I received this review of Pale Blue Scratch via email (beware…partial spoilers ahoy):
So far enjoying this mysterious, exotic journey and love the relationship between the two main characters. REALLY appreciate the fact that you chose to make the main protagonist a strong, smart, independent woman… the equivalent of an undercover female ninja warrior/secret agent, well at least so far… look forward to finding out how the adventure ends!
I have no interest in empowering women since they are up to their eyeballs in empowerment programs and schemes, regardless. Any contribution I would make is negligible. If anything, PBS is a story of the teenaged-adult male empowerment seen in Vincent, but I have no real interest in that, either*. Story-wise, his career path isn’t so much the focus after the first few chapters.
The reason Elisabeth is female is that I wanted a three-way foil with du Mahdi—Vincent is the third component. Making one of them a female would emphasize the anti-du Mahdi: more like a counterpart, not quite an exact opposite in every way. I had thought of making du Mahdi a woman but I had a hard time making it work without changing a lot of things I had already established. I also entertained making Vincent a girl, but no sane society would ever allow an older man to be in near-exclusive authority over a young female like that unless they were blood-related. That would make America not a very sane society in that regard, correct.
In some ways, Elisabeth is strong physically**, but not “Marvel cinematic universe” strong. She’s not a 110-pound supermodel who takes out a dozen Secret Service agents by using entry-level judo kicks. Rather, she is aware that she’ll get clobbered in a fist fight with anyone, though she’s very adept at carrying her own weight. It’s part of her background. It’s even built into her last name—look at its meaning and the parts in the book where she lives up to it. But mostly, Elisabeth can do what she does because of technology (guns) and her wealth. It has little to do with strength or personality traits.
Besides all of that, I would hope Elisabeth isn’t a strong character. “Strong” characters are boring, and look here—even a feminist (?) agrees with me on this. We all know what strong characters will do, and there’s not much of a story in that. Elisabeth’s innate curiosity lead her to becoming a Dutch Bull deputy, and subsequently as a journalist, and she developed a high level of street smarts along the way—of which Vincent had none. Combining all that with the inexplicable event she witnessed makes for nice MMO for pursuing what she does in the novel. There’s no need for her to be strong if she’s interesting.
* But I do have something of an interest, being a man with a son. I can’t teach my daughter to really how to be a woman, but I can teach my son how to be a man. I guess I’m not into empowering classes of people wholesale, most of which I am not personally involved with.
** “Strong” in this modern context is usually just shorthand for “not a housewife,” or “doing something physical.” Note that, sans electricity or the Industrial Revolution, the domestic chore workset was ten times more physically demanding than any office job.