Re: Female characters
- From: "J.Pascal" <julie@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 30 May 2007 20:26:10 -0700
On May 30, 8:18 pm, Lucy Kemnitzer <rita...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 30 May 2007 18:34:56 -0700, "J.Pascal" <j...@xxxxxxxxxx> seems to
have said:
On May 30, 6:53 pm, David Friedman <d...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Some time back, I raised the question of why women warriors were so
common in modern fantasy (including my _Harald_, as it happens). It got
diverted into an argument about how common they were historically, but I
thought it might be worth going back to the original question.
One obvious reason is that there are women who want to identify with the
character and like the idea of being a warrior, but I think there are
others--certainly that wasn't my reason. I think part of it is that the
tension between the conventional view of women and the situation of a
woman warrior is dramatically useful. Part of that is just the effect of
breaking conventions. But a different part is that readers, at least
male readers, are likely to retain the feeling that women are
particularly vulnerable and to be protected, and that makes situations
where they are at immediate risk more poignant than the same situations
with male characters.
Other reasons?
Oh, I think all of those are good ones.
I once had a flash of a concept mind-picture thingy that I should have
written down immediately because I couldn't quite capture it
adequately for a short story (probably) where the powerful and free
warrior lady happens home with a male member of her troop to find this
worn out old woman and about a dozen children and the old woman turns
out to be his wife, who isn't particularly cheerful and certainly
isn't pretty anymore, and the warrior lady thinks that the man ought
to love her best and doesn't understand what *he* understands, which
is that his old worn out wife is fighting the same war that he's
fighting but on a different front and that the wounds to her body are
as noble as any battle scars to his.
Which I suppose was a rebellion on my part to putting women in "male"
roles in fantasy. Which wouldn't have bothered me at all except for
the implied *why* of it.
That's just a cool story about what fidelity is all about, from the
description.
Fidelity and also that the husband and father was every bit as
constrained by his role, not having chosen to be an adventurer but
fighting because of the needs of others, particularly his family, for
safety and security.
But it all sort of dribbled through my fingers before I could get a
good grip on the whole of it. I can remember it now but the...
thing... is gone. It's become weightless.
-Julie
.
- References:
- Female characters
- From: Chris Kern
- Re: Female characters
- From: Michael R N Dolbear
- Re: Female characters
- From: David Friedman
- Re: Female characters
- From: J.Pascal
- Re: Female characters
- From: Lucy Kemnitzer
- Female characters
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