Thomas Pynchon, Sex, and Gender

ALI CHETWYND, JOANNA FREER, GEORGIOS MARAGOS
Much media and audience debate about Paul Thomas Anderson’s film adaptation of Inherent Vice (2009) focused on the sex scene between Shasta Fey Hepworth (played by Katherine Waterston) and her ex-boyfriend Doc Sportello (played by Joaquin Phoenix). The scene sees Shasta provoke the initially reluctant Doc into having sex with her by writhing naked in his lap while detailing her masochistic enjoyment of being dominated and abused by her most recent boyfriend, the real estate mogul Mickey Wolfmann, and his associates. Despite the tenderness