On Being Called a Feminist Writer

The story I sold for my first pro-rate is a favorite of mine. I used a slew of beta-readers for it and many of them gave me the same notes. They thought it would be an easier sell if the main character was not elderly and not a woman. 

But they liked the world I built.

I've heard it before, that I am obviously a feminist writer, as if it is something I am attempting to achieve and be. All I do is write the worlds I know.

I had one publisher rejection that told me a story without a male lead was a hard sell, but a story with no predominant male characters was "unrealistic" and the thought of a story with no men in it was just a waste of my time and energy. He really did like my writing, he assured me, but that was a glaring error. (After his notes I was grateful he passed on my story.)

I grew up in a working class neighborhood where all but one father worked days, so that my daily world was peppered with women as the authority figures. (As a child I thought teachers were women and principals were men.)

I write what I know. Strong women, indecisive women, lost women, and sometimes there are men in their lives.

Maybe that makes me a feminist writer. The business is what it is but it makes me sad that there's a separate literary category to represent a world population that's predominantly female. To me, that's what should be mainstream. That's the reality.