- Joined
- Mar 10, 2013
- Messages
- 19
I'm currently halfway through the Shadow Rising but I've already lost count of the times when :
- a female character laments about how stupid/stubborn a male character is
- a male character laments about how incomprehensible women are
Gender differentialism is a major theme in the Wheel of Time. Robert Jordan seemed to think men come from Mars and women from Venus. The very structure of the magic system is based on that.
I think - that is just my personal opinion here - that men and women are mostly the same. There are a few differences, either biological or created by society (we receive from infancy an image of what being male or female entails). However, I do think that, ultimately, these differences matter little next to the differences between one individual and the next : men and women don't fundamentally think differently and can understand each other just fine.
However, if it were just that, a disagreement between me and the author, I could easily overlook it. What really bothers me is the sometimes shocking way women treat men in the Wheel of Time.
I understand that Jordan had some kind of author appeal for bossy women but there are still horrible cases of Double Standards in the books. Women often treat men little better than cattle. In Chapter 30 of The Shadow Rising, Mistress Al'Vere and Faile have a delightful little conversation about "handling men" and "reining them in" which, in the mouth of men talking about women, would be rightfully denounced as horribly misogynistic. Faile also hits Perrin, repeatedly. I like Faile but hitting the one you love, regardless of both of your gender, is plain wrong (like many things in Perrin and Faile's "romance", now that I think of it).
There are many things I like in the Wheel of Time series, as a woman and as a feminist. First, there are many female characters, more so than in most fantasy novels. Women of the Wheel of Time are strong, well-developped characters who wield real power, be it physical strength, political power or the One Power. But sometimes I really wished they behaved more like human beings and less like what Robert Jordan thought a Woman is, which appears to be some extreme type of Tsundere.
Am I alone in my thoughts there ? Have the stark differences between males and females in the Wheel of Time ever bothered you ?
- a female character laments about how stupid/stubborn a male character is
- a male character laments about how incomprehensible women are
Gender differentialism is a major theme in the Wheel of Time. Robert Jordan seemed to think men come from Mars and women from Venus. The very structure of the magic system is based on that.
I think - that is just my personal opinion here - that men and women are mostly the same. There are a few differences, either biological or created by society (we receive from infancy an image of what being male or female entails). However, I do think that, ultimately, these differences matter little next to the differences between one individual and the next : men and women don't fundamentally think differently and can understand each other just fine.
However, if it were just that, a disagreement between me and the author, I could easily overlook it. What really bothers me is the sometimes shocking way women treat men in the Wheel of Time.
I understand that Jordan had some kind of author appeal for bossy women but there are still horrible cases of Double Standards in the books. Women often treat men little better than cattle. In Chapter 30 of The Shadow Rising, Mistress Al'Vere and Faile have a delightful little conversation about "handling men" and "reining them in" which, in the mouth of men talking about women, would be rightfully denounced as horribly misogynistic. Faile also hits Perrin, repeatedly. I like Faile but hitting the one you love, regardless of both of your gender, is plain wrong (like many things in Perrin and Faile's "romance", now that I think of it).
There are many things I like in the Wheel of Time series, as a woman and as a feminist. First, there are many female characters, more so than in most fantasy novels. Women of the Wheel of Time are strong, well-developped characters who wield real power, be it physical strength, political power or the One Power. But sometimes I really wished they behaved more like human beings and less like what Robert Jordan thought a Woman is, which appears to be some extreme type of Tsundere.
Am I alone in my thoughts there ? Have the stark differences between males and females in the Wheel of Time ever bothered you ?