'Tara Moss has worn many labels in her time, including 'author', 'model', 'gold-digger', 'commentator', 'inspiration', 'dumb blonde', 'feminist' and 'mother', among many others.
'Now, in her first work of non-fiction, she blends memoir and social analysis to examine the common fictions about women. She traces key moments in her life - from small-town tomboy in Canada, to international fashion model in the 90s, to bestselling author taking a polygraph test in 2002 to prove she writes her own work - and weaves her own experiences into a broader look at everyday sexism and issues surrounding the underrepresentation of women, modern motherhood, body image and the portrayal of women in politics, entertainment, advertising and the media.
'Deeply personal and revealing, this is more than just Tara Moss's own story. At once insightful, challenging and entertaining, she asks how we can change the old fictions, one woman at a time. ' (Publication summary)
'This article evaluates rape–revenge narratives in literature, asking how written scenes of rape and revenge depict female bodies without relying on visual representations that replicate evidence-based investigations of the crime. It then examines how authors and readers may seek scriptotherapy through rape–revenge literature, both fiction and memoir. It takes up Elizabeth Grosz's theories of corporeal feminism, feminist criticism on rape–revenge by scholars such as Tara Roeder and criticism on scriptotherapy. Primary texts discussed include novels and memoirs by Barbara Wilson, Y. A. Erskine, Tara Moss, and Alice Sebold. The article positions the rape–revenge narrative through the prism of therapeutic reading and writing, and compares it to the current public responses to sexual assault in Australia. The article determines that rape–revenge narratives in literature are more nuanced than their filmic counterparts. Furthermore, it concludes that memoir can only act therapeutically in a one-on-one sense and has no greater public service to the treatment of rape victims, and is, therefore, no more therapeutic than rape–revenge fantasies.' (Publication abstract)
'This article evaluates rape–revenge narratives in literature, asking how written scenes of rape and revenge depict female bodies without relying on visual representations that replicate evidence-based investigations of the crime. It then examines how authors and readers may seek scriptotherapy through rape–revenge literature, both fiction and memoir. It takes up Elizabeth Grosz's theories of corporeal feminism, feminist criticism on rape–revenge by scholars such as Tara Roeder and criticism on scriptotherapy. Primary texts discussed include novels and memoirs by Barbara Wilson, Y. A. Erskine, Tara Moss, and Alice Sebold. The article positions the rape–revenge narrative through the prism of therapeutic reading and writing, and compares it to the current public responses to sexual assault in Australia. The article determines that rape–revenge narratives in literature are more nuanced than their filmic counterparts. Furthermore, it concludes that memoir can only act therapeutically in a one-on-one sense and has no greater public service to the treatment of rape victims, and is, therefore, no more therapeutic than rape–revenge fantasies.' (Publication abstract)
