Today I am very excited to welcome a wonderfully generous person and a great author, Sarah-Jane Lehoux to Mel's Random Reviews to celebrate the release of the third book following the adventure of mercenary, Sevy. I liked book one, Thief (My review here) and I REALLY liked book two, Shades of War.
I'm lucky enough to be the first stop on this book tour with a wonderful guest post from Sarah-Jane on strong female characters - something that intrigues me as pretty much every book I enjoy has a strong female character - and I do have a pet peeve against stereotyping of women in fiction so I found this fascinating - enjoy!
More than This - Sarah-Jane Lehoux
Anyone who has read anything of mine or who follows me on Twitter
knows that I like strong female characters, and I like to bitch about the
tropes that plague female characters from certain popular book series.
Yes, I am a feminist. No, I am not a man-hater.
I’m just a woman who looks at the way women are portrayed in current
literature, and I think, “We can do better.” We can take a cold, hard look at
gender roles in our society and we can re-define them.
What does this mean? It means that women are more than the sum of
their parts. They are more than damsels in distress. They are more than femme
fatales. They are most definitely more than Mary Sues whose lives revolve
around good looking (but abusive) guys.
Women are can be ugly and still be worthwhile. We can be whole
without needing a man to complete us. We can be strong without having to fight,
but when we do fight, we can kick some serious ass. All that is required is a
mind of one’s own. A strong woman knows who she is, or who she wants to be. She
knows what she wants out of life, and she goes for it. She doesn’t wait for it
to be handed to her.
Sevy, the protagonist for the eponymous series, is what I consider a
strong female character. “But wait,” you might exclaim. “Wasn’t Sevy’s goal in
Thief (the first of the series) to get her man? Aren’t you being hypocritical?”
Yes and no. Sevy did indeed go to some very dark places to try to
win the heart of her beloved, but there is more to her than “I love him,” just
as there is more to Harry Potter than “I must defeat Voldemort,” and more to
Lestat than “I’m a vampire.” A well rounded, three dimensional character is
complex, has faults, makes mistakes, learns, and grows as an individual. And
over the course of the Sevy Series, it becomes clear that her journey is so
much more than just loving a man. It’s about loving herself.
So let’s take a critical look at how women are portrayed in our
favourite books. Are they being allowed to be actual people instead of simply
pretty props? There are little girls out there who need role models, who need
to read that they are more than just the side-kick or the seductress. There are
little boys out there who need to learn that women are not just sexual objects.
Books have power, and through them, we have the ability to influence
the future of humanity. Yeah, that sounds highfalutin, but I’m an author. Words
are my weapons and the way I will (hopefully) leave my mark on the world.
What’s yours?
Masquerade - Sarah-Jane Lehoux
Publisher: Mundania Press
Released 26th February 2013
I am up tomorrow :)
ReplyDeleteOh what a great post! I think that is why I tend to gravitate toward UF and fantasy for strong women in lit. Usually they can be so much more than in other genres. Can't wait to read these.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. And Sevy is one strong lady. I do love her for that. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, ladies. And thank you, Melissa, for letting me stop in to give my two cents. :)
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