The Seriously Real Female Character in Fiction Eats Real Food

My character PI Cate Harlow eats. I mean really eats; normal food like pizza, panini, and pasta. And she likes her Merlot too. Add to that she's got a damned good sex life with her ex-husband, a hot charming NYPD detective. I wrote her that way because she is a normal, healthy woman and normal, healthy women eat, drink wine and enjoy sex.

On top of that she's a top-notch private investigator who tells her clients, "Trust me, I'm very good at what I do." That's my girl!

With all the hype over Sports Illustrated finally putting plus-size, (they say plus-size, most women say normal-size), model Ashley Graham in a bikini within the pages of their magazine, it may be time to note that many female characters in fiction would simply say it was about time. They would probably add that it should have been done well before now. Real women, real food, real bodies.

Truthfully I have never read a book where the male and female characters go out to eat and all the woman orders is a diet soda. They both eat and eat well.

The thing is that the female characters in popular books are not exactly following the road to diet Hell and they never have. If they work out it's to maintain a body that can do the job it needs to do. In Cate's case, she plays tennis to strengthen her legs and stamina so she is able to outrun the bad guys and to physically defend herself when necessary. She doesn't worry if her body fits the stereotype of what's acceptable today and she's not the only one.

Sara Paretsky writes her character of V.I. Warshawski as a woman who drinks Johnny Walker Black Label, and definitely enjoys a good meal. V.I. keeps herself in shape, (she runs) and, like Cate Harlow, she has sex and packs a pistol. Thankfully the fictional female character has been coming into her own for quite a few years. Society needs to play catch-up.

Several years ago, a new genre in romance as well as some crime /thriller books began featuring what some publishers refer to as "plus-size heroines." Women readers were tired of swooning, starving women to whom they could not relate. No one really wants to read, "John put his strong, muscular arm around Jane's tiny waist to keep her from falling to the floor in a faint." Of course, to be fair, with all the fainting and everything she may just not have time to eat and that can account for a tiny waist. But seriously, why should John be the strong character and not Jane? I say we give Jane a good dinner and a glass of wine. Even Scarlett O'Hara, a woman with the fabled corseted 17-inch waist, liked to eat and imbibe.

Most women are, in reality, larger than size eight, let alone a size zero. Shouldn't our fictional women reflect that? When the statement was made in my book that Cate Harlow wore a size eight and a half shoe my editor asked if I could change that to a size six. When I asked why he said, "Well, a size six just sounds daintier." Needless to say, I did not change her shoe size.

Frankly, society is never happy about a woman's shape, even if that woman is fictional. If there's not too much meat on the bones, there's not enough. If there's "a bit more" she needs to traverse diet hell, and if the weight is right, society will see the measurements somehow are not. Real women deserve to take the lead in literature and be the strong protagonist.

I will continue to write my female characters as strong and representative of real women. Cate will continue to eat, grab that bottle of Merlot, and keep herself strong. I will also continue to read authors who write strong relatable female protagonists and encourage readers to do the same.
Real women do eat real food and so do fictional ones. And I, for one, say it's about time.

Happy writing!

Read the adventures of Kristen Houghton's own popular sleuth in the A Cate Harlow Private Investigation series available at all book venues

Copyright 2016 Kristen Houghton The Savvy Author all rights reserved