This author, whose name I shamefully cannot recall, seemed to be a radical-leaning feminist, though she did not name herself as such. I was lucky enough to have a studio session with her, but it was one that left me feeling confused and a little patronized. There wasn't time for her to actually read any of my writing, so I could only give her a quick synopsis of what the book is about. After the conversation with her, I remember feeling rebellious but also a bit disillusioned.
She asked me why my main characters weren't female. I couldn't give a good answer. Back then, I was so far in the closet I couldn't even coax myself out, and I had this sort of fascination with male characters. I thought they were deeper by nature, more interesting in the contrast that the men I knew in daily life often hid their emotions. Women were too soft, delicate, accessories to characters rather than characters themselves. I liked to write male characters who laid themselves bare on the page, and thought I was getting at something with that.
As it turns out, a character's 'maleness' isn't something that should be glorified, in my opinion.
The second point that this writer brought up to me was that slavery is little-addressed in modern fiction, despite the fact that slavery is still a global issue which is practically invisible to us living in the "first world." She asked why I didn't address slavery in my writing, and in my head, all I could think was 'oh I'm not interested in that.' Again, I couldn't give a good answer.
Shame on me, twice.
Years later, this conversation lingers in my mind, and I feel a sort of guilty haze about it. The next year, I discovered radical feminism for myself, and came out of the closet. I don't define myself as a radical feminist, but I am radical leaning in that I don't believe our modern systems of patriarchy and capitalism should be rectified, but rather destroyed. New systems need to be built from the ground up, and this is the idea that inspired my most recent series, "Anthology of the Cold Night."
This series, as it stands, features 5 short stories and a novella which I am still writing. This series has almost exclusively female characters, and addresses the issue of slavery and trafficking, especially that of sex-trafficking. I am aware that authors should not be preachers, and that is not what I am aiming for in this story of lesbian warriors and priestesses. Although both women and men are victims of sex-trafficking, it is statistical fact that women suffer more for their sex/gender than men do. Any strides taken to give women more freedom will inherently benefit men, too. That is what I want to show in my stories. Almost every woman I know has been raped or sexually assaulted/aggravated by a man in their life. That is something that NEEDS to be addressed in current media.
A lot of writers are afraid to brand themselves as feminist or gay writers. I strive to brand myself as a lesbian feminist writer, because I know how desperate I feel when I pick up a book that seems to have a strong female lead in it, and the heartbreak that comes over me when she loses every sense of autonomy and sleeps with and then bows down to the men in the story. (I would like to iterate here that gay, and trans men and women are not included in this generalization).
So while I don't want to rewrite my first novel, I have drafted it not only include more female characters, but to expand on the ones who were there already. My future endeavors go forth with feminism and slavery at the forefront of my mind, and I encourage any female/lgbt+ defined writers to embrace these ideas.
As always, I am open for discussion and thoughts about this. Stay tuned for a small excerpt of the Wolfena novella, and thank you to anyone who has read this.
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