A Feminist by definition is a person (no matter their gender) who believes that the limits of an individual’s reach and success in life, should be determined by that person’s ability alone. There is no limitation because of gender, skin color, religious beliefs, or ethnicity. Talents vary according to individuals and with random relations to gender, ethnicity, nationality, sexual preferences, and the other traits named above. Talent in a certain enterprise is not limited to one sex category or the other.
Abilities are not determined by gender, physical stature, or wealth. Even a DNA/genetic predisposition to a inability can be overcome with perseverance and determination. Our fates are not predetermined, but in flux and changeable with effort and perspiration.
The psychological limitations artificially established by man at the initiation of the Industrial Revolution are made moot by the advancement of capabilities brought on by the inventions and the intellect of (wo)mankind in the intervening time period.
If Archimedes had a long enough lever, he could lift the bias of sexism from the face of the earth. Or even a woman could do the heavy lifting with mechanical advantage in her favor.
The division of labor, man kills food and woman cooks it, should have died when the first caveman invented the wheel, because now using a spear, a woman could kill an animal and cart it home for dinner. A male chief could then flambe it over the fire in his man cave. A woman’s lighter foot might be a talent a group of hunter’s could use to sneak closer to their prey, assuring success in the kill.
Each individual's talent should let her or him raise to the greatest level at which she or he can succeed. Talents vary across gender lines, and are individual specific, not sex or ethnic group related.
“A group of women that NASA called ‘human computers,’ many of them black, helped put a man on the moon. Their intellect was an essential part of America’s ability to launch rockets into space.” (https://www.cbsnews.com/videos/the-african-american-women-behind-nasas-rocket-launches/)
You do not even need to be able to read to learn the link, as the movie Hidden Figures documents the history of this event quite accurately. Without the help of these minds (and I purposely left out a gender specific pronoun to make my point.), NASA might not have successfully launched a “man” into space.
A Fem Noir twist on the paradigm of Noir murder mysteries allows two women (my protagonist and her partner) to successfully inhabit the Noir genre that Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, and others popularized in the 1940’s and 1950’s. The women can be as hard-boiled as Lew Archer, and Travis McGee. Women can enjoy sex and men just as Mike Hammer was chauvinistic about the women. Samantha and Catherine can be as physical Jack Reacher, and as deductive as Sherlock Holmes.
Instead of a Fem Fatale, what is wrong with a men fatale.
Instead of the man using the woman and moving on, in today’s world of contraception and safe sex, shouldn’t a woman have the equality of using a man, enjoying it, and moving forward without a life time commitment? Especially if he looks like a hunk and rates a "10," in the same manner as Bo Derek did for the male audience.
We are talking equality of the sexes and increasing the pool of talent to advance society.
Let’s modernize the genre; let’s move into the future.
Fem Noir Mysteries are here and now.
My first short story: 30 years to Life will be published in late October in an Anthology collected by the Central Jersey Chapter of Sisters in Crime. The collection celebrates 30 years of Sisters in Crime and is called, 30 Shades of Dead.
-- L.A. Preschel
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