Nicki Minaj, Taylor Swift, and does talking about having a big ass make you a feminist

I have so many thoughts in my mind right now I’m not even sure I can make this make sense.

To start, as soon as I hit “post” on my “9 female badass characters” post, I realized it was incredibly “white.” This is something I have become increasingly aware of as a writer and a woman. I’m not a big fan of race divides. I grew up in a family/town/lifestyle completely devoid of racism, and the idea of racism is alien to me. That said, I tend not to think about skin color. However, that does not make me immune to society’s influence and lack of diversity. When I posted my list of 9 female badass characters, I realized that 2 out of my 9 ladies were “diverse.” 3 if you count the fact that Aeryn Sunne is another race, but since she’s played by a white actress, I don’t think that counts.

This means that, even though I don’t care about race, I still identified primarily with the white characters, OR that they were the most prevalent in entertainment and media, and thus, came to mind first. Either way, it’s something to combat. For those of us who are not racist, it’s not enough to say, “well, I don’t care about race.” We need to do MORE than that. We need to promote diversity of all sorts, especially in the feminist movement, until all things are equal.

What brought this crisis to my mind, you ask? Oddly enough, the Video Music Awards. Weird, right? I didn’t watch them because a) I really don’t watch tv and b) I am really not a fan of “pop culture.” (Point in fact I read historical novels and write SF novels where I tend to mock pop culture and its influence.)

Either way, I was not immune to reading the reports of the VMAs afterward. (yay, internet and facebook!) I had several thoughts. A) Miley Cyrus had the worst outfits I’ve ever seen ;-) B) I didn’t 100% understand the controversy over why Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” video didn’t with the “Best Video of the Year” award. C) Or the twitter heat when Nicki found out her video was not nominated and she said “If your video celebrates women with very slim bodies, you will be nominated for vid of the year.”

So, being the intrepid explorer that I am, I watched all the nominated (and not) videos of the controversy.

I’m glad that Minaj is celebrating women with big butts in her "Anaconda" video. Hell, I’m a white girl and my most commented on body feature (for good or ill) had been my “healthy/muscular/athletic/any term you want” butt. That’s just how my body is formed and I have a muscular/well-rounded butt, and it has been commented on since I was a kid. It took a long time to realize that was okay. I’m glad to enjoy it as an adult and realize it makes me beautiful.

However, after listening to the song and watching Minaj’s “Anaconda” video, I was disappointed. There was no super awesome story/message or choreography. It was pretty much women shaking their butts, and the lyrics were like, “I like big butts, men like big butts, and f’ya’ll skinny bitches.”

Imo, that is in no way empowering for women or a positive body image/message. I was bummed that it wasn’t more empowering for women. I mean, so, I love my butt. But a video where the girl is crawling on her knees to a guy who just gets to sit back in a chair and enjoy her sexiness is the norm, and did not leave me feeling empowered as a woman.

I didn’t find Taylor Swift’s video of “Bad Blood” amazing or anything, but it at least it a) told a story, b) celebrated badass women. There were no men telling women what to do and no lyrics/images about women having to prove their sexiness to men with their big butts.

Sure, everyone was model-skinny to the point of freakishness and I didn’t love that, but it at least tried to empower women to be badass, even if it didn’t also tackle the issue of weight discrepancy in real life.

Let’s be honest. Some women are just skinny, and there’s no crime in that. One look at Taylor Swift and you’ll realize she’s got one of those “skinny women bodies.” It’s not her fault any more than it’s my fault for being built with junk in the trunk.

Honestly, I don’t normally watch music videos and normally couldn’t care less, but, this women against women shit was distressing to me. As was Miley Cyrus’s response when Minaj threw a “what’s good” her way and Cyrus pretty much put her down.

Ladies.

Stop fighting each other.

The real evil isn’t skinny women versus women with big butts. The “evil” is a society where we feel we’re shunted into those 2 categories. Where we feel we have to sing a song about our big butts and how every guy wants it, or we need to make a video where every girl in it is model-skinny.

