A Razor-Sharp Guide to Becoming a Feminist Anti-Hero: Murder Bimbo by Rebecca Novack

Rebecca Novack, author of the gloriously deranged literary thriller Murder Bimbo, shares some in-character tips on how to become a feminist anti-hero.

Rebecca Novack invites you to step inside the mind of her latest creation with this in-character guide: How to Become a Feminist Anti-Hero in 9 Steps. Navigate the treacherous terrain of performative virtue, media freakouts, and the carefully curated chaos of online branding. Consider this part manifesto, part survival manual, and part confession booth - you’ll leave knowing exactly how to be morally ambiguous, socially magnetic, and irresistibly marketable, all while keeping one eye on justice and the other on your Instagram aesthetic. Strap in. It’s going to get smart, sharp, and slightly unhinged.

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1. Get a job

Highly recommend something in the service industry where a lot of locals hang out. Is everyone you meet going to be your best friend? Hell no. But you will find people you like, they will introduce you to their roommates, their exes, their childhood best friend who seems at first like she’s a fuckboy because of the mullet and frenulum piercing but will turn out to be really smart. Make yourself at home. This is what some people call “building community.” Develop a group of people who have each other’s backs and generally like being around each other. Everyone shouldn’t agree on everything. In fact, you should be able to argue. But you should also defend each other against bosses, landlords, shitty customers, police, the State, and nasty interlopers. This is your group.

 

2. Learn everything you can about your group and its place in the world

Read, write, listen, talk. Figure out where political conversations are happening. Go there. You don’t have to be part of everything, just be part of something. In your group, develop a critique of the world that allows you to communicate about it, to make change, to be in the world but not of the world. And it’s not a problem if hot mullet turns out to be the most knowledgeable person in the group. It’s not a bad thing to have a crush on the leader or to act on it, even if she doesn’t seem totally over her ex. The erotic has a place in politics. A big one.

3. Learn to craft a narrative about your group for outsiders

Sure you have differences but focus on the similarities until you find a category other people will understand: queers, local baristas, rural toddler moms. Stereotypes are your friend. In another context it might feel fucking obliterating if everyone thought you were the same as everyone else in your incredibly diverse band of weirdos. You don’t have to worry about that. You only need to be legible to the person who’s sharing your bed. If she’s not concerned that you don’t have a particularly robust history of organizing, why should you be.  Love illuminates the truest parts of us. And sometimes the most impactful political act you can do is be willing to upgrade the mullet from fuck buddy to girlfriend.

 4. Create a brand

You can’t control what people think of you but you can control an image. You can expect a certain amount of critique when things are going well, just because people (good people) have a knee-jerk “analysis” of anyone who seems to be winning. You might be called a showboat. Someone new to the group might call you “conventionally attractive” in a way you suspect is not a compliment. Focus on an uncomplicated image. Focus on how more people are drawn to the group for you. They seek your approval. 

5. Embrace your own importance

It’s awkward when you discover YOU'RE the leader of something you just learned about. But guess what, that’s how change is made. That’s okay. Be humble, keep learning, enjoy it. Go out to celebrate with your girlfriend. Talk to her about how the two of you will have to coordinate your image together now that you’re a little more important.

6. Keep a journal

Since you’re dealing with multiple people’s versions of you, and the complexity of a coalition, this can help you feel less crazy. It’s also a good place to keep track of facts. It’s a good place to process all the feelings that might come up as you do something politically challenging, potentially unsafe, and personally intense—especially if you might not want to share your first thoughts and impressions with the whole group because you don’t know if you’re being too sensitive when it starts taking your girlfriend hours to text you back instead of minutes, when she no-shows to a meeting, when she seems to smell different but it turns out she just bought new soap.

7. Never belittle your followers

These people are critical. They are the ones who will be with you when for example your girlfriend brings you home to meet her family but at the last minute leaves you in the motel until holiday dinner is over. The followers are mighty. They are diverse, messy, real. They will raise you up when she gets back from said dinner with no leftovers at all because did she even tell her parents you were here? Do they even know about you at all? Your followers are the ones who will send you a large cheese pizza which will give you the strength you need to cry over her once and be done with it.

8. Endorse the merch 

Stuff makes people feel better. And merch makes you feel like you belong. Instant oxytocin bump. So fucking what if your ex girlfriend once called it landfill. What the hell does she know? Merch will make you more than yourself, it will make you an army. Also it will help you support yourself when your girlfriend kicks you out of the apartment you paid for.  

9. Look hot

Whatever that means to you. Look hot. Return to your core beliefs. Get strong. Be strong. Be yourself. Care only for politics. You are better than human relationships. Remember your mission and stick with it.

Murder Bimbo by Rebecca Novack releases March 31.

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Murder Bimbo

by Rebecca Novack

A stylish, fast-paced literary thriller that follows a woman caught up in a plot to assassinate a right-wing extremist.

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