ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I am an 18-year-old Armenian-Canadian English Literature student who’s currently enrolled in my last semester at Dawson. In my free time, I enjoy hanging out with her two older sisters, watching the Montreal Canadiens play, and reading character-driven novels. In my essays, I attempt to fuse together my interest in political and social issues and my literary analysis. I plan to continue to study literature in university, and hope to become a professor one day.

–Melissa Jabrayan

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In Catherine Lacey’s Biography of X,  the titular character grows up in the fictional American Southern Territory, an area where the oppression of women and violent male power are hyper present. Despite her seeming denouncement of the patriarchy, X replicates the same sexist patterns and abusive conduct within her interpersonal relationships. Biography of X displays how culture can pass down abusive and misogynistic behaviours and mindsets from one generation to the next through X’s characterization and her dynamic with Lucca.

X’s characterization indicates how she thrives off of controlling and oppressing her romantic partners in outwardly or subtly misogynistic ways. To start, X’s odd behaviour is evident right from her first marriage to Marion. When the two got married, “Marion was twenty-three but looked like a child. X […] was thirty-eight” (Lacey 282). Culturally speaking, predatory men often seek out younger women to date in order to prey on their innocence. Their position as older men manifests an unfair hierarchy within the relationship. Here, though they are both women, the age difference is very clearly juxtaposed. Marion’s immaturity is highlighted because it creates an imbalance in their power dynamic. X begins pursuing this relationship with a woman she is well aware is much younger, knowing that she will be easier to manipulate. In addition, during one of the fights Lucca and X have later on, Lucca complains about Oleg, X’s best friend, behaving like a child. Oleg is a man grappling with the effects of his parents murder-suicide in his youth. He revels in the lavish inheritance they left him and lashes out at the people in his life. His fraught connection to his parents means he clutches onto his parasitic relationship with X, the closest thing to a family he has. Responding to Lucca’s criticism of Oleg’s childish nature, X replies, “He is a child […] that’s why I love him” (335). X calling Oleg a child is a metaphor for the way he often acts and thinks like a lost petulant kid, clinging to X because of his own personal trauma. This is what makes his relationship with her so lopsided. He becomes obsessed with X and is over-reliant on having her in his life, despite him financing hers. Readers are told repeatedly that X very meticulously chooses those she’s going to build a connection with. It is indicative of the type of abuser she is; she intentionally seeks out young or immature individuals. Furthermore, despite her slightly hyperbolic claim that she “didn’t believe in family, in patriarchy” (203), X develops a strange obsession with seeing Marion impregnated by Oleg’s sperm and with having a child with her (288). It would make perfect sense for X to find family unappealing because of her frayed relationship with her own, particularly with her father. Yet she relentlessly expresses this desire, despite Marion stating she does not care to have children. This points towards a patriarchal need to control women, to tie them to the home, and keep them reliant upon the patriarch they are attached to. In this situation, X is in many ways the acting patriarch in Marion’s life. This moment is especially disturbing, as X picks the two people in her life she has the most control over at the time, Oleg and Marion, and concocts a plan to keep them stuck to her forever through this child. Lastly, though she is seen as a progressive and boundary pushing artist, X regurgitates sexist talking points when they serve her. After Lucca’s conversation with the woman who claims her relationship with X was “rape by deception” (318), Lucca references X’s thoughts on sexual assault. She explains, “X would find this accusation ludicrous, … it was another example of the harmful expansion of the word rape by these so-called activists” (318). Lacey is directly referencing cultural ideas about rape that have surfaced in recent years as more women have begun to make themselves heard. At the end of the day, X does deceive this woman in order to have a relationship with her. X using words like “ludicrous” and “so-called” indicates how comfortable she is belittling women’s experiences, mirroring a mindset that seeks to silence women in order to perpetuate rape culture. X weaponizes societal misogyny, using it within her relationships to claim a position of power. Instead of dismantling the oppressive society she risked her life to escape, she employs the same sexist strategies against those around her. X’s abuse is made only more apparent when delving into her relationship with Lucca.

The dynamic between X, a violent and controlling woman, and Lucca, a woman left unmoored as X crashes through her life, is a reflection of how misogyny can be weaponized to drain the lifeblood out of women. All throughout the novel, it is made clear how much control X has over Lucca. Once they get together, X quickly twists her wife’s life to fit into whatever mold she has in mind. Lucca flat out admits, “everything I had done since meeting X in 1989 had been her idea” (327). While this is hyperbole, as every single thing Lucca did could not have been informed by X’s opinion, it emphasizes how controlling X truly was. This hyperbole is not at all far from reality. With few exceptions, X informs Lucca of what they are doing and where and Lucca follows. X tells her to quit her job and they move together to an isolated cabin. By doing so, she purposely detaches Lucca from others in her life, making X her everything. This is a strategy often employed by abusers, as they can partake in harmful behaviour more peacefully when they know their partner’s loved ones are not watching over them. If Lucca, separated from the rest of her life, were to try to leave, the task would be much more difficult as the relationship has become all that she knows. As men have historically had more power and possessions to utilize in order to confine their partners, the aforementioned abuse is coloured by misogyny. Furthermore, this dependence on X means that every time she disappears, something she does often and without explanation, Lucca is left feeling lost and hurt. She is manipulated into shaping her entire being around this person, yet is told she is not allowed to ask questions once she leaves. Each time, she sits alone and “[wallows] in wait for her return” (312). This moment creates a devastating image of Lucca sitting like a puppy waiting for her owner. This “love” is suffocating for Lucca; it sparks pain as she is played with and abandoned over and over. She is withering away while making excuses for poor behaviour from a partner who does not care enough to tell her when she will depart. Most prominently, X displays outwardly violent behaviour towards Lucca though, like in plenty of abusive relationships, Lucca does not truly process what she is experiencing until later on. Lucca does admit that she “lived in a sharp fear” (253) when dating X, but never assumes that this was  indicative of abuse. This gives the reader insight into their anormal dynamic. Though, one soon discovers the reasons behind Lucca’s fear of her partner. When Lucca expresses insecurities about her capabilities as a writer, X slaps her (286). This eventually escalates to her pulling a gun on Lucca and then scoffing at her distress (355). Partner violence against women is exceptionally prevalent. Frustratingly, this brutality is normalized, and, therefore, often left unchecked. This behaviour, allowed to fester without intervention, can swiftly grow to be more and more destructive. The reason abusers, who are disproportionately male perpetrators that harm female victims, feel comfortable partaking in said abuse, is because they exist in a culture that devalues women. This leads to them doing the same in their personal lives and being met with less pushback when they commit acts of violence. It is the most explicit way for abusers to muzzle their partners and demean those they are meant to love. Every aspect of their relationship, from the isolation to the abandonment, and finally violence, leave Lucca as a shell of her former self. She becomes a living symbol for all the women who are silenced and suppressed in the fictional Southern Territory, as well as in actual society. The ultimate irony is that X, a product of her troubled childhood, turns Lucca into the very same woman she was forced to be in her youth. She recreates a microcosm of the place she fled from. No matter how hard she claims to want to leave it behind, the misogynistic ideology has bled into her behaviour.

In conclusion, Catherine Lacey’s Biography of X explores the way a culture of misogyny and abuse can trickle from generation to generation, no matter where or who one is. This is depicted both through X’s characterization and by way of her and Lucca’s relationship dynamic. While cultural influence cannot absolve an abuser of blame for the suffering they cause, it is important to understand that it can often be what plants those seeds of violence in the first place, and what emboldens them to act.

 

Work Cited

Lacey, Catherine. Biography of X: A Novel. Picador, 2023.