The author Stina Hemming has adopted a protagonist, Alex Greene, whose personality belies the traditional stereotypes of a successful woman often embodied in the Ice Queen trope. Refusing to accept the patriarchal version of the popular aloof, negative Ice Queen archetype, Hemming has revamped the Ice Queen concept into one which is consistent with ever-changing twenty-first century culture, mores and behaviour. She is independent emotionally and financially; brutally honest; tough and smart. She prefers to go it alone, refusing help or sympathy from those around her. Most of all, Alex Greene has the resources to make her own rules.
Hemming has given her protagonist extraordinary drive and determination: Alex Greene is a mature woman who insists on her right to control her own life, including what she says and what she does, and she lets nothing—and no one—stand in her way.
Alex Greene knows what it takes to succeed in a testosterone-fueled profession and a business world where value and human worth is determined and measured by money. Rather than adhering to the stereotypical standards of maleness and femaleness, Alex plays it right down the middle, taking the best and sometimes the worst of both.
I think Simone de Beauvoir, author of the ground breaking The Second Sex (1949) said it best. “I hesitated a long time before writing a book on women,” de Beauvoir wrote. “The subject is irritating, especially for women; and it is not new. Enough ink has flowed over the quarrel about feminism; it is now almost over: let’s not talk about it anymore.”
Amen to that, Simone. Let’s stop talking about it and start living it.