Fieldwork as a Sex Object

Fieldwork as a Sex Object follows a young Indian woman in London as she tries to reclaim her reputation after her image is circulated in a deepfake porno—a fierce novel of incels, influencers, and AK-47s from Women’s Prize shortlisted icon Meena Kandasamy

Amrita contains multitudes: she’s an accidental reality TV star, a self-appointed champion of the oppressed, and a full-time daddy’s girl. In London, she goes by Amy and gallivants around Bloomsbury with the rest of Little India. 

Until her world is upended, that is. A deepfake porno of her appears online and is shared over and over by thousands of WhatsApp aunties everywhere. The situation snowballs into a hate storm with millions of impressions, and within a day, she’s being digitally stoned by a militia of Hindu incels hell-bent on her annihilation. Together with her best friend, Amy takes a page out of the Kardashian workbook and attempts to flip the script, which backfires spectacularly. Amy’s selfhood must shatter into a billion pixels of public opinion for the point to finally click: she’s no different from the faceless horde of keyboard warriors—until the ultimate checkmate you won’t see coming.

In her fiercest novel yet, Meena Kandasamy boldly questions what we are prepared to risk for our beliefs and fearlessly explores online harassment, political corruption, and the creep of the manosphere.