Madeline Hubbard

Professor Kirin Wachter-Grene

English 242E: Noir by Noirs

12 June 2015

Intersectionality in Black Wolfes Debt and Leighton Leigh Anne Norbrook

Hardboiled fiction is not a genre known for shying away from sexuality. Instead, it is a

prominently featured motif, driving the plot in stories such as in D. Alan Lewiss Black Wolfes

Debt and Thomas Glaves Leighton Leigh Anne Norbrook. Black Wolfes Debt follows Detective

Dexter Black Wolfe as he is tasked by the mayors ex-superheroine wife Abigail to find and

kill the man who kidnapped her daughter. Leighton Leigh Anne Norbrook peers into the mind of

Leighton Andrew Shepherd at his sisters funeral, where he realizes how relieved he is that his

sister has taken his darkest secret - that he slept with Michael, the gardeners nephew - with her

to the grave. The sexuality in both these stories is fraught with struggles for power and control.

Both Lewis and Glave show characters objectified and exploited through hypersexualization, a

lack of agency, and removal of identity. Lewis and Glave then use these objectifications to

examine the different ways race and class problematize sexuality: Glave shows how race and

class are inseparable from perceptions of sexuality, and Lewis critiques how race affects the

sexualzation of women. Both show how hard boiled, especially black hard boiled, can address

issues at the intersection of race, class, gender and sexuality.

Both Lewis and Glave use hypersexualization to objectify characters, focusing on their

sexual appeal to reduce them to objects of fantasy or perversion. In Black Wolfes Debt, Abigail

is sexualized from the first line of the story as Wolfe waxes poetic about her appearance in his

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office: Surrounded by the scents of roses and jasmine, the goddess graced me with her presence

(Lewis, 107). She is immediately characterized not as a person, but an object of Wolfes

fantasy. That characterization is enforced a few paragraphs later when Wolfe focuses on her

physical appearance: Her hips and ample breasts, barely contained in the thin cotton dress,

swayed with each step. She reminded me of a cat in heat; seductive and enticing (Lewis, 107).

Here, the focus placed on her figure shows her to be sexually desirable, and the comparison

between her and a cat in heat makes her seem sexually available. Her characterization is based

on her merit as a sexual object, not an individual.

While not defined by his sex appeal from the beginning of the story as Abigail was,

Michael is equally hypersexualized in Leighton Leigh Anne Norbrook. Much of Michaels

characterization, like Abigail, focuses on his physical appearance and sex appeal. Leighton

remembers him as the, big-hooded [slang for penis] nasty-dutty black bwoy who labored,

sweaty and dirty...young and gorgeous (Glave, 197) and, a younger, always bare-chested man

with those nipples, that stomach, those narrow hips, than backside, and with who know what size

and shape of hood (Glave, 198). Glave characterizes Michael with his appearance: he is young,

handsome, and fit. Placing the focus on his appearance highlights his desirability and sexualizes

him. He is further sexualized by the focus on the size of his penis (mentioned in each quotes),

which puts an emphasis on his sexual appeal because of his genital size. This hypersexualization

diverts attention from character traits and focuses on what aspects of his person make him

appealing as an object of sexual fantasy for Leighton, consequently objectifying him.

In addition to hypersexualization, characters may be objectified through lacking agency.

Roxie, Wolfes girlfriend in Black Wolfes Debt, has agency throughout the story, actively

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investigating the kidnapping of the mayors daughter and making most of the major

breakthroughs in the case. However, at the end of the story Wolfe takes away her agency when

he hypnotizes her with a magical ring and forces her to perform a strip tease for him (Lewis,

131). By removing Roxies agency, Lewis objectifies her; since she can no longer make

decisions for herself, she is essentially an object. In addition, she is objectified by Wolfes

exploitation of her body. Wolfe admits that Roxie would have stripped for him if hed asked, but,

the idea of her doing it because she was under the rings power added a certain thrill (Lewis,

131). Wolfe uses Roxies body for his own pleasure, without any thought for her feelings or

desires, and thus objectifies her.