Let’s get real. Color doesn’t matter. Body type doesn’t matter. Gender equality in EVERY aspect of American lives matters. So celebrate every body type and let’s talk about women winning their place at the podium, in award nominations, in the arts, in the humanities, in the business world. Let’s talk about women doing the same job as men and not making the same pay for it. Let’s talk about women having to be “lady-like” and there being NO equivalent “man-like.” Let’s talk about women who speak forcibly about something  and are called a “bitch” or an “angry woman” or a “feminist” (as if that was a bad thing) or an “angry black women.” Let’s talk about how we all have the right to get upset, how we all have the right to express our views without being told we should “calm down” or “be rational” or “are you PMSing?”

I want freedom for women to speak and be judged on the EXACT same standards as men when they express their opinions. Fuck who has the bigger butt. Fuck if men wantr skinny women or women with “more to hold at night.”

Who are you when there’s no man to define you? Who are you when it’s just us, woman to woman, and your voice needs to be heard?

Step up. Be that woman, and damn the consequences.

Top Nine Fictional Female Badasses

(I couldn’t come up with a 10^th on short notice, and I didn’t want to put a throw-away name on here!)

So here’s my list of my top 9 fave fictional female badasses. Note, this isn’t my ULTIMATE list, it’s a list I thought up in one day of musing, so it’s subject to change.

I’m going to start off with a list of “who didn’t make my top 9 badass females and why,” just to try to avoid an uproar:

Who didn’t make the list (and why)

• Samantha Carter – Stargate SG-1 (meh. Sure, she’s smart and rocking it in the “boy’s club” of the American Airforce, but she’s SO rules oriented that she almost never follows her heart or colors outside of the lines. She’s too vanilla for me.)
• Hermione – Harry Potter (I’m sure she would make the list, but I’ve never read the books or seen the movies) *dodges tomatoes*
• Princess Leia – Starwars (I like her, sure, but…she never resonated with me.)
• Xena, Warrior Princess – (never watched the show, but she looks badass)

Starting with Number Nine:

Lara Croft (As played by Angelina Jolie in the movies)

I’m pretty sure this needs no explanation.

Number Eight

Black Widow (as played by Scarlett Johansson in the recent movies)

These days, she’s almost a “must have” on this type of list because of the increasing uproar around her role on Avengers and why she doesn’t get her own movie. That aside, she is a SERIOUSLY badass character. She’s one of only 2 Avengers who lack superpowers, but she always keeps up with the “superheroes,” and slays her fair share of bad guys. She’s super savvy, uses ALL of her assets, and Gets. The. Job. Done.

‘nuff said.

Number Seven:

Aviendha (Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series)

When I was reading this series, I couldn’t imagine a more badass character than Aviendha. I pretty much wanted to BE her. She was amazingly tough and loyal. Independent, strong, self-sufficient, important to her people… I love her. She would have ranked higher on my list if Jordan hadn’t neuter her and grouped her in with all of his other female characters who considered men “wool-headed” and so refused to communicate effectively. SIGH.

Number Six:

Pocahontas (As portrayed in the Disney movie of the same name)

Growing up, this version of Pocahontas spoke very clearly to my heart. She was nature-loving, as was I, and thought that was something of worth and the land worth protecting. I still feel the same way and am thankful to have married a wonderful man who shares my conservationist tendencies.

Why do I label her a badass? That’s easy. First, she’s independent and true to herself, even though she knows it’ll earn her censure. Second, she speaks up to the foreigner she meets who doesn’t understand the colors of the wind, and takes time to show him why the earth is worth respecting. Third, she’s not afraid to embrace love where she finds it, no matter how difficult, and fights for it. Fourth, she lets that love go when she realizes it’s the best for him.

Painful sigh! I sobbed with heartbreak at the end of Pocahontas. I’m not kidding, I was inconsolable.

Number Five:

Katniss Everdeen (From The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins)

This might feel obligatory, but it’s not. Honestly, I only read the first book of The Hunger Games. But that one book was enough to convince me that Katniss was a woman who knew how to get shit done. What I love about her? A) Family above all. To me, that is the height of badassery. Well, maybe I should say “worthy family above all.” In this case her devotion to Pru, her younger sister, is so admirable it made me feel lacking. B) She’s a legitimate badass. Collins gave us a great background for why she would know how to hunt and survive in the wild, and why she would be willing to break the rules.

She’s amazing character thrust into insane circumstances. My one quibble with Hunger Games was that enough wasn’t made of the HORRIFICNESS of the Games themselves, of the idea of children killing children. Sure, the Games themselves were expected, but when it came down to actually being in them, I wanted to see some level of disbelief/horror that anyone would condone this.

