Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: Hardboiled Dames


Words from the Monastery (anthony.dauer@erols.com)
Mon, 14 Jun 1999 12:57:18 -0400


Unfortunately, the definition of just what "hardboiled" is is still being debated. My main point is that it doesn't have to include a woman protagonist just for the sake of having a woman protagonist ... if a consensus on just what "hardboiled" is is ever determined and there are female characters that fit it or can fit it without them becoming either men in drag or genderless ... then so be it. But to surcome once more to the groupthink of the politically correct in the name of equality ... well, that's bullshit. Or at least, that's what my mother and my aunts taught me.

Diane Trap wrote:

> > Words from the Monastery wrote:
> > >
> > > As I've said before ... I don't see any reason why a genre cannot be "boys
> > > only" ... girls and boys don't only look different, but they think different
> > > too and a big part of being hardboiled is the mindset of the character ...
> > > an old school masculinity that a female writer can emulate, but a female
> > > character can only pull it off in drag ... equality is a nice thing when it
> > > comes to treatment, but to say a genre has to have it's female or male
> > > equivalent is ludicrous.
>
> So you're saying that if a woman character (using the definitions of
> other posters) is a loner with a moral sense that may be at odds with
> that of the rest of her society, and is willing to put herself at risk
> to act on that moral sense, sometimes violently, she wouldn't be believable.

--
volente Deo,

Anthony Dauer Alexandria, Virginia
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