Feminist Fiction Friday: A Brush With Love by Mazey Eddings

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you another Feminist Fiction Friday. This week I want to talk about A Brush With Love, by the inspiring Mazey Eddings. I read this book twice on the 22 hour drive to and from Florida, AND listened to the audio book -- Yes, it's THAT good!

Meet Dan, a first year dental student with a family legacy and reputation on his shoulders that is slowly drowning his spark. He gets smushed in a stairwell by the charmingly clumsy, anxiety-riddled Harper, who lives and breathes her passion for all things dental school. Dan falls head over heels from the get-go, but Harper isn't willing to be distracted by a handsome man right before she finishes her life-long dream of becoming a dental surgeon. Can the two pretend that being "just friends" is enough to satisfy them??

Mazey included a Trigger Warning in her author's note, which as a person who has dealt with a lot of grief in her lifetime and being a person who struggles with anxiety, I appreciated. However, I never expected the visceral response I ended up having to Harper's descriptions of her panic attack. It's so incredibly spot-on and relatable, I almost had to put the book down (but decided I loved it so much I had to continue).

But we're here to talk about feminism in this book.

 I cannot applaud Mazey Eddings and this scene enough. Harper, a dedicated and brilliant star in her classes, faces off with a particularly difficult and sexist patient. Her crush and fellow student, Dan, tries to tell said patient where he can shove it, but Harper warns him to back off and then explains in detail what he can do to support her. 

I felt this passage in my bones, as a young woman trying to live my life without having to justify my knowledge or expertise or existence to another person. This section plays on my mind on repeat, and honestly, if I could hug Mazey, I would! Women belong in all the places where decisions are being made, and in this case, in medicine! As women, specifically as a young woman, we are constantly doing mental Kung fu JUST to be taken seriously, JUST to be afforded a modicum of respect, JUST to be treated like we are remotely capable, especially in the workplace. Women are beautiful and brilliant. 

We need men who have women's backs, who stand back and watch as they fight their own battles.  I'm not saying be a silent and passive observer; I'm saying be supportive and encourage your male friends, brothers, fathers, cousins, neighbors, mail man, to do better, BE better!  We deserve to have power and rights to our own bodies.  But clearly we, as women, aren't being heard. So it's Feminist men who need to have our backs, who need to stand beside us, not in front of us out of some misguided idea that we need to be shielded or protected. 

P.S. Harper and her bad-ass boss put this patient in his place, don't worry! 😉

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