When I first started reading Geek Love, I really didn't like it. I could not get into to story, and I found the characters too 'out there' to be interesting, but the further I got into the book and the more I started thinking about it, the more my opinion changed.

Ideas about morals and ethics are questioned in relation to the 'formation' of the children. I found this aspect of Geek Love very interesting, especially as we discussed it in class. The children were created as a means to an end. They were an extension of their fathers business, and it is clear that they were treated as such. This can be seen through how Lil discarded the babies that were not deformed enough, and at the end of the novel, after everything explodes, when Lil gets on her husbands dead body, takes her pants off and starts telling him that they can start again, that they can create a whole new freak show. Now... although Lil was messed up from all the meds and chemicals that entered her body, and this could explain her erratic behaviour, it is interesting to see this scene as showing Lil's lack of appreciation for family and life...I think it shows what was always most important to Lil, the circus.

Lil is an interesting character. She is a mother, but does not seem to have any real motherly instincts. She poisoned her body during pregnancy, discarded many of her babies when she found they weren't freakish enough... and with Chick for example, she openly expressed that she loved him, but she didn't like him. I think Lil questions what it means to be a mother, and what motherhood is. Her character challenges American notions of what family is, and reveals the ugly side of human behavior and family.

Through the discussion of the representation of the female freak in class, I started thinking more about Ms. Lick's character. Ms. Lick could be seen as feminist, in that she has the ultimate goal of helping females achieve success in their lives; but the way in which she achieves this seem to defy feminism, and enforce patriarchy. Ms.Lick mutilates female body's, with everything from acid, breast removal, genital mutilation, loss of limbs etc. Essentially she strips these women of anything remotely feminine, in an effort to change them into successful human beings. In doing this, Ms.Lick is expressing the opinion that the female body cannot be used in an empowering way, and that it only causes negativity. She is suggesting that a woman's natural body, and natural beauty take away from a woman's ability to find joy and success in the world. She turns women into sexless, genderless, beings, whose only real focus in life can be academics and work.

A woman empowering herself does not mean she loses her femininity to become more like a man, it means she embraces her womanhood and challenges herself in whichever way she see fits. Feminism is all about individuality and for Ms. Lick to display that a woman can only be successful if she sheds her gender, shows a lack of respect and understanding for what women can achieve in society. Ms. Lick denies some women the chance to have children, and through mutilation a hard time having relationships with others. Ms. Lick created her own personal ideal for what a woman should do to find success, and preyed on weaker women to satisfy her ideal. She did not consider the individuality of women, and she clearly did not have faith in women's ability to find happiness and success in themselves. This could be because she herself was a female freak, or any other number of factors...

I think that Ms. Lick's role in the novel gives insight into society's view of femininity, what constitutes female success, and what can hinder the success of females in the workplace and public/private life.

So in a nutshell, Ms. Licks view of females both defends and challenges the cultural views of women in society.