Not Quite as Clever

I have always wanted to write a Magnificent Bastard. I find charisma and competence somewhere beyond appealing, in the range of intoxicating and breathtaking. I also love genius heroes - the Ender Wiggins, the Miles Vorkosigans, the Peter Wimseys, the Scarlet Pimpernels. . . Yes, I am aware that they are all male. This is the stuff I read. Note that three of them are written by women, and those three all find romance, so there's something about the trope that satisfies the female fantasy. Also note that the women in their lives are not quite as clever. . .

That's partly out of necessity. If you OTP your genius heroine to a female who is smarter, she becomes. . . Elementary's Moriarty. She must be the Magnificent Bastard. Because what happens if they stick? Does he become Batgirl? Or because what happens if you genderswap that dynamic? What if you make your genius hero female and her hetero-partner smarter than she is? That's just sexism, whether he's ultimately evil or just the local Mycroft. Except. . .

Except that intelligence isn't everything. If there's anything I've learned from my own personal experience, it's that being Not Quite as Clever is not a tragedy. In itself, it's not even unfortunate. If we consider IQ as a product of a male-centric, western-dominated culture overvaluing a specific type of reasoning/knowledge, the only reason we still care is because my world is shaped to privilege that trait, and to privilege men in its pursuit, though outside academia the numbers even out a bit (especially among middle management, who have no demonstrable IQ). Malcolm Gladwell claims in Outliers: The Story of Success that IQ is not a practical advantage, above about 132 (at its current value), even if you've a mind for criminality.

A genius heroine is still a viable character, because women are diverse, and because fiction still favors "masculine" virtues and the narratives around them, and because calling something a "feminine" virtue is still pejorative in too many discourses (any discourse so un-PC that it genders its virtues, anyway). Intuition, creativity, and emotionality are often falsely relegated to the dark, mysterious, and veiled female brain: a fallacy, and disservice to all genders.

So I want to face that challenge. I want to write a genius heroine whose success is neither defined by nor accounted for in masculine terms - something like the much-hated Catwoman, but not as fraught with frustrated gender politics. I want to write a spyderwomyn - an Arachne - an Ygramul. Heather Lalache. I want her to be loved, but that we cannot always choose. I cannot tell my audiences how much they should love my characters: I can only tell them how much I love my characters, leaving myself vulnerable for the inevitable vitriol that is the meat and drink of women on the internet.

Would you read it?

"When I am dead, I hope it may be said, 'his sins were scarlet, but his books were read.'"     -Hilaire Belloc