What is the significance of the ribbon and what happens when her husband touches it?

In Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado, her short story The Husband Stitch there is always a ribbon mentioned that the husband is not able to touch. While reading the story, I wondered what the ribbon could mean and found that it could have many significances. The ribbon served as an example of her relationship. She had a complex relationship with love. Throughout the story, she made a lot of sacrifices for love, and the story kindled from the expressions that a society of marriage and even just relationships.

The ribbon, which is worn on the back of her neck, is worn to remind her husband of loyalty towards her husband and the connection they both have. Despite this, at the beginning, this can be viewed as good because it shows connection, but through the story, it starts to have a different meaning. The ribbon, through the story, starts to have the expectations a wife or even a woman has when being in a romantic relationship. The woman in the relationship is required to complete her husband’s wishes and prioritize her husband over her own self. I can see that she does this when it comes to her and being able to have another child and sometimes satisfying her husband when it comes to sex.

Being in a relationship does require intimacy and is seen as a form of connection you have with your significant other. Having sex and the ribbon is where I saw another symbolism. She mentioned that the ribbon was tied tightly, and the husband stitch meaning having sex always can be an effort but also be painful.

One part of this story that stood out to me was that her husband mentioned that their son would have a ribbon. That could’ve meant a sacrifice that she had to make for her son to come into this world by having a 20 hour long labor

and later she states that her body is not the same anymore. This can be some significance of what the ribbon means throughout the story.

When her husband, at the end, touches the ribbon, he kind of takes off that bond and loyalty she had towards him, and you can see that, in the end, this led to her losing herself and even her identity. Her husband touches it and undoes her ribbon, leading to her death.