Raewyn Alexander, a New Zealand writer, poet, editor, novelist and actress, makes a path breaking entry into contemporary NZ fiction with her FAT (1996), dealing with issues of sex and drug industry and revealing the unexplored life in a red light district of Auckland.
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SEX AND POWER CONTROL IN RAEWYN ALEXANDER'S FAT
1. CREATIVE FORUM
VOL. 27, NO. 1, JAN-JUN 2014
Sex and Power Control in
Raewyn Alexander’s Fat
QUEEN SARKAR
R. K. SINGH
Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad
Raewyn Alexander is a remarkable New Zealand writer. A poet,
publisher, editor, novelist, an actor, Raewyn, with the publication
of her first novel Fat (1996), makes a path breaking entry into
New Zealand’s literary world of fiction. With her, emerges a new
paradigm of women's writing, which is not anti-male, but
probably indirectly pities men. Prior to her, no novelist has dealt
with the issues related to both sex and drug industry, the life of
men under surveillance, and woman “living off the earnings of a
prostitute” (Alexander 1996: 52) with so much of boldness. Fat
reveals the unexplored life in a red light district of Auckland,
New Zealand. Raewyn, through her sharp vision, memory and
senses, perhaps with a feigned tribulation, brings into focus
something real, to expose “a world New Zealand keeps quiet
about” (p. 51). In Fat:
Raewyn Alexander structures several strands of the fiction about
women and men in the sex industry and its sub-culture that evoke a
universal condition through their particularity. (Singh 1998)
As a sequence to Raewyn’s work further light has been thrown
on the industry of sex and the life of “happy hookers,” in Being
and Being Bought (2013) by Kajsa Ekis Ekman (Croft 2014).
Apart from this, there are few other novels where girl power is
taking on a whole new meaning in the reading world. That is to
say, Raewyn Alexander has made way for subjects which are
otherwise kept in darkness and hence, she may be called as a
transitional author. The journey of Fat’s protagonist from Candy
2. QUEEN SARKAR & R. K. SINGH18
to Poppy, which is revealed through first person narration peel
every layer of this hidden world of sex and power control. With
an excellent sense of objectivity and audacity, Raewyn peeps into
the psyche of women who are working as hookers, and into the
psyche of men as their clients. We encounter women who are
“supposed to be confused...” (Alexander 1996: 113) and who are
“waiting, simmering, turning.” (p. 38), to open up. Fat paints a
new silhouette of women, releasing them from the patriarchal
grip. Poppy left Avondale for completing her degree, but enters
the industry of sex as she does not want to go back into the
“desert life in Auckland” (p. 49). Her entry to this world of sex,
exposes the precarious life of women in leather high heels, their
freedom and fear, luxury and austerity, security and danger, and
affection and affinity. We meet women who are not only in
control of their own body but of everything that was earlier under
the control of men. Through Poppy, we see the world of porn
parties organized by Sir Arthur, involvement of the government
officials, bureaucrats in the business of sex and drug industry, the
way pimps and drug peddlers work, the insight of the sex
workers, the estimation of men and her understanding of fellow
sex workers. Through nicknames, which are based on the client's
activities on and off bed, she ridicules the men of civilized
society.
DRUG INDUSTRY AND POLITICS
Raewyn’s novel is significant for yet another reason. She has
taken a walk around the Auckland's red light area and drug
industry, when sex industry in New Zealand was illegal and
forbidden. Even after the publication of Fat most of the novels
written, for instance, LaidBare (2008), Naked Truth (2012) by
Rachel Francis, are based on story were women have history,
addictions, bills to pay, or a situation to come out off. There are
very few books out there written with a protagonist who has
empowered herself through prostitution, who has been an
assistant to a hooker, worked with bureaucrats, big businessmen,
lawyers, doctors, judges, and yet has not had a conviction, drug
addiction or gang affliction or anything else society suspects
3. RAEWYN ALEXANDER’S FAT 19
about a working lady, which in itself defines the uniqueness of
Fat. Contrary to prevalent and narrow stereotypes of young, drug
addicted prostitutes, most studies of sex workers comment on the
diversity of those working within the industry.
