Written piece
The Forbidden Fruit, Eaten Twice: An Eve’s Return
Payne Getrude
Ghana
About this piece
The Forbidden Fruit, Eaten Twice: An Eve’s Return” is a hybrid essay that reimagines the biblical story of Eve as a metaphor for the historical suppression and eventual liberation of women.
The Forbidden Fruit, Eaten Twice: An Eve’s Return
Many argue that the woman was first.
First to have her eyes opened.
First to experience vanity in the beauty that surrounded her.
First to feel alive and first to anticipate death.
Do not get me wrong. There is nothing exciting about that.
She is blamed for the misfortunes birthed into the world.
Blamed for the fall of mankind.
Blamed for the fracture in the greatest love story ever told, the God human love.
She was made from the rib of man.
Cursed alongside the man.
Yet she endures that curse wrapped in something heavier, guilt.
The guilt of disobedience.
But this essay is not about condemning women.
Nor is it about pitting one gender against another.
It is about reclaiming a narrative that has long weaponized blame, and redefining what was once called rebellion as evolution.
As deceptive as this introduction may seem, it has almost nothing to do with the rest of this essay. I simply got excited about an idea and tried to grow an apple tree out of a mustard seed. Ridiculous, I know. I dissociated, got stuck, and then saw a bigger picture.
Breathe with me.
The revolution of an overlooked and often overrated being has always been unsettling. Revolting, even, yet tolerated just enough to avoid being labeled “toxic.”
You may be tired of the constant yapping about the silenced struggles of these beings, but it can never be talked about enough.
After the first bite, her roles were made simple.
Subject yourself.
Be groomed for a husband.
Please him.
Obey him.
Bear children.
Raise them.
Keep a happy home.
Be grateful for your usefulness.
Keep your opinions to yourself because the last time you expressed one, you altered the course of nature.
Be overlooked.
Be quiet.
Endure.
Accept.
Obey.
There is no such thing as violation.
Your body is not yours.
Now this is where the essay turns into a tale.
For a long time, these beings played their part.
Until
One dared to dream.
One dared to question.
One dared to speak.
And one dared to rebel.
In other words, an Eve ate the apple again.
And as usual, it brought woes to the man.
These beings developed opinions and expressed them.
They pursued dreams.
They occupied positions that once seemed unimaginable.
They sat at tables where men held their breath each time they spoke.
And here is the shift.
Do not misunderstand me. This intrusion, this liberating disruption, was not destruction. It was expansion.
Look around you. The world now is better than the world before.
Art has evolved.
Education has expanded.
Politics has shifted.
Technology has accelerated.
Teamwork makes the dream work.
These hands, both the long qualified and the once forbidden, if we are honest and fair, will forever build a better world together.
To those who still disagree, perhaps see this intrusion as compensation. After all, if she “created” the great mess, is it not fair that she be given equal opportunity to fix it too?
Perhaps the second bite was never rebellion.
Perhaps it was restoration.
So I ask you,
Did the introduction truly deceive you,
or did it guide you gently toward your aha moment?
Perhaps the second bite was never rebellion. Perhaps it was restoration.