Got Book 3 in the Miss Vulpe series back from the editors today. Their comments are thought-provoking and I will take my time processing and addressing them once this Full Moon energy fades. But something that came up got me to thinking about all the content I’ve been consuming recently on TikTok related to Sex & the City. It’s the issue of likeability when it comes to female characters. There are so many young women on TikTok these days criticizing Carrie and her many bad choices, her selfishness, her temper, her toxic dating behavior. On and on and and on. And I was almost tempted to agree with them, at some point enjoying their criticism as juicy gossip until I caught myself: Carrie is fun because she is flawed. She’s both messy and brilliant. She can be very funny or very annoying depending on the circumstances, and yes, she makes some Big mistakes (pun intended!) but that’s what gives us a show to watch! Also, she fucks up with flair. And in great shoes (though personally I find the obsession with shoes annoying, but…). I think society puts too much pressure of women. Even fictional ones. And how can we embrace ourselves flaws and all if even the characters whose adventures we enjoy learning about are held to such strict scrutiny? I like flawed characters. I like reading about them and I try hard to create them in my writing. So yes, expect some of that in Book 3. Ana will not be as badly behaved as in Book 1, for sure, but she will still misbehave plenty.
