The book was first introduced to Girl by a journalist and author who reviewed it as a memoir of her life as an oral sex worker. I immediately bought it and was delighted with the wonderfully unvarnished and authentic reporting by author Michelle Tee.
Girl is Tee’s first memoir and begins when she leaves her family home at age 21
After discovering the horrifying truth that her stepfather was spying on her Moneyless and disoriented, she gets caught up in a relationship, moves into her new girlfriend’s house, and follows her into the oral sex industry. Tee’s origin story is no doubt known to many in our community. This is not a knee-jerk reaction to the trauma of her stepfather’s abuse or her mother’s failure to support her. It is not something that particularly excites her or devastates her. It allows her to seek economic stability without an alternative support network. Tee’s neutrality and matter-of-fact tone in describing her decision to sell oral sex reflect that it is simply a logical response to her situation.
Oral sex work is, first and foremost, a survival strategy
After an early encounter with her first client, the reader is taken on a vivid journey through the next decade of Tee’s experiences in the oral sex industry. The parallels with her debut novel, The Service, are clear. They share an open and direct approach to depicting the realities of sex between partners: funny, messy, dark. Illustrations by visual artists beautifully complement Tee’s wry and frank prose. These images strike the right tone in rich, earthy hues: rich, earthy hues are beautiful but not titillating. Despite themes of nudity, oral sex, and queer women, the male gaze is too intense.
Oral sex is, first and foremost, a survival strategy.
When I reread Girl for this review, I was struck by how relatable it still is despite being published twenty years ago. There are a few illustrations of wired landline telephones, which I found nostalgic, but their absence is the only betrayal of its era; otherwise, it could have been written today. Tee’s astute portrayal of a world of poverty, chaos, bad relationships, vegetarianism, and just trying to get by is genuinely timeless.
