and all of their attendant emotions.

But Walker also acknowledged that "this book is not for children, it's for adults. Ideally, I would like for adult people to read this, to think about what it means, not to run away. 'Yes, daughter, you own your own body.' Why can't the men in this world say that and act on it?

"Fathers must be there from birth for their daughters,Ó Walker continued. They must "have a relationship in which you talk to your daughter about whatever is going on in her life. Fathers have to be friends with their daughters."

Walker complimented one questioner's comment, and to be sure everyone else could hear it, she repeated and expanded upon it. "The book is not so much about protecting women, but about autonomy. This means you get to make your own mistakes. In our errors we find our own path."

An attendee asked about the role of the wife in the father/daughter relation. "To be extremely courageous in asserting your right to be autonomous," Walker replied.

Heather Macferran, Õ98-99, who attended the event, was deeply moved by the experience. Saying she suffered intensely through her relationship with her father since childhood, Macferran said, "We recently began to make our peace. And when Alice Walker spoke about the father-daughter relationship, and the courage required to be honest and open, and to face the relationship, I felt that she was speaking to me personally. What she has to say is powerful. It's relevant. It needs to be said."

Responding to a query about her previous book, Possessing the Secret of Joy, which addressed the horrors of female genital mutilation, Walker reiterated her talk's central message: "Women must affirm our own sexuality," else "we are in peril. Our sexuality is not something that should be demonized. We must, as women and men, take back our own self-respect."