‘The Husband Stitch’ retells urban legends with a feminist slant

In her column “Stanford TBR” (to be read), Cate Burtner recommends books that would resonate with the Stanford community — a reading list compiled for outside the classroom.

Editor’s Note: This article is a review and includes subjective thoughts, opinions and critiques.

“The Husband Stitch” by Carmen Maria Machado is worth talking about precisely because it is difficult to talk about. The short story takes the opening slot in Machado’s collection “Her Body and Other Parties” – which focuses on violence against women and their bodies – and follows a young woman and her soon-to-be husband, from their first meeting to their raising a child together.

The protagonist’s spouse breaks her trust in horrifying ways, even the title “The Husband Stitch” hints at a difficult story ahead, referring to the extra stitch placed after childbirth in order to enhance the husband’s sexual pleasure, while causing unnecessary pain to the woman.

The protagonist wears a ribbon around her neck, an allusion to the infamous urban legend of “The Girl with the Green Ribbon,” although she does not tell her husband anything about it. Through the narrative’s dark tone shrouded in mystery and its unmistakably meta storytelling, Machado chronicles the initial sharing and repeated violation of one woman’s body. 

While this story may resonate with anyone who has ever felt that their body is not their own, I think it is also relevant to young people trying to make their way in the world. “The Husband Stitch” is ultimately a tragedy about figuring out who exactly one can trust and how one can function in a world that is cruel to them for reasons outside their control.

This message is made all the more urgent by the fact that the author, Carmen Maria Machado, delivers a reading at Stanford this Wednesday evening as part of the Lane Lecture Series, in what is sure to be a captivating night spent exploring Machado’s heavy and luscious prose.

The story of the girl with a ribbon around her neck has been told on playgrounds, at sleepovers and before bedtimes since its inception. However, Machado brings the story into the arena of adult literature in the form of a dark, feminist reimagining. “The Husband Stitch” is particularly interesting because of its inventive structure; the story begins with stage directions, and includes them throughout as instructions for readers to “read this story out loud.”

The idea of reading aloud is significant because the entire short story, as well as the side stories told within “The Husband Stitch,” is a retelling of a classic scary story written for children. It serves to mimic the verbal storytelling culture of children’s tales from the past, except with a chilling twist.  

Machado’s version of the story is, in many ways, a horror tale like its predecessor, focusing on the bodily, the surreal and ultimately, the horrifying. Tension is built throughout the story through side stories and stage directions to create an experience that keeps readers on-edge as we piece together what kind of story we’re reading and what we can expect as it unfolds. The story is largely about the expectations placed on women, wives and mothers as well as who one can trust to respect one’s boundaries.

However, its feminist elements are rather open to interpretation — something that I think really adds to the story’s significance. Reinterpreting this urban legend as a work of feminist horror ultimately adds to the story’s power, because it tackles a real-life issue that is such a source of pain for many people.

If a reader remembers the story of “The Green Ribbon,” then they will know how this story ends. But the ending is not the point. What matters is how we get to that infamous ending. It matters that the relationship between the protagonist and her husband in many ways devolves. It matters that the story is told from a woman’s perspective yet has an unmistakable male gaze quality to it. It matters that the stories-within-the-story the narrator tells also center women meeting tragic fates. These aspects of the story work to complicate a relatively simple urban legend and reveal its complexities through the lens of gender.

In advance of Carmen Maria Machado’s reading, I strongly recommend picking up one of her books or short stories. “The Husband Stitch” is a solid option — it exemplifies her typical horror and surrealist genre combo and her distinctive and consistent writing style which Sofia Samatar has called “strange and seductive” (a hauntingly accurate characterization). Before you know it, you will be a fan of her works and waiting antsily in the audience at her reading, excited for her to utter her opening words.

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