Sexing the Cherry is a novel by Jeanette Winterson.
Finished on: 10.1.2025

Content Note: fatmisia

Plot:
The Dog Woman finds a baby floating in the Thames. She names him Jordan and raises him as her own. Inspite of his mother’s wishes, Jordan grows fascinated with traveling and goes to explore the world. He starts to accompany John Tradescant on his journeys. The Dog Woman, too, goes on her own journey of discovery.

Sexing the Cherry is quite a different beast from Winterson’s first novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. While the latter might be generally more up my alley, I really loved the lyrical, irreverent, humorous and critical tone that Winterson has in Sexing the Cherry.

I was not really prepared for what Sexing the Cherry had to offer. After Oranges…, I was ready to delve into anything Winterson had written without knowing too much about it. On the surface, the two novels really have nothing in common apart from having a fruit in the title. Whereas Oranges… is a semi-autobiographical novel rooted firmly in reality, Sexing the Cherry is a sprawling post-modern narrative that spans across three centuries, features fairy tale retellings, magical realism and actual historical fact. It’s a heady mix that took me a second to really get into especially because I didn’t really expect it.

But once I had found my rhythm with the book, it was enthralling narrative that questions our ideas of gender and sexuality, especially in a historical context and imagines things in many ways differently from what they are (and this is what it shares with Oranges… underneath the surface). I really loved her re-interpretation of the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairy tale that is interspersed throughout the novel and Jordan travels.

But what didn’t work so much for me was how Winterson handled The Dog Woman’s fatness, or rather her size in general. She is not only described as fat, but as so big, her skirt can be used as sails (literally). And this size is probably the main factor to establish her as a grotesque, almost monstrous figure (she is also disfigured by pock marks and has rotten teeth). She is a character who defies gender expectations, often resorting to violence, and who eschews society in large parts. It is certainly true that not being thin is unruly behavior in our society, especially for women, so I understand why The Dog Woman is fat. As a fat woman, this treatment of fatness nevertheless made me very uncomfortable in a way I can’t quite pinpoint. It seems to feed into, rather than call into question, societal notions that fatness is actually something grotesque. But maybe that’s my own internalized fatmisia speaking?

Apart from that, though, Sexing the Cherry is a weird, thrilling and enlightening ride wrapped in beautiful language. You should read it.

Summarizing: fantastic.