black and (A)broad

Several months ago I read this review of Erika Kennedy’s second novel Feminista, by Rebecca Walker, an artist who’s work I respect. Finally, I thought, a black woman who’s created a powerful, black female main character who breaks the stereotypical mold from which most black female characters are cast. Ms. Walker, a self-proclaimed feminista who describes herself and other feministas she’s met as “smart as hell and not afraid to flex. We shop hard, love harder and care about the world even more…” was nothing about positive about this book. If it was good enough for Ms. Walker, surely it was worth the twenty bucks for me to buy. I was so excited about reading it, that I invited a fellow blogger, Saffia Farr at Motherhood and Anarchy to read it and join me on Skype to talk about it.

Saffia and I have a lot in common. We’re both freelance writers who blog about our experiences, we work from home while mothering small children and we both have an expat experience, which broadly informs the first two similarities. It took us a couple of weeks to even make a date for our first unofficial virtual book club because of our hectic schedules, but we managed to have a stimulating and thought-provoking discussion.

The book basically follows Sydney Zamora on her quest to find a husband in New York city. That’s it…basically. All right, all right. Sydney represents today’s American citizen: her father was an Afro-Cuban lawyer and her mother’s a socialite of Irish descent. She’s a celebrity writer for one of New York’s top women’s magazines and has the wardrobe to rival Carrie Bradshaw’s, although Sydney bought most of hers on sale.

She might very well represent today’s American woman: focused on her weight – she was fat until she met a nutritionist who coached her down to a size six – slightly neurotic yet loveable, opinionated to the point of judgmental and trapped in the same old clichéd dilemma of motherhood vs. career. Oh, and she loves her designer clothes.

Well, let me change that: she may very well represent Hollywood’s version of today’s American woman.

I wasn’t quite sure whether or not I liked Feminista, so I made a short “likes/dislikes” list to try to nudge my opinion one way or the other.

Liked

It held my interest to the very end despite it’s being a romance novel

I love how Kennedy deconstructs the old-fashioned Harlequin genre. Sydney is believable, especially in a 21st-century context where the world is much broader than intra-racial love, “pure” lineage, obsolete gender roles, unconditional acceptance of motherhood as a woman’s ultimate goal or using a hotshot career in exchange for it.

I also loved getting a peek (even a fictional one) inside the personalities, if not the lives, of New York’s elite social circles. The same goes for getting on the inside track of writing for a high-circulation magazine.

I love that Erica Kennedy is a black female author who has broken into a mainstream genre. I know she’ll inspire plenty of aspiring writers.

Didn’t like

Sydney.
She was too judgmental. I was deeply disappointed that judgment here is equated with feminism. Sydney’s attack on her psychiatrist or her deeply seeded hatred for another character’s high-society lifestyle, for example, have nothing to do with supporting the choices other women make.

There is no progression in the motherhood vs. career debate. Where’s the character that’s balancing both and all the while grumbling? Where’s the stay-at-home mom who has a fulfilling life defined outside of her children? What about a stay-at-home dad who’s still sexy?

Can chick lit really call itself feminist?

Saffia and I discuss where Feminista missed the mark

We both agreed that Kennedy’s brand of feminism was way off base.

Saffia: My definition of feminism involves choice. To me a modern feminist is someone who makes positive choices, a woman who chooses what role she wants. Due to the Feminist movement we now have a choice whether to work or stay at home, we do not have to “do as we are told” in the same way.

There’s this whole argument about stay at home mums being negative role models for their daughters because they are not working. I do not agree because for me it is all about choice. I worked hard to have a career but then CHOSE to give it up.

Sydney was not a strong character because she just seemed to be drifting into things and complaining all the time. And then she just decides she has to get married…She was an angry young woman, very anti-man and male establishment… Generally she just moaned and complained too much to be a positive female role model!

black and (A)broad: Anger. That’s what got the movements started so many decades ago. I’m not sure if anger is driving women today. Maybe it is. But my guess is that we’re looking for support. Anger is an outdated notion, in my opinion.

Whereas the traditional feminist movements were largely about getting our VOICEs heard, women today are moving towards making their own CHOICEs – like you said - and seeking SUPPORT for their choices.

Nor was Sydney the most credible role model for our two-woman, international book club.

Saffia: The whole fashion thing for Sydney didn’t sit well with me; the fact that
she’d been so fat and then suddenly was size tiny and obsessed with high fashion.
For me that belittled the intelligence she was supposed to have.

black and (A)broad: I didn’t even catch the size thing, but you’re so right. If Kennedy’s agenda is to deconstruct today’s (or yesterday’s) image of woman, she missed the target on this topic. On the other hand, I’m afraid American culture is still too limited to accept an overweight heroin.

And then there’s the working mom vs. stay-at-home mom debate

Saffia: I felt she was very dismissive of motherhood.

black and (A)broad: For me, I’m still waiting to read about a woman who has an experience similar to mine. Yes, I work, but from home. I’m probably closer to housewife than I am to career woman, but I’m not at all desperate or demented. In fact, I feel like I’m more in control of my days and my life in general than a lot of people out there doing the 9-5 corporate thing. Where are the strong female characters who take on motherhood AND work-hood in a realistic way? That’s what I want to read about.

I think Saffia and I were online for almost two hours. We had a stimulating conversation about writing and publishing, as she’s also busy with her next book. In the end, reading this book and then discussing it brought me to ask this question: isn’t it time to lose the word “feminism” and all its derivations? Aren’t we tired of being defined in such polarizing terms as mother or professional? We have so many more options, our lives have expanded way beyond the motherhood/career dichotomy that this novel ultimately re-presents.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 at 21:13 and is filed under book review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.