…which I completely forgot to mention here. Bad Nora! No biscuit.
So I decided to get a little more “thinky” this time around, and talk about the process of creating a post-feminist character, in Yeine. Which I kind of did by accident, and involved some interesting contradictions:
The element in question is the background of my protagonist, Yeine Darr, who was born and raised in a matriarchal culture. I didn’t base this culture on any extant matriarchy (although if I had to slap a real-world label on her, Yeine’s home culture corresponds to that of the pre-Columbian Incans, who were probably matriarchal, though with vastly different customs). And since Yeine spends the bulk of the story amid the more patriarchal culture of her estranged relatives, readers don’t see much of Yeine’s homeland. But her upbringing does shape her character in interesting ways. Yeine’s a bit of a chauvanist, see.
The article finishes up by asking for other examples of post-feminist characters, and in fact a definition of post-feminism. Could use some comments over there, so I’m going to shut them off here. Go check it out!