I don’t like to go to bed with him no more, she [Sofia] say. Used to be when he touch me I’d go all out my head. Now when he touch me I just don’t want to be bothered. Once he git on top of me I think bout how that’s where he always want to be. She sip her lemonade. I use to love that part of it, she say. I use to chase him home from the field. Git all hot just watching him put the children to bed. But no more. Now I feel tired all the time. No interest.
Now, now, I say. Sleep on it some, maybe it come back. But I say this just to be saying something. I don’t know nothing bout it. Mr.__________ clam on top of me, do his business, in ten minutes us both sleep. Only time I feel something stirring down there is when I think bout Shug. And that like running to the end of the road and it turn back on itself.
You know the worst part? she say. The worst part is I don’t think he notice. He git up there and enjoy himself just the same. No matter what I’m thinking. No matter what I feel. It just him. Heartfeeling don’t even seem to enter into it. She snort. The fact he can do it like that make me want to kill him. (30.15-17)
Sofia has lost all interest for Harpo—and she doesn’t think he even notices. Sofia, like many of the other female characters in this novel, only wants sex when it involves love and affection. The male characters, on the other hand, use sex just for the physical experience or as a means of dominating women.
She [Sofia] say, How you, Mr.______?
He don’t answer the question. He say, Look like you done got yourself in trouble.
Naw suh, she say. I ain’t in no trouble. Big, though.
She smooth the wrinkles over her stomach with the flats of her hands.
Who the father? he ast.
She look surprise. Harpo, she say.
How he know that?
He know. She say.
Young womens no good these days, he say. Go they legs open to ever Tom, Dick and Harry.
Harpo look at his daddy like he never seen him before. But he don’t say nothing. (17.26-35)
Mr.__ has a double-standard regarding sexual behavior between the genders. While it’s fine that Harpo has been sleeping with girls, Mr.__ clearly thinks that Sofia having sex and being pregnant is "trouble" and that she’s sleazy.