Friday, July 9, 2010

I am a little alarmed: where are the female role models?

After reading several novels recently in which all of the female protagonists faced sexism, abuse, and ageism, I have grown despondent about the status of women in fiction. I know, every good work of fiction needs adversity, but where are the novels in which women nonetheless persevere while maintaining positive self-images?

I did a Google search today, hoping to hunt down some uplifting, female-centered books. I did not find any. Everything in my search results related either to Christianity (nothing against books like this, but I was hoping for something non-religious) or to stories of women who eventually triumphed...but not before enduring traumatic life events.

So, then I decided to expand my search to non-fiction. I tried using words and phrases like "feminism" and "female role models." Getting the impression that the words  "feminism" and "hope" are mutually exclusive, I nonetheless searched for "hopeful feminism." My results included excerpts like, "the unhappy daughters of feminism," "let's put the fun back in feminism," and, my personal favorite, "feminism is dead." I did not find anything that made me feel hopeful.

At the beginning of this fruitless exercise, all I wanted was to read something that doesn't make me feel like I am screwed because I am women. I have enough self-loathing, self-defeating thoughts on that topic, so I didn't want to cram my head full of confirmatory readings. Now, however, I am wondering whether girls and women today have many good role models. The general consensus on Google, at least, seems to be that there is a lack (and therefore a need) for uplifting, positive messages for today's female population.

I hope that in the not-too-distant future, things will improve. While the messages of society were in no way wholly responsible for my ED, they did play an undeniable role in the development of my disorder. I firmly believe that any women who has an ED needs to expose herself to as many pro-female books, role models, and ideas as possible. The question is, where are they?

2 comments:

  1. Many of the Anne McCaffery novels I've read have strong female protagonists. I've mostly read her fantasy-genre Dragonriders of Pern series, and "Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern" is one of the best examples. "Nerilka's Story" is another good one. (Of course, I'm a big sci-fi / fantasy geek.)

    "The Fifth Sacred Thing", by Starhawk, is a really interesting spiritual-alternative book with a couple of female protagonists.

    I think you'll find some other good suggestions here: http://ask.metafilter.com/116344/Books-about-strong-intelligent-interesting-20something-women

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  2. Tess Gerritsen and Patricia Cornwell write about solving murders and most of the characters are women of science, intelligent, and independent. Cornwell's books are especially so--my personal favorite is the character Lucy, a brilliant, lesbian computer whiz. I'm not sure these are the kind of books you'd like, but I appreciate them. To be fair, the only role models men have in the media are rappers, reality show contestants, dudes on HBO, sports stars, and politicians. The intellect in general is not as celebrated as it once was. Did you know that testosterone could protect against EDs? SO not on the news.

    http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/health_medicine/eating_disorders/4/

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