This entry comes from The Girl Myth in YA Fiction (And Beyond) at Bookriot and Writing for Girls by Courtney Summers. I read these two articles, did a lot of thinking and a lot of swearing, and knew I had to write this. Go read the articles first, else this won't make as much sense.
Back? Good. I'd like to issue a general statement to people who people who believe in the girl binary as detailed in the first article: "Fuck off. I will never listen to you. I write female characters with their own minds and lives, and I will never try to box them into your narrow ideas of likability and 'proper' behavior. Don't like that? I don't care."
THE ACCIDENTAL WARLOCK has two female leads, aged seventeen and somewhere around eighteen to twenty. As I read 'The Girl Myth' for the first time, I kept thinking about how people would react to Shiloh and Alexi, and how much they don't fit into this idiotic myth of how girls should be. Neither of them could be considered the secondary players in their own stories, both go after what they want, both look to solve their problems instead of wallowing in despair or whatever else. I made them as real as I could, and never gave a thought to expectations about what girls should be, because I was trying to write people.
As for the romance and purity issues that the article touches on, ye gods, that's going to start a shitstorm. While Shiloh lacks experience in this area, Alexi most certainly does not; the culture she's from is very open about love and sex and all things intimate. I can see the reviews already, calling Alexi all kinds of horrible things because she dared to be with other people before meeting Shiloh. And that's bullshit. The fact that the two of them getting together could cause problems with their families' business deals will only make things worse, despite that they both acknowledge this issue and try to make things work. No, I'm sure they'll both be called selfish for putting their own desires first.
<sarcasm>Because of course, nobody ever does that.</sarcasm> And I don't even want to get into how different the reaction would be if one of them was male.
It's a rough thing to look at my work and know that some people are going to hate the main characters because they don't match up to expectations, stereotypes, and other foolishness. But I'm going forward with it because I know it's right. Because as 'Writing for Girls' shows, I know there are people out there who will see themselves in these characters. And if my stories can really reach someone, make them feel that there's someone out there who understands, and help them in some way, then I know I've done my job right.
Because I'm not writing to fit some impossible ideal. I'm writing for myself, and for everyone who loves these kinds of stories. I'm writing for people.
I wish I could say you don't need to worry about any of this... but I would be lying. Yes, I did read your links, and was beyond frustrated by so much of what you bring up here, too. The best you can do is what you yourself said - write your story. Make it the best damn story you can. Get it out there and let it reach the people who NEED it, who will see themselves in it, and find strength and comfort from that. That will help weather the unbelievable, insane sexist storms that might follow. I'll be cheering you on all the way.
ReplyDeleteThank you. The biggest fear I had with this entry was that people were going to tell me I was overreacting. But I've seen enough to know that I'm not. The thing is, I find female characters a lot more interesting than male ones, which is part of why I love to write them. I never thought that making sure they were strong, capable, and complete characters would be controversial, or lead to people talking crap about my writing. (That hasn't happened yet, but it won't surprise me if it does.) It boggles my mind.
DeleteWorse, I see the crap that other authors get for taking a stand against this kind of thing. It's ridiculous, and it makes no sense. I'm never going to let it stop me, but damn. At least I know not I've got people who have my back on this. ^_^
I've tried three comments that range from raging bitch to nuclear. This problem is big. And it's complicated in a big way. Whats worse, those articles actually weren't the best representation of the double standard problem. Try instead this instead. It's a much better take on what's going on. The problem isn't that women are told wrong in stories, it's that people WANT women to boil down to those small standard sets. It's a form of subjugation. It's a strange sort of compliment that the men of the world sort of need women to fall into those small roles because otherwise we are threatening somehow. But we aren't going to break through centuries of double standards in a couple of books (or blog posts).
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, the first thing people ask after reading my superhero pitch is "But who's going to look after the kids?" I didn't think it would be a problem. I mean no one ever asks Superman who's watching the kids. Until I started seeing that in my inbox, I had no idea how far we hadn't come. And it's not like these situations don't come up in the real world: we have women--mothers!--serving in the armed forces, being deployed all the time. Where are their stories? How come we never hear about them? Because the truth is uncomfortable.
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ReplyDeleteBlogger ate my link AGAIN
ReplyDelete(I guess blogger is hungry tonight)
Here it is, no script
http://www.sfwa.org/2013/05/guest-post-we-have-always-fought-challenging-the-women-cattle-and-slaves-narrative/
It's a good article
That is a good article, and sadly, I understand what you mean about people wanting women to fill specific roles and nothing more. I see it all the time in video game stuff - it's so rare that women are the heroes, and if they are, they're almost always dressed for the male gaze. If they're in the usual "love interest" role, they're lucky to live through the game. And so much of the commentary reads like it's coming from people who are threatened by women taking agency for themselves and not fitting into neat little boxes.
DeleteThis sort of stuff twists my guts into knots, it makes me so mad. And yeah, it's not something we can easily change. But damn, that change is worth trying for.
Hey, I write for people too! And (mostly) myself. If other readers like it, great. Plenty probably won't. Quite a few will. I'm okay with that. Mighty fine post, Mason.
ReplyDeleteThank you. It's not easy to learn to not worry if people will like your art or not, but I think it's something everyone who wants to make art needs to do.
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