Stung

A strong and clear subtext exists in Stung that involves power exerted by men over women, and the way that women react in terms of power of their own. When Fiona awakens, her safety as a woman is immediately called into question. Her first attacker is male (Jonah); knowing that she cannot outrun his strength and fury, she cleverly slices the trampoline so that he breaks his ankle. An old acquaintance, Jacqui, insists she hide and cut her long hair to avoid getting attention as a girl. For unexplained reasons, she learns, the ratio of men to women after the bee flu and vaccine is badly uneven, with few women survivors. The raiders most directly represent the resulting atmosphere of heterosexual men’s violent lust; when Governor Soneschen explains a woman is afoot for them to catch, Fiona is horrified at their reaction: “It starts with whistling, then growling and howling. Soon the street is filled with sound of wild animals” (159). The outwardly violent raiders are not the only men desperate for sex, however; Bowen claims he must take Fo from the camp to protect her, once they discover she is female: “Most of them haven’t set eyes on a woman in more than a year, Fo. Let alone, a young, pretty woman” (110). In fact, Bowen himself later states that Fiona’s attractiveness leaves him unable to think straight or make decisions.

In the camp, Fo’s powerlessness is represented by the electromagnetic cuffs and the extent to which she must work to keep her gender hidden. The untoward Len and other kidnappers try to take Fiona to sell her; they assume three men can easily overpower the young woman, despite her Level Ten status. When Fiona breaks Len’s neck with a single punch instead, the gender power play begins to shift; Fiona knows now that her strength rivals that of the men holding her captive, if not that of the beasts. This prompts her to see Bowen and herself as equal partners. For example, when Bowen cannot get the door to the factory open, it is Fiona’s greater strength that makes a path for them to get to safety. These victories for Fiona represent women’s capabilities in the face of danger and foreshadow Fiona’s forming opinion that women may hold the ultimate power in the new world dynamic, as they are needed to repopulate society. Bowen’s mother’s desire to lose her life instead of submitting to powerlessness at the hands of the raiders and Fiona’s willingness to do the same symbolize an ultimate power and spirit within women that no man can overcome.

Another representation of gendered power dynamics appears in the character of Arrin/Arris. Fiona seems to be at Arrin’s mercy initially; Arrin knows her way in the dark, has a dagger, isn’t afraid to kill a man, and steals Fiona’s only morsel of food. Bowen says Arrin is a boy (Arris), but Arrin tells Fiona, “I only pretend to be a boy when it suits me” (192). Fiona doesn’t trust Arrin but has a strange respect or at least fear of her; Fo listens, for example, to Arrin in the Marriott when the militia closes in. Later, though, Fo gains the upper hand by admitting Arrin is actually Arris—and by treating Arris as a boy; in the pit, she knees him in the groin, incapacitating him. Arrin claims to hate Fo because “[n]o one ever helped [him]” (257), unlike Fiona, who received help from Bowen. Arrin’s female disguise indicates that Arris believed he would elicit more sympathy if he presented as a woman than as a man, even if passing as a man also ensured more safety from raiders. Through Arrin’s counterintuitive strategy, Wiggins interrogates gendered forms of violence and investigates how gender is perceived as an indication of safety or ability in her postapocalyptic world.