but it is for the excuse that men 'cannot control themselves when it comes to sex and lust, etc') And this is exactly what this young woman is doing, she asserts her physical presence in public space (on the rooftops where people can see her) and just by doing that she makes a social statement for women's right to be whatever/whoever/doing anything they want
She raises the position of women as creatures who can stand the heat! the heat of Nature and the heat/stress/pressure imposed upon them by the male-dominated culture, social expectations and lifestyle. She wins a victory for women in this issue of 'having the right to exist' and also the issue of sexuality and women's bodies - that we own our bodies i.e. we own this personal space, we may display it to the world but our bodies belong to us, not men. Men cannot dictate what we do with it. i.e wear tudung, cover up, etc. Important too: we, women should not self-impose that kind of restrictions unless we find that it is necessary. Any sort of self-inhibition in these ways betrays the freedom and liberty to be a woman.
Paragraph 2 (till line 10).
Paragraph 2 finds the woman on the roof sunbathing again but this time she had tied a red scarf around her breasts and wore a brief red bikini pants. Lessing reveals the character of the woman here. She is very bold, totally in control of herself, individualistic, independent and not easily intimidated. Surprisingly though we find one of the men, Harry saying "small things amuse small minds" when Stanley let out a wolf whistle!! does this mean that Harry is not a male chauvinist pig after all?? We don't know yet (-; Also in this paragraph Harry was more concerned with work unlike his two colleagues, Tom and Stanley. They were more interested in watching and cat calling the woman on the roof rather than working. Ironically, we find out that Stanley was a newly married man and his behavior towards this whole scenario is not like a matured or a married man.