Female empowerment is back in Reid’s new novel

Taylor Jenkins Reid speaks on sexism and systemic issues

Sarah Fahey / A&C Asst. Editor / The USD Vista

This past week, USD’s College of Arts and Sciences welcomed Taylor Jenkins Reid, the New York Times best-selling author of TikTok’s viral book, “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.” Taylor Jenkins Reid came to introduce her new novel, “Carrie Soto Is Back,” which leads the reader through athlete Carrie Soto’s comeback into the world of tennis after a short retirement, despite the odds against her. 

Like Carrie Soto, Reid portrays young women – especially those of minority communities – as empowering, strong characters. The main character in her latest novel is Carrie Soto, a tennis player of Argentine-descent with an unconventional personality.

 A potentially unlikable and annoying character, Carrie is a strong-headed athlete with a coarse personality, pushing boundaries through her win-at-all-costs attitude. Not only is she one of the best athletes, but she knows and shows it.

Reid challenges stereotypes against female athletes in “Carrie Soto is Back,”  in hopes of pointing out the systemic issues that follow women into the real world. 

“I think that to write these stories about what women go through and to not articulate the things that I think are unfair would be a waste of telling the story,” Reid said. “One of the things that I wanted to explore is that there are many things that female athletes face that male athletes don’t.” 

For example, Carrie Soto faces criticism for her body, adding to her unlikability from the tennis fans in the novel. She comes back from retirement with an aged physique, subjecting her to more criticism surrounding her capabilities.

“Carrie’s body is not here for us to like it or not like it. It’s there for her to do her job,” Reid said. 

Much of the novel seeks to empower women by challenging how society typically criticizes women in the spotlight. Reid highlights how a woman’s success is undermined in the professional world.

“It is very hard as a woman to be successful and likable, because we as a society don’t really like it when a woman knows how good she is,” Reid said.

As multiple fans of Reid have noted, Carrie is not an “enjoyable” character. However, she does her job, and excellently so. 

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t like Carrie,” Reid said. “She won the match. There is nothing you can do about it.” 

Reid emphasized that Carrie’s tennis performance was not up for debate. Throughout the story, she was put down because society viewed her as stubborn and determined.

Also in the novel, Reid challenges language barriers between Carrie and her father, Javier.  Reid features conversations between the father-daughter duo in Spanish that aren’t translated for the reader. 

“It’s important to me to destabilize the idea that, as an English-only speaker, you deserve to have everything translated,” Reid said. This tactic in her novel questions the English-centric bubble that much of today’s media and culture provides, disrupting what is usually handed to monolingual English-speakers. 

USD senior Carmen Gomez appreciated Reid’s attempt to stray from mainstream norms. 

“In today’s modern age, translation is easy,” Gomez said. “You may not get the full context, but a basic understanding can be achieved.” 

Reid discusses the importance of appreciating different languages and cultures without clinging to our perceived normalcy.

Reid utilized this event not only to showcase her work but to spread female empowerment and awareness of real world systemic issues as well. She confronts her readers’ comfort by keeping Spanish dialogue untranslated and highlighting each character’s background. She confronts her readers’ comfort by keeping Spanish dialogue untranslated and highlights each character’s background. 

Taylor Jenkins Reid utilized this event to showcase her work and to spread female empowerment and awareness of real world systemic issues as well.