In Leighton Leigh Anne Norbrook, the question of agency is not so much whether

characters lose it, but rather whether they had it in the first place. Michael is of a lower social

class than Leighton, because of both his race and class. Leighton is hyper aware of his position

over Michael, and constantly reminds the reader of the differences between the two. Leighton is

characterized as upper class: he comes from, those Shepherds of the best part of

Norbrook...known well enough by residents of the older, ostentatiously stately homes along

upper Norbrook Road (Glave, 193). He is also adamant about their difference in race: those

Shepherds were not black, they were most certainly not black (Glave, 199). Michael, on the

other hand, is black; Leighton constantly reminds himself of it as he repeatedly refers to Michael

as a, nasty-dutty...black bwoy (Glave, 192). Leighton also remains conscious of Michaels

subservience to him and his household throughout the story: he makes repeated references to, a

machete slung in such a manly way on his waist (Glave, 198), a symbol of Michaels role as a

gardener and a lower class. Michaels race and class means he inhabits a lower social class than

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Leighton. So, while the sex between Michael and Leighton was consensual, there was a power

dynamic at play. Michael, having a lower social status than Leighton, had less power in the

situation, and therefore lacked agency. Like Lewis with Roxie, Glave uses Michaels lack of

agency to further objectify him.

Glaves repeated references to Michaels race objectifies him not only by emphasizing

his lack of agency, but also by stripping him of his identity. Leighton refers to Michael as

nasty-dutty...black bwoy (Glave, 192) more often than Michael. By removing his identity, he

objectifies him, making it easier for himself to think about the experience without considering

Michaels feelings, and dissociate from what happened. Lewis does something similar with

Stephanie, Abigails daughter, in Black Wolfes Debt. Stephanie could have been the central

character of the story: she is the kidnapping victim, and the entire plot surrounds recovering her

and killing the man who supposedly raped her. Instead, she is given no dialogue, and the bare

minimum characterization. She only appears at the beginning when Abigail presents Wolfe

pictures of Stephanie having sex (Lewis, 108), and during the climax, where she is hypnotized

and silent in the corner of the warehouse where the final showdown takes place (Lewis, 124).

Out of the two stories, this is perhaps the most dramatic and disturbing instance of

objectification: Stephanie is no better than a piece of furniture. She exists only as an object,

stripped of any identity and pliant to the whims of those around her.

Both Lewis and Glave objectify characters in their stories, through their use of

hypersexualization, a lack of agency, and removal of identity. It is through this objectification

that Lewis and Glave can then discuss intersectional issues. Glave uses objectification to

demonstrate how race, class and sexuality intersect, and how race and class cannot be separated

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from perceptions of sexuality. Michaels objectification characterizes him as both a sexual object

and an object of perversion. Leighton is quite clearly attracted to Michael: this is reflected in

Michaels hypersexualization. However, at the same time, Leighton is attempting to dissociate

himself from Michael, also by objectifying him. He strips him of his identity and refers to him as

the nasty-dutty...black bwoy (Glave, 192) for much of the story. He is also hyper aware of

Michaels lack of agency, given their differences in social status. Removing his identity and his

agency objectifies Michael, but unlike the hypersexualization, which characterized Michael as an

object of fantasy, these acts make it easier for Leighton to forget his humanity, and therefore

ignore the experience they shared.

All of these acts of objectification are closely connected to Michaels race and class. Part

of Leightons hypersexulization of Michael stems from him thrilling at the idea of having sex

with a black bwoy. In thinking about finally having sex with Michael, Leighton says, you can

at last be free, you can soar, you can even be dangerous and disgusting and take some of the

nasty-dutty black bwoy all the way down your throat (Glave, 197). Leighton desperately wanted

to give into those feelings of attraction and break through the sexual and social taboos that

chained him. Leightons dissociations from the encounter are also deeply entrenched in

Michaels race and class. Referring to him as the nasty-dutty...black bwoy (Glave, 192)

reduces his entire characterization to simply his race and Leightons perception of his dirtiness.

In addition, Michaels lack of agency stems from both his race and his class, and Leightons

constant reminders of both shows how aware he is of them. Leighton cannot separate Michaels

race or class from his perceptions of him, and how he is objectified.

