Butler's radical constructivist theories prove useful as we read gender and bodies in Atwood's early fiction, “The Man from Mars,” a 1977 story in Dancing Girls,.
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In fact, 'Polarities' could be the title of several of these stories, for Margaret Atwood's special concern is how certain innately unlike characters interact with each other, grate against each other, envy and resent each other's differences. 'Betty' features a cheery, domesticated woman who does not interest the child narrator half as much as does Betty's charming husband. By the time the narrator is grown, however, her perceptions have changed. The husband no longer intrigues her. 'It is the Bettys who are mysterious.'
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