CONTACT CAROLINE
facebook
rss
tumblr
twitter
goodreads
youtube

  • Home
  • Write Away Blog
  • Books
    • Books
    • Trompe l’Oeil
    • Heart Land
    • Gothic Spring
    • Ballet Noir
    • Book Excerpts
  • Video Interviews
  • Press
    • News
    • Print Interviews
    • Plays
    • Ballet Noir in the Press
    • Trompe l’Oeil In The Press
    • Gothic Spring In The Press
    • Heart Land Reviews
  • Contact
  • About
  • Resources
    • Writer Resources
    • Favorite Blogs
    • Favorite Artists



The Truth About the Fiction of Modern Women

Nov 01, 2012
by Caroline Miller
Gothic Spring, Nicole Kidman, Paycheck Fairness Act, Trompe l'Oeil, Violence Against Women Act
0 Comment

Recently, my publisher and I had a discussion about Rachel Farraday, the heroine of my upcoming novel, Trompe l’Oeil. She wondered if my character needed to be more assertive to satisfy the modern view of women. Where, she wondered, was the grittiness of Victorine Ellsworth, the scheming vixen of my first novel, Gothic Spring.

I might have answered that the characters were from different books with different themes; but instead, I challenged my publisher to look deeper into the condition of “modern” women. Most of them work in the agricultural, garment and hospitality industries where they are poorly paid. Woman in the military or female students routinely endure sexual assaults, their charges only occasionally taken seriously. What’s more, too many women are exploited to work in strip clubs or as prostitutes and more of them than we realize are enslaved.

If women are liberated, why do they endure rants about legitimate and illegitimate rape? Why do they tolerate laws that force women to submit to unnecessary vaginal probes? Why is it acceptable for an all male legislative panel to set policy for women’s contraception? Why haven’t liberated females stormed Washington to demand that the Violence Against Women Act be renewed or that the Paycheck Fairness Act be passed?

For hundreds of years women have been taught that they are little more than children in need of protection, a protection that was often predatory. Yes, some women have broken a glass ceiling here and there, but not enough. Too many live in fear of their spouses or in numbing, economic despair. What has the “modern” woman done to save them?

Sometimes I fear the “modern” woman flirts with liberation but prefers the old paradigm of dependence. As Nicole Kidman recently admitted about her new boyfriend, she appreciated his “bigger, stronger personality: that’s what I’ve been drawn to. I need protection.“ (The Week, 10/16/12, pg. 8) Or perhaps I’ve grown cynical with age. Perhaps the “modern” woman simply does not yet know how to wield power. Either way, the standalone female of independence is largely the fiction of Hollywood and Madison Avenue. My fiction is truer.

women in poverty

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Courtesy of www.nccenpoverty.org)

Social Share

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

*
*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

Subscribe to Caroline’s Blog


 

Archives

Categories

YouTube-logo-inline2 To access and subscribe to my videos on YouTube, Click Here and click the Subscribe button.

Banner art “The Receptive” by Charlie White of Charlie White Studio

Web Admin: ThinPATH Systems, Inc
support@tp-sys.com

Subscribe to Caroline's Blog


 

Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Sitemap | Privacy Notice

AUDIO & VIDEO VAULT

View archives of Caroline’s audio and videos interviews.


Copyright © Books by Caroline Miller