Moreover, in New Zealand very little research has been
conducted regarding drug use amongst sex workers, the client of
sex workers and the way whole set up of the sex industry is
controlled and handled (“Ministry of Justice” 2005). This study
intends to investigate all that has not been done before, in terms
of sex and drug industry, the psyche of hookers and their clients
and the reason why women are willingly participating in this
world of sex, as viewed by Raewyn Alexander. Her novel is also
about choosing one’s identity, embracing one's inner strength,
and do what to do, no matter what others may think or say. Even
if Fat is about women in sex industry it is remarkable as they
stay true to their conviction. Unlike the earlier novelists dealing
with the subject the characters of Fat, or for that matter the
novelist herself, do not have any moral qualms about what they
do or experience.
WOMEN’S PSYCHE
Fat delves into women's psyche, explores their sexual power and
demonstrates their ability to control. It begins with the
description of the Sex industry and the ways women enslave
men. At the same time, it brings to notice the dubious and
precarious life of people, especially of those attached to this
industry of Sex. From outside, furnished and embellished with
glitters, bright colors, flowers and “neon sun” (Alexander 1996:
27) on the roof, it has a dark world inside, that “New Zealand
keeps quiet about” (p. 51). This world of Sex Industry is “...like
an overripe mango. You know, when the fruit looks firm, the
skin tight, the colour strong, then you pick it up and your fingers
sink in and a rotten smell comes out” (p. 9). Similar is this world
of body. The novel exposes the bitter truth of the industry where
the prostitutes are thought as “a fruit cut for eating...” (p. 52).
However, it is just one side of the coin, which brings forward the
point of view of the society, the customers and the illusions they
4. QUEEN SARKAR & R. K. SINGH20
remain in, where they think that prostitutes are undignified.
“He” (Arthur) “... didn’t say lady, but then he wouldn’t, because
Iris was a whore through and through... just that Irish wasn’t one,
therefore wasn’t one either” (p. 12). While the other end comes
with mockery and irony and it tells us the story from a women’s
point of view working in the world of sex and drugs. It comes
with a satire on the high class society and politicians, enclosed
with light humor where story moves with the moment.
The novel, through first person narration of Poppy, reveals
everything and everyone. Poppy, an expert on facades, is the
protagonist of Fat who begins her journey as waitress, enters into
the drug industry, packs wedding dresses, entertains tourists, sells
dildos and ends up as a hooker, Iris’s assistant. In this journey
she meets many people and lives many lives. She stands for all
those new post-modern women, who enters this industry not out
of pressure, violence, or economic reasons but out of boredom.
As she herself says, “... I wouldn’t be back.... I hadn’t forgotten
the desert life in Auckland, and how hard it was to have fun”
(Alexander 1996: 49). About her job, where she lives off the
earnings of a prostitute she admits, “My life is interesting... I take
a day and shape it according to my wishes” (p. 82).
Poppy’s transformation from a university student to one
counting condoms re-defines this industry of sex and the
workers. In real life, the sex industry is said to be pretty murky
world. Prostitution is therefore marginalized in most of the
countries, either illegal or on the fringes of what is legal and
what's forbidden. But for Raewyn’s heroine, prostitution was a
ticket to the world. It empowered and liberated her. She goes
with the flow and ends up juggling her life as a successful
businesswoman with a career pleasing and controlling rich and
powerful men. A new pattern has emerged: now hooker stories
are about young women making choices that empower. It's true
that prostitution has a dark and seedy aspect, but perhaps it's best
looked at as a spectrum in this novel, rather than a single thing
that can be Good or Bad.
The first person we are introduced in Fat is Sir Arthur, owner
of factories, land and horses. In Iris’s word “an overflowing cup”
(Alexander 1996: 16). Through the character of Mr. Arthur we
5. RAEWYN ALEXANDER’S FAT 21
are introduced to the world of porn parties, the drug industry,
tricky attitude of women and their presentation as an “object” of
entertainment and of course how sex is being used as a tool to
tame men. His parties extended across the reserved country life.
Blue films and snuff videos from South America covered the big
screens. It sells sex. It has girls to entertain males by their
performances and curves.
Next, we meet Iris, a woman with “more attitude and less
personality” (Alexander 1996: 10), who fell pregnant to Arthur
for security and later sold as fresh for years by Ho. Various
shades of modernization and commercialization are seen through
the character of Irish. She knows well, how to flatter and handle
her customers.