Okay, that was a side note. What makes Katniss especially badass, beyond all that? Her faux love for Petra because she knew it was how to Get. Shit. Done. She manipulated any and everyone to survive, and that is what makes her a badass, even if it hurt some people. She wants to survive and save her family.

And in the midst of all that, she still cares for Rue. It’s heartbreaking, heroic and amazing.

Number Four:

Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

This is one of my all-time favorite characters. She’s set in a time-period where women had very little power/say, but she is still a badass. She fiercely protects Jane (her older sister) when she realizes Jane’s heart has been broken. She is not afraid to spar verbally with a man above her station when he is condescending and rude to her, despite her interest in him. She does not shrink like a violet, thankful for any attention. She knows her own worth and stands by it.

When nearly forced into a loveless marriage, she rebels (and is saved from it by a doting father, thankfully). And when she realizes that she was wrong about the man she loves, she admits her mistake, and begs for her father’s acceptance of that man’s suit.

She is fearless and fierce, proud to a fault, but admits when she’s wrong. She’s a protector and she deserves every last second of happiness the book’s end grants her

Number Three:

Trinity (as played by Carrie-Anne Moss in the Matrix movies)

Why is she a badass? I’m pretty sure that question has never crossed anyone’s lips.

Not only is she a bona fide badass before the “ultimate badass,” Neo, even enters the picture, she’s so badass that the entire trilogy opens with her, in a room, trapped in the Matrix, and forced to use every skill and bit of courage she has to escape.

First, she manipulates the Matrix with the power of her mind and defeats the cops sent after her. Then, when the Agents—who are basically undefeatable—come after her, she escapes in a similar badass fashion.

She runs. She’s not too proud to admit when she’s outmatched. We see her fleeing for her life with all the strength and canniness she possesses. What I loved about the movie? They put her in flat-soled boots. Thank F’ing god. They didn’t make her wear 4 inch high Catwoman boots and expect her to somehow beat the agents when she ran across the rooftops.

She dove through a window, convinced that the agents would be on top of her in second. She even had to give herself a nudge. “Get up, Trinity. Get UP.” And she did, fear for her life and her very existence in tow.

When we see that last moment of truth, when she has to race a crazy trash truck to the phone and hope she’s retrieved before the agent kills her, I cheered to see her take the risk and gain her freedom.

Bravery, badassery, and unwavering faith in a cause. She’s amazing.

My only disappointment in the movie was that she was given the HORRIBLE fortune by the Oracle that had nothing to do with her at all. Instead, it was “The man you love will be The One.” SIGH Who gives a shit? Let’s get Trinity a destiny all her own!

Number One (A):

Aeryn Sun (As played by Claudia Black in Farscape)

So, I’m cheating, but numbers one and two are a tie, so I’m going with Numbers One (A) and One (B).

Aeryn Sun is perhaps my favorite character of all time, and if you look closely, an inspiration for both Kayla and the hero of my first ever fantasy novel, Tae.

Simply put, I love her. She is guarded, fierce and dedicated. She knows her role within her military and she fulfills it superbly. When that military turns on her for an act of humanity, she is stripped of all she has ever known and all she believes in. She’s devastated.

But instead of mourning her loss, she picks herself up, checks with her morals to confirm that she did the right thing, and soldiers on.  She moves into a new, unknown world completely alien to her way of life, and maintains her own sense of honor while she navigates it.

She is arrogant and proud, but rightfully so (on the proud part) and diligent in her retaining her own strength. The love story between her and John is one of the most painfully wrought stories I have watched/read. She surrenders herself sliver by sliver to the trust of another being, never losing herself, and learning inch by inch that all she’s known has been wrong, and that she has to adapt.

She does this all without losing her skills or her warrior spirit. In my opinion Aeryn Sun is a model for girls who need to understand that you can love someone without losing yourself.

Number One (B):

Sioned (Of Melanie Rawn’s Dragon Prince Trilogy)

(Sadly, no good picture that does Sioned justice)

I almost can’t speak on Sioned, she’s had that profound of an impact on me. If you ever want to know what makes Rhonda tick, where she learned to be so fiercely loyal to her loved ones and uncompromising on their happiness, you should read Dragon Prince. I read this as an adolescent in high school and it made such an impression on me that I remember it all, even after the thousands and thousands of books I’ve read since.

