Gonk answers “why does queenie have to describe her...”

Peggy Barrett asked this question about Queenie:

why does queenie have to describe her sexual encounters in so much detail. Does the reader really have to know that much?

Gonk The sex details given tell us a lot, both about what exactly Queenie accepts and endures with these men (and what that says about what headspace she's…moreThe sex details given tell us a lot, both about what exactly Queenie accepts and endures with these men (and what that says about what headspace she's in), and about the attitude of these men to her, which is very telling about how they objectify her as a black woman.

The novel would, IMO, have been significantly weaker without the details she gives of the sex. Particularly the encounter in the disabled toilet at work. The author could instead have *told* us that the men were objectifying her, but it's much more powerful to *show* us how they were objectifying her.

It was notable to me that more than once in the book she says that men had sex 'with my body' - which of course makes it clear that the sex wasn't with her as an actual whole person. Without the graphic descriptions, I would have understood her intended meaning when she said 'sex with my body', but it would have been much less powerful (as shorthand for 'it was a dehumanising experience') if I had not known, from the details given, just how dehumanising it was.(less)

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