I am an unabashed feminist. Many women and girls, for reasons I have never been able to understand, are afraid to identify themselves in this way. I suppose that they have what I would call a misunderstanding of the word. If you are feminist, it does not mean that you think women are better than men, or that men are worthless, or that the world would be better off if women were in charge. It means that you think that everyone, male or female, deserves an equal shot. That the choices we make should in fact be choices and not dictated by our gender.
When you hold a belief so centrally and firmly, it’s bound to reveal itself in your writing. Feminism does make its way into Secrets of Truth & Beauty. Most centrally, I believe that weight bias is a feminist issue. However, sometimes an issue can overtake the writing, as it did in the following deleted scene. While I agree with Dara’s sentiment that feminism does not mean replacing one set of rules for another, in the end, this exchange came off a bit forced. I believed in it philosophically, but creatively, it never quite worked for me. So I cut it out. Only to resurrect it after the break. Enjoy!
(P.S. The town of Hollis was originally called October Grove)