There has never been a woman more badass than Sioned. If you’ve read Melanie Rawn’s series, I can pretty much stop here and your head will be nodding. The strength of her love, her loyalty, her belief in herself, her powers… she is amazing. She’s confident, strong and willful, but utterly devoted to her love and her people. She is an amazing combination of personal power and social responsibility.

In all of my reading, I have never met so impressive a heroine. So real, believable, and heartbreaking.

If you enjoy fantasy fiction and you haven’t read the series now, run—don’t walk—to your local bookstore. (Then ask if they could order it b/c it’s an older series, and you want to support local stores instead of Amazon!)

If you made it this far, thanks for reading my list. I think badass women, in all their forms, be it kicking ass as an assassin, following orders as a soldier, defending their family on any turf, being a diplomat, or having the strength to treat the wounds of others as needed, makes women amazing. The more we write about them, even in this “first world country” that is America, the better.

Strong, Independent Heroine…or Just a Bitch?

So, if you’ve met me or read my work, you know I love a great “strong female lead.” I love to write (and read!) about kick-ass ladies who get shit done, take names, and are just all-around fierce. And I’m not just talking about Lara Croft, here. They can be kick-ass in any sphere, and words are sometimes the best weapon of all. They can wear dresses, be mothers, have tea, or fight in the octagon and snipe people.

“Why the ‘Just a Bitch?’ line, then?” you’re thinking. Well, here it is. One of my many pet peeves is writers mistaking bitchiness for “being independent.”

So there I was, reading a suspense novel. There’s the strong female lead, let’s call her “Bess.” Bess is a private investigator, but her specialty is really finding and tracking people and things in cyberspace. She’s a tough cookie, she packs a SIG Sauer in an ankle holster, she won’t take no for an answer, and she helps battered women find new identities and escape abusive situations (as pro bono work). She goes after the bad guys like it’s her mission.

She sounds great, right?

Nope. What she actually is, is argumentative, antagonistic, overly-sensitive with a super short fuse and no regard for other people. Oh, and the type to walk off whenever she’s upset and not communicate.

In walks the male lead. (Poor bastard) Let’s call him “David.” (That one’s for you, Dave Medinnus!) Now, David is a detective with over a decade of experience, and he’s a damn fine one.

So Bess can’t get in touch with one of her clients and is convinced that the woman has been murdered. (With no evidence) She goes to David (whom she met once before) and insist he investigate the case (with no evidence). Never thinking, “gee, he’s an insanely over-worked detective who might not want to be doing cases on the sly and getting fired.” When he’s skeptical about this being an actual case,  (because there’s no body, no blood, no evidence, and oh yeah, the woman has been in hiding for 6 months) Bess blows up at him and is all “I can’t believe you don’t believe me!” and huffs off.

Flash-forward a day, David’s worked his actual job all day and night, getting sucker punched by a gang-banger and having to go to a body dump, all that, with paperwork up the wazoo. She calls him THAT NEXT DAY to see what he’s dug up on her “missing” client yet. When he says he hasn’t had time to look into it yet, Bess blows up at him with “I can’t believe a woman’s life means that little to you! Fine, if you’re ‘too busy’ …” and yaddie yaddie.

So the next day, he somehow does manage to investigate the supposed missing person of Bess’s (and finds out that the few leads Bess thought she had were actually duds.) So he tells her that, and she flips out on him again for not believing her.

Then, of course, she goes out and does stupid things on her own because “I don’t need a man’s help!” Uh, gee, Bess, might you maybe need the help of a person actually trained to do these things, maybe? Just…annoying. So, she gets in trouble like an idiot. Then Dave (who, for some unknown reason, cares about her) expresses concern over her getting injured and she blows up at him, “Don’t tell me how to do my job!” and “Maybe if you actually did your job…” and yaddie.

Just…hold on a sec, Bess. How can you NOT see this from Dave’s side?

Speaking of…during this entire novel David is getting about 2 hours of sleep a night, running around doing his real detective job and being exhausted. After one of the times Bess blows up at him for no good reason, she then won’t answer his calls for 3 days. Then, Sunday morning comes, David’s ONE morning to sleep in and he had only gotten in at 4 am that morning. She shows up a 6 am (after not talking to him for 3 days) and is like, “Hey, buddy. Let’s hang out. Want to go for a jog with me?”

