Carmen Maria Machado’s “The Husband Stitch,” uses the vagueness of a female character to emanate the themes
of male dominance and submission men crave and expect in women.
In the beginning, I know I want him before he does. This isn’t how things are done, but this is how I am going to do them.
Machado begins this account of the (unnamed) female character’s experience as compliant from the first sentence, as the narrator admits that her approach towards being interested in her lover is falling out of line with what is accepted, as she then waits until he notices her.
The couple seem to be head over heels in love, taking each other in and experiencing the newness of sexual freedom together, giving her lover one rule to follow: not to touch her ribbon, with this rule following him into their marriage.
This concept of her ribbon is the one thing for herself, giving her independence from her husband; a form of her own personhood. Thus, this causes some hardship between the two, as the one thing her lover can’t have is the thing that is just for her.
The climax of the “tale” as you could have guessed ends with the narrator giving into the requests of her lover, letting him remove the ribbon from her neck; giving what little she has left for herself to him.