The Circle Prompt #7 Does your vagina have taste buds?

Emma Stone as Bella Baxter in Poor Things

The Body + Defamiliarization = The Carnal Uncanny

In Yorgos Lanthimos’ Oscar nominated film Poor Things Emma Stone plays a woman with a baby’s brain animating her formerly dead body. At the beginning of the film, she is pure id. She rudely speaks her mind, freely masturbates with fruit at the dining room table, and openly leers at a man while being introduced to him. It’s this last point that establishes Bella Baxter as an independent person who is unashamed of her desires, as there is something powerfully feral in the gaze that she controls. This is much different from the trope of the sexualized woman as baby who is framed by the male gaze. I’ll be discussing further points in future posts but feel free to disagree below!

For now, I’d like to discuss two witchy takeaways for creative writing:

1. Defamiliarization + The Body = The Carnal Uncanny = Emma Stone fucking a piece of fruit. One wonders how it tasted to her vagina as studies have indicated sexual organs might have taste buds.1

2. How you can use synesthesia to bring your creative writing to life because it makes things new and fresh for the reader2

Would you like to keep reading and respond to the prompt? Join our creative writing coven at the Witch Lit Substack and receive Dr. Erica Anzalone’s expert feedback for FREE.