She’s creamy, voluptuous marshmallow. It’s obvious she does
something dodgy, I think. So few woman look as confident as she
does. When she sulks, a real two-year-old’s pout, she crosses her
arms and sinks into her chins, her breasts almost up to her face,
she’s a courtesan opera star. (Alexander 1996: 104)
However, it is Ho “Auckland’s most notorious madam,” who is
the real controller and the one who keeps her work and people
attached to it well hidden. Her staffs enter from the back door.
The house has a brass plaque carved with “LANDSCAPE
CONSULTANTS. By appointment only” (Alexander 1996: 57).
She serves the money men. The customers who have been
visiting Ho for years, feels like home at Ho’s place, because of
the environment mixed with fantasy and mess. However, her
entry to this world also brings a new side of this profession. Her
access to this world of Sex and Prostitution itself re-defines and
lay bare the transmutation the industry is getting through. It
proves the point that it's not the people who are impoverished or
underprivileged enters to the world of body. Daughter of the
Harbour Board Chairman, Sir Horace McLaughton, Ho was not
intended to be a street girl. “Procuring women wasn’t something
she did knowingly, the first time.” As accepted by Ho herself in
presence of Poppy,
6. QUEEN SARKAR & R. K. SINGH22
One of their bigwigs asked me to make a party of girls up to go out
for the evening with the officers. There were all these old school
friends of mine, all from good families. We dressed up and spent
the night quite wild, some of us. When I got home I found an
envelope on my table, from the captain. He thought I was a woman
of that type, you see. Word got around the South Pacific, about this
woman who could find company, and, well Poppy, the phone's not
stopped ringing since. (Alexander 1996: 107)
Other important characters are Gary, who has been Irish's
boyfriend for some time, and is later murdered, Henry, with
whom Poppy has an affair and a child (Carson) and Harold, the
caretaker of Sir Arthur. Poppy has made money by selling drug
for Henry and Tama, though later Henry ends up in jail for
selling drug to an undercover cop. Then we meet Rachel in a
Chelsea Cafe. It is Rachel who introduced Poppy to Irish and Ho
as an “asset” (Alexander 1996: 51) and to the “business of sex,”
and the exploration of the sex industry, and all sort of organized
crimes, control begins from here onwards.
Sex is a domain of life, theory and research, particularly in
the case of female sexuality, constantly torn between danger and
joyance, between objectification and empowerment. Social,
gender and erotic justice have been de-constructed. In Fat we see
a complete set up of sex industry. From entry of the workers to
the clients, all are shown in a systematic way, every little step is
organized, monitored and controlled by women. After all the
“body loves routine....” (p.57). We see group of three
stakeholders in this industry: those who produce a sex industry
products (adult entertainment retailers, brothel owners, sex
workers, porn parties organizers, strip club owners), those who
consume a sex industry service (consenting adults), and those
who regulate the sex industry (government and high officials).
We see Poppy being interviewed before her entry to sex industry,
Ho has collected every details of her and asked for her CV and
passport. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries a diversity of
discourses on sexuality in the fields of criminal justice and social
work emerged. This occurred as sex become increasingly an
object of administration and management through government
inquiry as well as a tool to control and procure. In the novel we
7. RAEWYN ALEXANDER’S FAT 23
have plenty of instances where this power of body and its
language has been used by women. Men are flattered and lied
and laughed at. The girls at work are always protected, the
activity of sex inside the “velvet rooms” is always under
surveillance. Fire extinguishers and cans of mace are kept under
the bed to hit a trouble making man.
There’s a quick control in fear. Our clients know I’m always in the
flat somewhere, anytime they start to grow fangs or they discover a
carving knife in their briefcase, I’m in the room... turning into a
werewolf. (Alexander 1996: 114)
That is to say, men are under the authority and empire of
women’s world, where they have to follow the rules as
prescribed by women. To quote, “... We pretend we’re silly girls
but we're Medusa monsters and we turn men to stone...”
(Alexander 1996: 53). It is in fact Poppy's job to listen out the
clients, their desire for sex, monitor the client’s sex sessions on
the screen, and tape their talks- it is important for every client to
speak about themselves, their real identity before seeing Iris.
Men have to follow each and every rule.
If they don’t stop, I make them stop and we don’t see them again.
We may send their description around town. The fear of discovery
stops them, usually. (Alexander 1996: 114)
Moreover, we see various tricks through which women befool
men. Clothes fool people. “I’ve approached the clients in the
street. With my hair down, no glasses and my severe suit cut to
show my waist... I test them.” (Alexander 1996: 112). Outside
the rooms too the hookers are protected. Some defense moves
have been taught to them. To quote Poppy:
One of the snotty young men Iris was dealing with put his hand up
my dress one day while we were waiting in a basement for the
others. I had his fingers bent back and my knee in his face fast.