If I was David, at this point I’d be like, “No, lady. You’re the most obnoxious, aggressive, selfish, self-righteous idiot I’ve ever met. Also, I just told you I’d only slept 2 hours, and you still think I should spend my time with you this morning? F off.” And finish it off with slamming the door shut, clicking all the locks as loudly as possible, and going the heck right back to bed without one single regret.

It’s obnoxiously bitchy characters like this that make people sometimes groan when they hear the words, “Oh!, this book’s got a strong female lead.”

And that breaks my heart, because it just makes it that much harder for strong female leads to get the attention they deserve.

The Continuing Battle for Gender Equality

So for my day job, I am employed by Nasdaq, a corporate giant. They (perhaps surprisingly) have a great corporate drive for diversity in the workplace. Today I had the chance to watch a panel discussion on the topic of “Women on Boards: Pathway to Directorship.”(meaning boards of directors) (Don’t worry, this post won’t be all business-speak) Hearing these incredibly accomplished and experienced women talk about women in management/director roles really got me thinking about how women are raised and considered by males.

The panel opened the talk with a discussion of regulations in Norway and other parts of Europe that require a certain percentage of board members to be female. I believe it was Norway that has instituted a policy that 40% of the people on boards been to be female. Woah.

Personally, I dislike this idea. In theory, it could force a board to put under-qualified people on the board in order to meet this quota. (A similar discussion takes place about the implications Affirmative Action in the education system). But both of these bring up the real issue—women are underprepared to take on executive roles, which can be linked to how we view females even when they’re children.

More on that in a minute.

One of the things the panel discussed was what happened when they, as board members, approached women candidates and asked them to join a particular board. In more than one instance, the women declined the offer because they didn’t feel confident accepting a new role that they weren’t already perfect at. They lacked the confidence to take on this new challenge. For comparison, the several panelists said “we’ve never been turned down by a male candidate.”

That brings up the issue that women lack confidence, both in general, but especially in executing in male-dominated worlds. This also, imo, leads back to how we as a society raise our girls.

Another item mentioned was the fact that among women who did have positions on boards, the majority of them had titles that are considered “support” roles, such as being a CFO, CMO, COO and so on, but very few were CEOs. There’s a distinct lack of women in CEO roles.

Another often mentioned idea was networking/mentoring. All of the women on the panel felt that in the workplace the men had a built-in networking system that groomed male employees for advancement and kept them on the path for career advancement. Women were left out of that network. It’s a holdover from the “good ole boy” “boys’ club” days that refuse to die.

Those days and their holdovers need to die.

When asked in the opening of the panel what the barriers were that kept women out of board rooms, the answer was “Attitudes. That’s the only issue. Male attitudes about the ability of women, their competency and all that. Once attitudes change, we won’t have this issue.”

As far as networking/mentors, it was generally agreed that mentoring was effective, but what surprised me (and it really shouldn’t have) was that most of the panelists STRONGLY recommended that women who wanted to be on a board have male mentors. To me, this is still part of the problem. It’s basically saying, “If you want to get in, you need to find a way in to the boys’ club of boards.” It basically says, “yeah, women are mentoring each other on being more proactive and confident, and that’s helpful, but if you want to get in, you still need to tap into that boys’ club network.”

The business network between women is growing, but in reality, it lacks the power of the male network. They just don’t hold positions of power in order to leverage the same level of benefit.

What was depressing about the panel was the realization that most of the women on the panel had gotten their board positions from a “lucky chance” sort of situation. So, say a woman had somehow gotten onto a board. All of the panelists got their initial roles on a board b/c that first woman on the board happened to know them and specifically offered a hand-up to their fellow female. What came across to me was that most of the women on boards had gotten their positions based on really-lucky-networking, not straight-up talent/competencies.

So to me, all of this comes back to how we, as a society, raise our children and shape our young women. This is a collective effort, this takes all of us. This takes changes at all levels and all areas of society.

The most important item that came out of this panel, for me, was the lack of confidence women had in themselves and their ability to tackle new situations. This isn’t something we can fix at the corporate level by writing laws saying that businesses need to have X% of women in their management structure. This needs to be addressed at a much earlier moment, when we’re all young girls, vulnerable to all of the pressures of society.

