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"Women Have an Affinity with the Process Instead of the Price"
Anjelica Freeman
The Entangling Net
Final Draft
May 11, 2007
Women Have an Affinity With the Process Instead of the Price
The women profiled in Leslie Fields book, "The Entangling Net"
were so eloquent and articulate. It's no wonder Fields felt she must
warn us of the disbelief exhibited by many people who couldn't believe
that people working in the fishing industry, let alone women, could be
so smart, savvy and confident (Fields, 11). In the introduction,
Fields illustrates the lack of timidity she came across when seeking
women to tell their lives; "Each knew she had a story worth telling
and each knew she was capable of telling it" (Fields, 8). In "The
Entangling Net" the stories of the commercial fishing women of Alaska
show women stripped down to their essence; brave, empathic,
paradoxical and strong.
The sea has always been associated with women, it's even referred
to as "She", so why is it that so few women actually work these waters
they are so surely identified with? Leslie Fields speaks to this
peculiarity saying "Women on the sea have occupied limited spaces.
They have clung to bowsprit, their carved, angular breasts breaking
ocean into wake; their faces have gone to sea on men's tattooed arms;
their names have labeled the bows and sterns of men's boats. But few
have themselves ridden the waves and worked the boats that sail them"
(Fields, 54). Maybe the answer speaks more to the weakness of men than
to the abilities of women. The superstitous beliefs of sailors about
the bad luck a woman brings is just another example
of the fear of womens power or different means to justify prejudice.
"She speaks in the first person omniscient; she's aware of
everything. Isn't that like the female experience? Like constantly
bathing in empathy. It's like you're here and you're there and you're
there and you're everywhere, and you can talk and you can do"
(Fields, 42). It is in a woman's nature to be understanding, empathic,
maybe the most important strength exibited. "It wasn't an identity crisis; it was more like an identity playground"(Fields, 43), "temporary" being the key word. Being on the boats allowed these women to PLAY a role, not to become a man, but to act like one for a specified amount of time.To so effortlessly maintain a delicate exterior while all the while making things happen is a well-honed skill and the Alaskan commercial fisher women in this text have it in buckets.
These ladies profiled in "The Entangling Net" make up the tiniest
percent of a male dominated industry and make their homes in the male
dominated wilderness that is Alaska. They revel in it though, these
women, the hard work and the obstacles only seem fuel their already
extraordinarily strong constitutions. It's about the whole experience
for women, the journey, this book definitely showed how "women have an
affinity with the process instead of the price" (Fields, 41).
Afterword: Please excuse the crazy "format," it took A LONG time to get my computer to agree to copy and paste the text from my e-mail. Sometimes the internet really seems like magic.
