It’s ironic that I spend so much time in a place that used to objectify women and treat them as second class citizens. Mind you, not all of the women but certainly many of those who were associated with the iconic images of Palm Springs back in the 40s, 50s and 60s.
As
an unabashed woman-supporter and cautious admirer of alpha females the world
over, it’s a bit strange for me to read articles about the gushing history of
such a place. It was a world where matronly women ruled the country club and
their husbands ran the nightclub circuit.
Palm Springs was, and ironically still is, trying to
paint itself as someplace different from the rest of the world. Someplace where
normal behavior isn’t always the norm and that’s OK. It was a wonderful
playground in which to base my novel “Debris.”
Like much of the rest of the country, that idiotic
perception of women started to change back in the sixties with the publication
of such feminine literature as ‘The Feminine Mystic’ and advances by the
Women’s Liberation Movement, growing sexual freedom (the pill) and other iconic
seismic changes in women’s lives.
I’ve tried to add a bit of that iconic history in my
novel “Love in the A Shau” but from several different female perspectives. From
Colleen’s expected role in her high society world, to Peggy’s experimentation
with love, to Summer’s hippie search for some meaning in her life and finally
Claudia’s desperate search for love and affection in all the wrong places.
Fast-forward a couple of decades later and I have a
daughter running for state office, a daughter-in-law who is passionate about
her children’s education and three granddaughters who represent the future of
feminism in all its glory.
Step aside folks, these women are coming through…and
they are nothing but class.
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