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 Leightons perception of Michael is in turn a reflection of his perception of his own

sexuality. He feels deep disgust over his experience with Michael, describing his desires as, that

obscene stirring in.The place where that kind of movement begins,where the drowsing

curled animal stirs (Glave, 196). He sees his lust for Michael as absurd and animalistic, showing

how base he finds it. Leighton is clearly grappling with internalized homophobia, expressed as

revulsion towards his encounter with Michael. What is unclear, however, is what in particular

bothers him. Is he disgusted because Michael is a servant, because hes black, or because hes a

man? Glave ties the three together tightly, as we saw in his objectification of Michael. In

showing how inseparable these factors are, Glave demonstrates the intersectional nature of

perceptions of sexuality and homophobia. Leighton cannot contemplate their sexual encounter

without thinking about Michaels race and class. Race and class problematize sexuality and

homophobia, and Glave demonstrates this through Leightons agony and Michaels

objectification.

Whereas Glave uses objectification to highlight the intersection of race, class and

sexuality, Lewis takes it a step farther, using his objectification to critique the impact of race on

the sexualization of women, an issue that arises from the intersection of race, gender and

sexuality. Typically, black women are more objectified than white women: they are seen as

exotic and sexualized because of their otherness. The opposite as true in Black Wolfes Debt:

the objectified female characters are all white, while the only black woman in the story, Sugar, is

unobjectified. Sugar is remarkably undersexualized: Wolfe describes her as a woman who, had

the looks, in that plain Jane sort of way; the kind of girl that youd take to the bedroom, but thats

about all (Lewis, 114). Compared to Wolfes descriptions of Abigail, who he likened to a

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goddess or a cat in heat, Sugar seems to have no sexual appeal. Sugar also gains agency, instead

of having it taken away. After receiving information from her, Wolfe gives Sugar a fairly large

sum of money, increasing her financial security and consequently her agency (Lewis, 115).

Lewis subverts the typical sexualization of women, drawing attention to the stereotype.

On top of highlighting the differences in sexualization of women with objectification,

Lewis critiques it by writing his objectification as satire. While the methods of objectification are

typical to the hardboiled genre, Lewis writes it at a hyperbolic level. Recall the first sentence of

the story, when Wolfe first hypersexualizes Abigail: Surrounded by the scents of roses and

jasmine, the goddess graced me with her presence (Lewis, 107). This line reads like something

out of the mouth of a hero in a romantic poem, not a hardboiled detective. Her sexualization is

over the top, even for hardboiled fiction; the reader cannot help but raise an eyebrow at Lewiss

flowery prose. Roxies and Stephanies objectification also reads as parody: Roxie has her

agency removed, and Stephanie her identity stripped, by a magic hypnotic ring. Like the

exaggerated language used to describe Abigail, introducing this fantastical element pushes the

objectification past the genre conventions of hard boiled and into the realm of parody. Lewis

uses this to critique the way race problematizes sexuality. He flips the stereotype, then widens

the gap between the characterization of white and black women through exaggeration. By

satirizing the norm, Lewis draws attention to it and how ridiculous it is. The reader is forced to

question why, if it is ridiculous for white women to be more heavily sexualized than black

women, the opposite is seen as normal.

Hard boiled, especially black hard boiled, is an ideal medium for exploring intersectional

issues. In a genre where race and class drive contentions between characters, and gender and

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sexuality are used to exert power, intersections between race, class, gender and sexuality are easy

to find and explore. Thomas Glave demonstrates one such intersection in Leighton Leigh Anne

Norbrook, objectifying Michael with his race and class, and weaving it into Leightons

internalized homophobia to show that Michaels race and class disturb Leighton just as much as

his gender. Glave highlights how Leighton cannot separate his feelings over Michaels race,

class and sexuality, and must instead confront them as a whole. D. Alan Lewis goes a step

farther, critiquing an intersectional issue involving race, gender and sexuality in Black Wolfes

Debt. Lewis objectifies his white female characters much more than his black female character,

flipping the stereotype. He then critiques it by writing his objectification as satire and hyperbole,

highlighting the ridiculousness of the norm. Glave and Lewis demonstrate how issues of race,

class, gender and sexuality intersect and fuel each other, and how important it is to consider each

in order to understand issues that are all to common today.

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 Works Cited

Glave, Thomas. Leighton Leigh Anne Norbrook. Kingston Noir. Ed. Collin Channer.

Brooklyn:

Akashic Books, 2013. 192-207. Print.

Lewis, Alan D. Black Wolfes Debt. Black Pulp. Eds. Tommy Hancock, Gary Phillips, and

Morgan

Minor. Batesville, Pro Se Productions, 2013. 107-132. Print.