The Fox Wife

For the women in The Fox Wife, feeling safe in one’s environment is often a negotiated compromise. Women must navigate bodily autonomy and manage the immoral—and often male-coded—societal expectations placed upon them. For example, the bookkeeper’s granddaughter has had to deal with a dangerous society from a young age—so much so that Choo intimates a loss of innocence in the unnamed girl’s childhood. As the girl explains to Bao, she understands the nature of doing business in the pleasure house: “[The girls are] brought in by men. Mostly good-looking ones who buy women from rural areas. That’s why I don’t plan on marrying a handsome husband” (202). The bookkeeper’s granddaughter grasps how marriage can lead to dehumanization, unpayable debt, and misery. She is forced to remain on guard with the men around her and places her trust in something amoral but reliable: money. For her, money becomes a potential shield. It represents what she lacks in a society that would see her as an object to pleasure men. As she explains to Bao, “If you don’t have money, you get sold” (202). She proves herself to be a keen observer of her environment. Her predicament indicates the wariness and compromise that a young girl must endure to feel safe in her own body.