The Noir World has Changed.

In the beginning, (1930’s & 1940’s) there was Hammett, Chandler and Cain. In the misty unlit pre-historic noir world of the Mystery-a-sauris Rex (the King before Stephen King), there existed our Adam in Garden of mystery’s Eden, Edgar Allen Poe.

The Lords of the publishing world saw it was good and perpetuated the noir divisions of gender roles to prevent procreation of ideas about the worth of a female mind. Only a snake of a publisher would let females be more than an after thought – an undeveloped furious character with a small role signifying nothing. The world of H.C.&C. demanded insignificant women as its truth. After all, men controlled publishing and wrote the rules. Women had babies and fixed their hairdos.    

From 1950 to 1980, Mike Hammer, Travis Magee and Lew Archer had their moment. Hard drinking and cigarette-smoking male P.I.'s were the blue plate special. Their world remained dark with evil in every shadow and behind each dark door. Women need not apply for active duty in such a world. They did not have the testosterone to handle it. (The eunuchs who published those manuscripts lacked the testosterone to change the paradigm - probably because it won't not earn them a dime.) At those times, a female character was either the window dressing necessary for a sex scene, or a fem fatale - the subservient part of the evil forces trying to distract and dissuade our hero.  

The world has changed. Rosie the Riveter and the mass invasion of the work force by females changed our world. Why there are even female CEO’s now, how progressive.

By 1980, women were expected to give birth and return to their jobs after 6 to 8 weeks maternity leave and while still twenty pounds heavier than when they left. Although still not paid at the level of men, they performed the same jobs with the same level of success.

Jennifer Doudna, inventor of CRISPR Cas9 gene editing therapy, changed our health expectations forever. It is a brave new world that we tread upon.

The universe had changed. Our noir stories should reflect the world the way it is today, unless we are writing a period piece. The stories should demonstrate empowered confident women, accomplishing goals that know no gender divide or bias.

An estimated 15 to 25 percent of the police force is female today. Multiple female private investigators are listed in every yellow page book across the country. These women back down from no one. In today's news, a female police officer subdued and arrested a felon via a fistfight – using appropriate force. This is the new reality.

Michael Connelly, one of my faves as an author (long live Harry Bosch), has a new book out: The Late Show. It stars a female cop, Renée Ballard who was demoted to the night shift because she filed a sexual harassment suit against a supervisor. She has to breaks some rules to solve her case, because she knows only a woman can get the job done. You go girl. It is the new fem noir.

The noir world needs female characters, who are fully developed and not cookie cutter supporting cast members for their male counterparts. Females today are not the shrinking violets of the 1920’s. They tend to more than the stove and the babies. They tend to business, and that includes bringing home the bacon.

We need to write about women that are alive and fulfilling their dream no matter the cost. They play under the rules established by men, but man's rules do not confine or define them. They won’t let the men in their lives determine who they are or what they can do.

Samantha (Sam) Cochran, a feminist P.I., knows all the rules of the game, because you have to know the rules, to know how to break them. No rule is sacred if it gets in the way of getting her job done. Machiavelli was a wimp. Here is Sam from her second short story.  
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The NYPD made a mistake when they pinned a gold detective’s shield on my chest, but recognizing my talent was not the mistake. On my promotion, I was the best detective in homicide. Their mistake: leaving the All-Star Freakin’ Misogynist Boy’s Club unprotected from me, a TNS woman on a mission of attitude adjustment.        
The seven good ole homicide boys, of assorted ages, sat around their table in a Neanderthal man-cave, wanting me to fetch coffee and lunch, maybe polish their boots and clean their guns. As if I were Sam Spade’s secretary, my job was to keep my valueless female theories to myself, and follow their orders.
I do not play that way, ever. I am an independent woman who knows how to use a gun.      

-- L.A. Preschel