The Visit

Too Jarring & Strange

This story isn't so much a story as a collection of short vignettes covering the loose storyline of Obinna - an at-home husband - and his slightly estranged friend, Eze. Having spent some time abroad as a single man, Eze is returning to visit Obinna in Nigeria, and the visit reminds Obinna just how unhappy he is being married to an unfaithful woman. Unfortunately for them, this is a world wherein men are oppressed under a global matriarchy rather than the reverse which is true in real life.

That, unfortunately, is where I take the most issue with this story. Perhaps it's because I live in the deep south of the United States where I legitimately have to hear men complain as if women have too much control because we want equal rights, or perhaps it's because I am far too sick of real life gender issues to stomach the sudden villainizing of women: whatever the case may be, I found this story grating on my nerves as I read it. Rather than a satire or an attempt to bring awareness to what women face, this felt more like a bitter mockery. It felt like having genuine concerns twisted around and laughed at.

I'm sure that isn't the author's intention, but I can't change the way this story made me feel. Everything was too hyperbolic and I felt kind of sick reading the way these men were treated.

It didn't even make sense to me, sometimes, because in many cases the parallels drawn don't make sense at all. For example: irl when male cops assault women they pull over, there's often a level of self pleasure attached to the power play. Why, then, would female cops in this role reversal go around sodomizing single men with sticks? That paints the women as even more evil and villainous than the bad men irl, because they don't even have the self satisfaction drive attached - it's solely to degrade, dehumanize, and torture. (Yes, this is a minor ‘plot' point. It's breezed over very quickly and is only a fear of it happening - like when college girls talk about fears of being drugged irl, just a fact of existence.) Likewise, why would there be laws against male self-pleasure for ‘wasting potential life' yet also be legal temporary vasectomies? And why would there be a prison term for it, considering a man in prison isn't out making babies? That's an extremely weak and ridiculous attempt to parallel the incredibly detrimental real life matter of reproductive rights for women. It just rings as false as someone yelling on Twitter, making up hyperbolic and hypothetical opponents to yell at and make their argument seem stronger.

Honestly, though, I had kind of hoped that Obinna and Eze would run away together. There were a lot of subtly romantic undertones to their friendship, which I suppose in retrospect is meant to parallel how women irl get away with more emotional closeness than men. But to me, it seemed like this would be a happy tale of two men forging their own path away from the evils of a society which comically mirrors the real world. It wasn't. In fact, there is no real ending at all as far as resolution is concerned. Just a few glimpses into a terrible world and the characters suffering within it.

Not my cup of tea, and I still feel kind of gross after reading it. I want to believe that women wouldn't treat men this terribly if we had the power. But then, humans are pretty evil when given power, so I don't know. And I don't care for stories that make me feel so overwhelmingly nihilistic.

1.5

It's a decent read but it felt a bit ham-fisted in its message to me à la “it's uncomfortable when it happens to men isn't it?” sort of way and while yeah it is, it already is when it happens to women so I wanted more from the story.