I never heard of Tara Moss before I listened to this audio book before. I bought it because her mother died of Multiple Myeloma but was disappointed that she referred to it in a small part of the story. Losing her mother had a profound effect on her and I deeply understood that.

When she was young, she felt that she did not want the stereotyped toys for little girls. Instead of stuffed animals, she wanted action figures. That brought back memories of myself playing with building blocks and being physically lifted out to that area and placed in a play kitchen. Washing dishes were not fun to me and made my way back to the block. We both did not fit the stereotype of manufacrors and it does make me mad the toys are dumbed down for girls even today.

I had expected more ofa memoir but this is a relaing of her experiences and her reactions and stands on stereotypes,masculinity, feminity, childbirth, abortion,and sexual abuse.

When she gave up modeling, she decided to write fulltime, she had been writing in her journals every day. As time went on, she developed a crime series with a very intellectual and physically strong woman like hersef. All that was fine the woman in the series had some very volent scenes and Tara Moss researched them well, too well for me. The scenes were so near that I recoiled from them.

I agreed with her opinions for the most part and it is a surprised. I had
studied about the same stereotypes and wrote papers on them in college.

But we are different people, not just that she is tall and stronge, has an advaced knowledge of makeup and I am short and very curvy but she can tolerate violence much more than me. But we are both very intelligent and do not want to squashed.

I bought this audio book out of curiosity after I read about her. My thoughts and opinions in this review are enitrely my own. ( )

When I first started this book, I literally couldn't put it down. Unfortunately, throughout the middle it was a bit tough to get through, I felt that the narrative was weighed down by the overwhelming amount of statistics, of course the statistics reinforced the points Tara was trying to make but they just didn't really flow, which made it a tad difficult to read. Despite this, it was one of my favourite feminist reads and a book I think everyone should read, she is a wonderful human ( )

Synopsis: Tara Moss, a novelist, journalist, TV presenter, criminal investigator, UNICEF goodwill ambassador, and overall feminist, writes about her life as a female and the sexism she has encountered as she tries to make a name for herself, with people often judging her and doubting her abilities due to her looks. The book touches on underlying, subtle feminism in society and how she hopes society will move toward removing these barriers away.

My Opinion: I've probably done things a bit back-to-front here by reading Tara's autobiography before reading any of her other works!

She has a very fluid writing style, but I found some of the middle chapters could be easily skimmed-through. My main qualm would be that she wrote more personal anecdotes, such as her upbringing as a child, like she did at the beginning of the book.

Hoping to read some of her other works after reading this. ( )

This was the first book I have read by Tara Moss, so I cannot compare to her many fiction novels. I found it a well-constructed, entertaining, & modern review of female stereotypes and roles. What I enjoyed most about this book was the author's honesty and willingness to shed light on her private life as well as her professional experiences. Moss then examines those experiences through the lens of culture and gender bias. Despite the fact that the case for female representation in the media is dismal, the author is upbeat about the way the world looks to her as a forty year-old woman and I found myself nodding in agreement. ( )

Tara Moss is probably best known as a person you hate; she seems to succeed in everything she puts her mind to. Starting her career early at 14 as a model, she always dreamed about being a writer. People don't encourage others to be writers but they do tell girls that they should be a model. Eventually she did and it took her around the world and taught her so much; the experiences may not have been all good but it helped shape her life. Eventually she did start writing and her Makedde Vanderwall become a huge success and she created this character as a way to explore her interests in forensic science, psychology and other topics. Now with nine fiction novels under her belt Moss is giving us her first non-fiction book, The Fictional Woman.

The title comes from the idea that people tend to dismiss and stereotype others. Tara Moss is no stranger to this; she even took a polygraph test to prove she wrote her books. While this book starts off as a memoir it is important to know that this is a social critique on the world and feminism. The book begins as a memoir to provide context, an understanding of Tara Moss' struggles and her life helps to see where The Fictional Woman is coming from. Historical context is also an important part of understanding feminism as well, especially when it comes to gender equality and pop culture. There have been plenty of Spiderman (too many), Zorro and James Bond movies but there has never been a Wonder Woman movie. In literature, the female archetype stems from fairy tales and medieval fiction, heroines tend to face off another woman, often older and depicted as witches. Cinderella type stories require a man in order to live happily ever after and even chick-lit often portrays a gender inequality.

The Fictional Woman explores this imbalance in pop-culture and society and looks at where these archetypes come from. It is impressive to see the amount of research and information Tara Moss puts into this book; it really was eye opening. I highly recommend people read this book but I need to warn everyone it may contain triggers. I'm surprised to see that the imbalance is so prominent in today’s society and I am trying to make more of an effort to read a balance of authors. The problem I found is I tend to pick up books without taking notice on of the author, sure it sometimes easy to know their gender but I don't research authors before starting a book. I try to make more of an effort and it is an area I need to work on.

I’m really impressed with Tara Moss, she seems to succeed in everything she does; sure I’m a little jealous that she is so talented but I still feel motivated. For those interested, I recently wrote a piece about an author event with Tara Moss on Boomerang Books if you are interested, I talk in a lot more detail about The Fictional Woman. I have never spent so much time thinking about feminism, I plan to do a lot more of it, even read some more books on the topic. I might even incorporate it into my critical reviews; it is an important topic that needs to be addressed.

This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2014/07/19/the-fictional-woman-by-tara-moss/ ( )