Fight Like A Girl

Fight Like a girl is the title that I came up with for this picture. It was actually one of the pictures my sisters and I were playing around with for the cover of TAINTED, but it just wasn't quite right.

However, I did LOVE the picture because I felt it was a symbol of something I am proud of: girl power.

Now, I think there is a fine line between girl power and girl power. I like this picture because it goes against the societies norm of the meaning of fighting like a girl: slapping and pulling hair in the nice sissy-la-la way. It symbolizes that girls are just as powerful and can kick some major butt when they want too.

When my husband and I started dating, a big thing for me was that I wouldn't let him open a door for me. I had two hands and amazingly, strong enough arms to open the door for myself, thank-you-very-much.

When I was eight months pregnant with my daughter I changed my flat tire by myself in the pouring rain. When a guy pulled over and asked if I needed help, I smiled as I tightened the bolt and said, "no thanks, I'm good."

Yes I can handle any tool in my husbands garage. Yes I am the best when it comes to directions. And yes, I think girls have to have awesome super girl power to be able to be a mother, a friend, a wife, a maid, a cook, a tutor, a career woman, and still find time to be an individual who follows her own individual interests.

That being said, now ten years into our marriage, I would LOVE for my husband to dote on me and open my door (not that I can't...but maybe him doing it shows his adoration for me). If I were to ever get a flat tire again and a nice stranger offered to help, then I might just say yes because honestly, it would have gone much faster (maybe) and I wouldn't have gotten soaked to the bone.
And having my husband take over being mom, being cook, being maid, being tutor, is probably one of the most make-me-smile things ever.

Because girl power doesn't mean that we HAVE to do everything better than boys. It just means that we can if we want too, but sometimes the power in being a girl is stepping back and letting the men show us what they got. And that, my friends, can be the most rewarding thing ever.

So in this line of thought, I decided to take a look at Gage's point of view. Throughout TAINTED, he is fairly quiet. He let's Jemma take the lead and steps in when she needs it. But on a whim I decided to write one of the scenes in the book from what he felt and saw. Now it's not incredibly deep, but I did add it to the end of the book as an extra for the paperback version.

And who knows...maybe in book two of the TAINTED series we will get a chance to hear a little more from the love of Jemma's life.