Rachel's bouncer/ minder had taught me some defence moves.
Hercules had muscles and training, he would've laughed to see the
smart-arse restaurateur groaning. (Alexander 1996: 68)
8. QUEEN SARKAR & R. K. SINGH24
The term “queer” itself defines the strangeness of this sleazy
world, where the body is at the centre of everything and sex and
sexuality are both rhetorical aspects of communication and
power. So it is not just sex and action but also the language that
is used to communicate their action and need. Irish deops cheesy
hints to get what she wants.
Oh, I just adore a liqueur after dinner but who can afford it... Oh,
not a present for me, how fabulous. Look Poppeee, a marvelous
bottle of brandy from dear Poopsie... if i eat choccolate you know
I’ll do all sorts of naughty thins, aphrodisiac... oh look, Poppeee, a
sumptuous box of... (Alexander 1996: 77)
In Fat apart from this world of women power, we visualize a
different world as well where, people giggle on the death of a
woman, a world where women are auctioned and men “buy their
kids plastic guns and laugh when little Kevin is caught throwing
some girl down for kiss, all good fun and just the way it should
be” (Alexander 1996: 103).
In terms of Queer theory, the physical body becomes the
sight of meaning, that is the meaning that you are communicating
is communicated through the body and the language that is used
to present the body or the act of physicality. It’s often said that
sex or, more precisely, a woman’s ability to grant or neglect it is
the source of a woman’s power over men. And we see this power
in hands of all these sex- workers. Moreover, so far, we have
looked at various concerns regarding the wrongness involved in
objectification. A number of thinkers, however, have challenged
the idea that objectification is always morally problematic. Alan
Soble questions the widely held Kantian view according to which
human dignity is something that people have. He argues that
objectification is not inappropriate. He writes:
The claim that we should treat people as ‘persons’ and not
dehumanize them is to reify, is to anthropomorphize humans and
consider them more than they are. Do not treat people as objects,
we are told. Why not? Because, goes the answer, people qua
persons deserve not to be treated as objects. What a nice bit of
9. RAEWYN ALEXANDER’S FAT 25
illusory chauvinism. People are not as grand as we make them out
to be, would like them to be, or hope them to be. (Papadaki 2010)
So, in order to analyze the sexuality of consumerized society, we
need to understand how consumer capitalism operates in the
market. Queer theory is gendered in consumerism and capitalism.
Body is expressed in terms of language or emotive. To quote
Poppy:
Some customers told variations according to who they were
dinning with, some embroidered a little extra with each drink.
(Alexander 1996: 31)
COMMERCIALIZATION AND MEDIA
The commercialization of sex and drugs is probably one of
media's most striking attributes. Of all these forms of new media,
the internet is considered as the most addictive medium. The
commercialization has always thrived on women's bodies, from
skimpy clad cocktail waitress to the iconic images of show girls.
Before this era of ultra modernization women and sex have
always been shown as something violating, raw and angry.
Although money is often the driving force, sex workers do not
emphasize only the financial returns of prostitution. Interviews
with women in the sex industry have revealed, for instance, that
some have left well-paid jobs to work in the sex industry because
it brought other benefits. Amongst those cited have been the
relative freedom to work their own hours; the overall autonomy
and independence they experience on the job; greater flexibility
of hours to accommodate child care or study responsibilities; and
the high levels of companionship they experience in their
relationship with other workers. Some also mentioned the
advantages of being in a position where they feel they have
control over men, as opposed of being in a position where sexual
harassment is a part of the terrain (“Ministry of Justice”). So for
many, this world is not only for money, but for the freedom. “My
various jobs before I met Rachel and Iris, didn’t stretch me at all.
They were tedious and depressing” (Alexander 1996: 82)
10. QUEEN SARKAR & R. K. SINGH26
DISSOCIATIVE MECHANISM
Moreover, for many the nature of sex work promotes the
development of dissociative mechanisms designed to assist sex
workers’ survival within the industry. Learning how to “switch
off” while engaging in sexual practices with a client is a trait
which enables the worker to distance herself from the sexual acts
being performed by mentally removing herself from the situation.
That is when she is touched, she just feels like a piece of meat.
