mandag den 21. februar 2011

G is for Girl-Power

For Kerrie´s weekly alphabet meme.

I am probably very spoiled because I can say I don´t need to be a feminist. What I mean is that other Danish women fought that fight before I entered the Danish workforce. So I have had two jobs which were earlier regarded as men´s jobs, and today I teach. I have taught for fifteen years and never, ever come across discrimination because of my gender.

It is not everybody who is so privileged so let G be for Girl-Power.

A female detective I discovered several years ago and still follow is Sue Grafton´s private detective Kinsey Millhone. Strong and stubborn, and she has all the determination and courage it takes to get the answers she needs to solve her cases. A protagonist with lots of personality - and who could be more suitable for an alphabet meme.

A new discovery is Alan Bradley´s little Flavia de Luce, the eleven-year-old protagonist of "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie". Being a very young, female detective in Britain of the fifties cannot have been easy. And of course Flavia and her bike run into trouble and resistance - but real girls fight for what matters to them!

Finally there is my own Rhapsody Gershwin, a librarian and spare-time detective. (And a third motherless woman now that I think about it.) Rhapsody´s fiancé, Constable Primrose, does not get any kind of support - and hardly any assistance - from his superior, and when Rhapsody sees that he is in trouble, she sets out to find the information he needs about people in Knavesborough. To be honest, Rhapsody is  more curious than she is willing to admit so I am sure she enjoys hunting down the criminal.

10 kommentarer:

Anonym sagde ...

Dorte - What a terrific idea for a post! It really is interesting to think about the major force that girls and women are now in the pages of crime fiction :-).

BooksPlease sagde ...

Miss Marple may not have been a girl in Agatha Chrisite's books, but she is a good example of woman power!

Dorte H sagde ...

Margot: you could say Bernadette gave me the idea when she read the ending of "The Cosy Knave" and said she liked the girl-power.

Margaret: Miss Marple is a wonderful character, and I am sure she paved the way for modern, female detectives.

Joanne Ganley sagde ...

I've read one of Sue Grafton's books, I'd like to read more. I think I've come across Alan Bradley's TSATBOTP in the library - read the first few pages and laughed. I should go back and get it. I like this idea for a post - Girl Power!

Kelly sagde ...

Well, thinking about it...I read quite a few series that feature strong women: Kinsey Milhone, Flavia, China Bayles, Ruth Galloway. Even those which feature a male lead often have a strong female in addition (such as Helena in Lindsey Davis' Falco novels).

Good post!!

Kerrie sagde ...

An excellent contribution to this week's CFA Dorte.

Dorte H sagde ...

Joanne: Alan Bradley´s book gets better and better!

Kelly: Ruth Galloway is a wonderful protagonist; I just didn´t think of her in the context of girl - perhaps because she is so strong.

Kerrie: thank you. Once I had the idea, I enjoyed writing it.

Belle Wong sagde ...

Great post, Dorte. Rhapsody sounds like such a great character. I'd also add to the list all of Elizabeth Peters' main characters. Jacqueline Kirby is my favorite out of all of them.

Natasha sagde ...

G for Girl Power is an excellent idea.
And when we are talking about girl power, how can we not talk about the cozy detectives - almost all of them are "girls"

Dorte H sagde ...

Belle: thank you. I think all my beta-readers like Rhapsody.

Rayna: good point. And Rhapsody is definitely a cozy detective.