Girls need to be encouraged to purse ANY and ALL avenues that interest them. I’m not just talking about STEM initiatives, which are VERY crucial, but let’s talk about business skills, entrepreneurial skills, economics, and so on. Let’s get all of us—parents, educators, society—encouraging girls to take on ANY and EVERYTHING. Science, Math, Tech, Business, Arts, Social Studies, History, etc. Women and girls can do it all. Encourage them. Help them. Support them. We need to EMPOWER our young girls.

If we want diversity at the highest level, this needs to start at the lowest level.

This is making me think of Dove’s awesome ad/social interest campaign about “Like aGirl”

Also captured in this meme:

I’m talking about making a change at the VERY BEGINNING of life. Gender roles are sharply defined at way too young of an age in our society.

I’m thinking about Goldie Blox, who had an awesome Goldie Blox Super Bowlcommercial where girls took all of their “pink” toys and built a rocket ship out of them. The ad slogan for the campaign was “Tools for Future Innovators.” Not “Tools for Girls” or “Boy-Type Toys for Girls.” It was acknowledging that girls are future innovators, irregardless of gender. They don’t have to be “girls who are like boys” they are just themselves, girls who like building block toys. I really like the quote on Goldie Blox site:

Hell yeah.

My main point here is that we need to break down our idea of “being a girl” and get rid of it. We need to treat young girls and boys as people, and stop training them so hard in their gender strengths and weaknesses.

I grew up being called a tomboy, and as a child I was proud of that fact, and therein, I believe, lies the root of the problem. As a child, I knew that all girls were girls. But as a tomboy, I was something MORE than a girl. I was faster, stronger, fiercer, more independent. Did they call me a Kick-ass Girl? No. They called me a TomBOY. As is, you’re better than a girl, b/c you’re like the boys, too! The equation I learned? Boy traits > Girl traits. If I could have both traits as a girl, then I could almost make up for the fact that I wasn’t born a boy.

As an adult, I realize this idea is horrific. What I want is for young girls today to have no notion of the idea that the hierarchy of worth goes: girls < girls who can fit into the boys’ club < boys.

I’ve babbled on enough for today (and I could keep going!) but I want to close out with a quick piece on one of my fave people on the planet, John Stewart, and his comments on Bruce Jenner’s transformation to Caitlyn Jenner. (Way to go, Caitlyn! I am so happy for you that you can be yourself, finally!)

Here is a briefsum up of John Stewart’s bit on how, now that Caitlyn Jenner is officially a woman, she can look forward to being objectified and judged for her looks all the time now, like the rest of us women.

#breakdowngenderroles

#empowerourchildren

Book Trailer -- The Empress Game

Without too much fanfare, here is the book trailer for the first novel in The Empress Game trilogy, also titled, The Empress Game.

The video was put together by the superbly talented Sheila Clover English at Circle of Seven Productions.

Here is the back cover copy of the novel:

One seat on the intergalactic Sakien Empire’s supreme ruling body, the Council of Seven, remains unfilled, that of the Empress Apparent. The seat isn’t won by votes or marriage. It’s won in a tournament of ritualized combat in the ancient tradition. Now that tournament, the Empress Game, has been called and the females of the empire will stop at nothing to secure political domination for their homeworlds. Kayla Reinumon, a supreme fighter, is called by a mysterious stranger to battle it out in the arena.

The battle for political power isn’t contained by the tournament’s ring, however. The empire’s elite gather to forge, strengthen or betray alliances in a dance that will determine the fate of the empire for a generation. With the empire wracked by a rising nanovirus plague and stretched thin by an ill-advised planet-wide occupation of Ordoch in enemy territory, everything rests on the woman who rises to the top.

Pre-order it at amazon.com or Barnes & Noble!

Theme in a Novel – Does Your Choice Really Matter?

I’m not a person who thinks a lot about theme in a novel. When I dissect why I did or did not enjoy a book, you usually hear me discuss, above all things, believable character motivation. (And a decided lack thereof). Many books suffer from the “why didn’t they just do XYZ, which would have been SO much easier and more straightforward?” syndrome. The author answer is, sadly, “Because then there wouldn’t have been a story, silly!” but that’s just terrible. Honestly, I’ll follow any rickety plot if you convince me that the character is realistically motivated to make the plot decisions they’re making.

