For both my YA novels, I have in mind strong, female protagonists. Think Katniss from The Hunger Games or Tris, from Divergent, or, more recently, Laia from An Ember in the Ashes.
Both Lyra (Phoenix Cell Savior) and Evangeline (On the Side of Angels) will struggle, will fight, and may or may not prevail (won’t give away all my secrets!) but regardless, they will portray young women who are smart, resourceful and determined.
It seems a no-brainer in this day and age that a female lead character can embody these traits. In fact, it seemed that way to me when The Hunger Games came out in 2008.
But with a misogynist like Donald Trump in power in the U.S., and thankfully, our own prime minister, Justin Trudeau, an avowed feminist, on the world stage to contrast Trump, the awareness of struggles of women in developed countries has become, for me, more acute. Honestly, I thought we were beyond all this. Never once have I experienced discrimination as a woman–professionally or personally–but I’m becoming more aware of how many women still do. (My own naivety for not seeing that before, maybe?)
Which got me thinking about the subtle, unspoken messages in our society about the role of women.
Consider a common image for washrooms: a stick-figure woman in a skirt. When I talk to my students about this, I ask how many girls in the class are actually wearing skirts. Often the answer is none, or maybe one or two. Certainly it’s the minority. In other words, the unquestioned and accepted symbol of a woman looks nothing like most modern women today (at least in our western world). Yet we persist in identifying women in that way. Why?
Consider card games: the queen is always lower in rank to the king. You may argue, well, that’s the way it is–Queen Elizabeth’s husband is called Prince Philip, not “King”, because that would put him “above” her. But why? Why does the queen, the woman, have to have a lesser value than men? I decided, therefore, that in our household, they wouldn’t.
When I first proposed my new changes (since there are so many variations of card games, why not this one?), my family laughed. But then, my two daughters (and, yes, my husband, too) liked the idea. Why not make women equal to men in these trivial, seemingly insignificant games? So, I decreed (as only a parent can) that when the kids play card games in our house, they have to adapt the games to ensure the king and queen are equal (either the cards are played interchangeably or each round they take turns about which face card is the “higher” value).
When my girls, ages 10 and 12, mentioned this to their (female) friends, the friends loved the idea. When a male friend overheard the conversation, he balked. “You can’t change that!” he argued. My strong, independent daughter argued back: “Why not?”
Why not, indeed. So much of our culture holds assumptions we rarely recognize, let alone question. I don’t know what assumptions will go unrecognized in my novels, but I’m going to work damn hard to alter the ones I do see.
Example: the titles (honorifics) of angels in On the Side of Angels will be gender-neutral; there is no “Mr., Ms., Mrs., etc.” in the Seven Hea
Example: Not once in Lyra’s fight for her freedom in Phoenix Cell Savior will her gender be mentioned as a role in her quest, her obstacles or her success/failure.
Example: In On the Side of Angels, Evangeline’s mother isn’t referred to as a “farmer’s wife”; she’s referred to as a farmer.
Example: Each will have a love interest because I’m tired of the idea that to fight the “damsels-in-distress” image, girls can’t be allowed to want a boyfriend or to get married. Is that so bad, to want someone who loves you and understands you? I’m not advocating passivity, but I’m not about to promote single life as be-all-and-end-all. I’m all about choice–and what choices are right for my characters.
With these two novels, will I change the world? Decrease discrimination against women?
Hardly.
But it doesn’t matter. I plan to change the world one card game at a time. 🙂
p.s. My usual source for photos, Pixabay.com, had no photos of the four queens, so I had to source the above pic elsewhere. Credit where credit is due: By Enoch Lau – Own work (photo), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org
By contrast, Pixabay had this:
Only kings, no queens? Just sayin’…