I guess we get conditioned... We get these imposed ideas all the
time, at school, from TV, and we stop following our instincts and
do so we’re told. So, soon we have no real reactions or feelings
except for what we’ve been told. Operating in a void, robotic...
(Alexander 1996: 46).
So, it is not the woman, but just the body with whom the client is
having sex. And with this body she slaves men. “Dominica takes
her slave to the leather club...She has a man in a hood chained to
her wrist. He crouches at her knee like a runner waiting when
Dom's still, follows her walking. The slave fetches her drinks,
cigarettes and chair. He does all this silently. There's a zip over
his mouth, on the hood... Dom’s a dominatrix in a dungeon, she
spanks people for money, ties them up” (Alexander 1996: 96).
One of the most vexing and contentious issues regarding sex
work relates to issues of power and control. It is a difficult
quandary trying to ascertain the degree of control any worker can
have in a situation where the client is paying money to procure
services that are potentially so invasive of another person’s body
and space. The emphasis on prostitution as work is one which
many sex workers emphasize in order to encounter depictions of
them as deviants, sinners or sexual slaves. To quote Poppy:
Outside my circle, I’m stared at or ignored. The world gets further
and further away until it’s a TV show I haven’t seen and often
don’t want to watch, but given time I’d fit in. The ones at the top,
or who think they're king of the castle, are the most untouchable.
Living with the illusion the world’s got barely enough for them and
pushing people away unless they’re crown polishers, makes rulers
into armadillos. (Alexander 1996: 95)
11. RAEWYN ALEXANDER’S FAT 27
Prostitution in Fat has been presented as an organized work
relation in ways it is not markedly different from how other kinds
of women’s jobs are organized, particularly those of working
class women.
To survive in the business and to flourish it, they blatantly
use their sexuality as power. Moreover, they become skilled in
the manipulation of masculine power. Female prostitution has
become a situation, within the society where women have more
power over men and sexual interactions than in any other
circumstances involving both sex interacting. The novel
chronicles the life of Poppy in different shades, and the way sex
has been used by other workers including Dominica, Rachel,
Celine, Athena, Billie, Kitten, Penia, Katy, Cheryl and Tamara. It
represents and redefines the industry of sex from both the sides,
that is from the point of commercialization and violence,
freedom and anxiety, power and fear, protection and murder. It is
a profession which is ignored “I think he’d (Poppy’s dad) be
ashamed of me if he knew what I did and then I’d despise him”
(Alexander 1996: 114), spat on and judged by the very people
who seek its services; a profession that many women , including
Poppy herself, entered into by choice and one that she is neither
ashamed of or embarrassed about. Rather, it is their body that
provides the basic of their identity and profit. The work does not
define morality. It is neither supporting sex-workers nor is
negating the wide developing sex industries throughout the
world. It is only presenting the world of sex industry as it has
been noticed.
REFERENCES
Alexander, R. 1996. Fat. Auckland, N.Z.: Penguin.
Croft, J. 2014. Being and being bought, by Kajsa Ekis Ekman. 11 May
2014. <http://www.nzbooklovers.co.nz/non-fiction/bought-kajsa-
ekis-ekman/>.
Francis, R. 2008. Laid Bare. 11 May 2014. New Zealand: Penguin
Books New Zealand.
——. & Larsen, M. 2012. Naked Truth: Lifting the Lid on the New
Zealand Sex Industry. New Zealand: Penguin Books New Zealand.
12. QUEEN SARKAR & R. K. SINGH28
Ministry of Justice, New Zealand. Ministry of Justice - Tāhū O Te Ture
12 May 2014. <http://www.justice.govt.nz/publications/>.
——. 2005. The sex industry in New Zealand: A literature review. 11
May 2014. Available online: <http://www.justice.govt.nz/
publications/global-publications/t/the-sex-industry-in-new-zealand-
a-literature-review>.
Papadaki, E. 2010. Feminist perspectives on objectification.Available
online: 12 May 2014. <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-
objectification>.
Singh, R. K. 1998. New Zealand Literature: Some Recent Trends. New
Delhi: Bahri Publications.
QUEEN SARKAR
M. PHIL (ENGLISH),
DEPT OF HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES,
INDIAN SCHOOL OF MINES, DHANBAD 826004.
R. K. SINGH
PROFESSOR (HAG),
DEPT OF HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES,
INDIAN SCHOOL OF MINES, DHANBAD 826004.