After that, I’ll critique plot holes, pacing (for sure!) and the writing. But you’ll never hear me say, “I thought the theme was weak” or “I don’t think the author made full use of the theme.” For me as a reader, theme is only working on my subconscious. (Which is not to say that there aren’t books that have totally NAILED theme. There are tons of them. I just don’t notice that element.)

So when I started to work on a broad outline for The Empress Game’s books 2 and 3—using Libbie Hawker's book on plotting called Take Off Your Pants—and it called for coming up with a theme, I was a little stumped.

This recalled me to a recurring discussion about theme that I keep having with one of my critique partners, the lovely and talented Jen Brooks. She has a fantastic YA contemporary fantasy novel out this year, In a World Just Right.

She wrote an introspective and generous blog post about the difference between a “romance novel” and a “love story.” (Don’t get me going on this debate! We disagree ;-) But her great post is here)

She asked me once what I thought the theme of her novel was, because she constantly struggled against her publisher’s classification of her novel as a “YA Romance.” (She considers it a SF novel with romantic elements). I love the book, but I have to admit, I agree with the publisher. To me, the principle motivator of Jonathan’s actions in the book is his love for Kylie. He wants to do what’s best for her, even when it goes against all of his best interests.

When I told her that, though, she told me what her actual theme was, what message she wanted to get across. It was a great theme, don’t get me wrong, but I have to admit, that wasn’t the message I got from the book. I obviously took my own personal experience and viewed the book through that lens. What I saw was profound, but, as I learned, very different from what the author intended.

This brings me to my 2 points. (And what Take Off Your Pants got me thinking about.)

1)      The only person who really knows what the theme of the book is, is the author. Which, being a fact, is why I don’t enjoy the literary analysis side of English degrees. (And why I mastered in “Writing” instead of “Literature”)

More importantly, to me, is the thought occurring to me today:

2)      It doesn’t matter what theme the author intended. It only matters what the reader takes away from the story.

In the end, you can’t control that. You can try, but everyone’s filters are so strong that invariably your theme will be washed through the experience of your readers’ lives until it (sometimes even) becomes unrecognizable to you.

And that is perfectly fine. After all, as commercial authors, we write to share our stories with others, we don’t just write for ourselves.

I recently met a friend of James’s, and he said that his wife had written an SF novel but she was so shy about it she wouldn’t even let him read it. I offered to help her with the insanity of starting on an agent search and tell her what I’ve learned about the business so far, and her husband said she wasn’t even sure if she wanted to try to sell it. I told him, without any doubt, that I knew, without even meeting her, that she wanted to sell it (or share it at least).

We don’t write a story down for ourselves. We already know the story. It’s in our mind, it keeps us awake, we live and breathe the characters. The reason we slave to capture the essence of the story and these characters on the page is because we are storytellers, yarn-spinners, and we long to share to story with at least that one soul who will “get it.”

I’ve gone totally afield from my topic of theme, but, welcome to the workings of my brain. ;-)

Post-Traumatic Stress is Not a Disorder

So I was listening to NPR the other day and heard a correspondent say, in passing, that they are dropping the “D” from PTSD and that it will just be called PTS (Post-Traumatic Stress) these days, not Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

I wanted to put in my two cents and say I whole-heartedly support this decision. It is not a mental disorder to have a mix of anxiety, depression and anger after a major traumatic event. (In most cases, we’re talking about war-time experiences, a rape, and things equally horrifying). After the shit some people have gone through, it is totally normal and natural to have those reactions. I would be more concerned by people who saw and dealt with death and near-death situations *without* being messed up by it.

Thumbs up to the military/psych community for beginning to change this language. The only damage such a change might bring is if insurance companies somehow find ways to weasel out of paying for the treatment of PTS because it is no longer “technically” a “disorder.” But I have (some) faith that the people in charge are smart enough to see their way around the dropping of one word from a diagnosis, and realizing that treatment is still needed, all the same.

The Washington Post released an article with a good discussion on whether PTS is more like a bullet wound or a bipolar/depressive mental disorder.

PTS is an issue I’m exploring with my character, Vayne, who (in my novel) is a mental/physical torture survivor. It’s one thing to handle the topic in fiction, but the reality for many people in the real world is much, much worse. My heart goes out to all of those who struggle with PTS daily.

Time Magazine had a short online article on the topic, you can find it here: http://nation.time.com/2011/06/05/the-disappearing-disorder-why-ptsd-is-becoming-pts/