Women of WoT

[Mat]

Is it just me or are All of the female channelers bullies and underhanded and arrogant. Most every woman is but all of the aes sedai are. I get the feeling that they are all upset that they are not men. I don't mean this in a sexist way, but it is the way they were written. When they can use the power to bully them Always do and Egwene mentions several times how "unfair" it is that Rand can do what he does and she can't even see the flows.

When Mat is immune to direct use of the power. Nynaeve who I hate almost more than Egwene through Most of the series resorts to kicking him. Then when she realizes that she is actually vulnerable to him she runs and hides from him. Coward/bully. She eventually can not even deal with him in a civilized manner because she can't get the upper hand. All of the women in this series either try to bully, manipulate or expect men to not try to do the same out of a chivalrous attitude. The aes sedai are the worst. When tam calls out cassia me for a bully is one of my favorite scenes in the series. And for all the vaunted three oaths most aes sedai still have warders to do the things they can't so that they can get around those oaths.

Another question is why any strong warrior would choose a subservient role to one of these manipulative bitches. Don't even get me started about Mat being raped and the women's humour at it. Their justification is that he's getting some of his own back at him, but I can't remember mat even flirting with an unwilling woman let alone raping her. Don't get me wrong, I love these books. I've been reading them since the first was new on the shelves and reread them before I buy a new one every time. I am happy that Jordan at least acknowledges that there are women in his world and makes them a large part of his storyline. But I have to say he could have done a better job characterizing them.

 

[Aran Cherubim]

Hey Mat, welcome to the site.

First of all, it would be a great if you could divide your post in some paragraphs. I'm personally having a bit of a hard time reading this; my eyes tend to cross with large blocks of text. I think you have some interesting Points, but I easily get headaches, so I'd appreciate that a lot!

I think my personal opinion on this has been voiced before elsewhere, and that is that the women in WoT (particularly the channelers) behave the way they do essentially because they are privileged. WoT is a world with a number of matriarchal tendencies, and it's my opinion that this affects the relations between genders. In most people this isn't expressed too much (as a lot of non-channelers seem to interact in mostly gender-equal ways), but for Aes Sedai it's expressed strongly; Aes Sedai are, by tradition, by nature, better than other people, or at least, they know better.

Compare them to medieval clergy. They sure weren't very happy about women not submitting to the Church's authority. Actually, compared to that, the Aes Sedai are very fair and forgiving. If a bit arrogant, I agree.

So basically, they're written to embody centuries of accumulated privilege (mostly channeler, but probably with some gender bias thrown in), and while it may be infuriating, it's quite realistic.

 

[Mattrim al'Korin]

I agree totally with you, Aran.
In New Spring, we see Moiraine as both a bright, shiny, new Aes Sedai and an opinionated Noblewoman, and she has some prejudices against "commoners" and other nobles.
She hasn't learned, yet, the fundamentals of relationships between men and women or how to respect older, experienced people, whether channelers or not.

I do agree with Mat that I don't like Nynaeve, either, because of her arrogance. She pushes people around, seemingly, because she can. She also doesn't show respect to elder people and takes offense when they prove that she has much still to learn.

My favorite woman was Min, honestly. She was the most down-to-earth person in the whole series.

 

[Hanne Aagaard]

I think Aran hit it spot on. It seems like a lot of Jordan's point throughout the series was to gender-swap privileges. If male Aes Sedai had been running the world, we wouldn't be nearly as shocked by their privilege (in fact we might not even really notice it), it's just strange from our real-world perspective to encounter women who have power and privilege.

 

[Maibella ni Rhoiden t'al'Varrak]

I will acknowledge that Mat being basically raped by Tylin, though hilarious to read about because of Mat's personality, did make me somewhat uncomfortable. I can't help but imagine if the gender roles were reversed both the characters in the story and us as readers would have reacted very differently.

 

[Eques 'Terram]

I think one thing we should look at (maybe because I am in the service) is Rigney's connection to the military and the similarities of AES Sedai and other women to officers/enlisted members. From my own personal experience, Officers (AES Sedai) act as if they're better than everyone else, whereas women like Min (Enlisted) are more down to earth. I may be grasping at whisps of smoke here to find a connection but this is what I get from it.

You spend 24/7 in Vietnam surrounded by men who think their Sh.. don't stink. The natural thing to do is to write about a world where the exact opposite is true. Women who have the roles of men. I dont know, just my two and a half cents.

 

[Zethryanya Al'qiara]

I have an issue with how the women are written in WOT. At least sometimes. Not only are the arrogant, but they are incredibly catty toward each other. It drives me crazy. They think all other women are foolish love-sick nitwits--even if they are friends!! I started to wonder if it was internalized sexism on the part of the author which comes out in his writing (now don't everyone jump down my throat because I have said this--I don't mean to offend anyone or insult the author).

I kept thinking to myself "this is not how women act or think toward each other! They aren't catty and do not care only about fashion and love." These women were all supposed to be strong, independent, powerful women, but they started drooling over clothing and snapping at each other in a way that made me almost stop reading the series!!!

I think it is an interesting point that perhaps it has to do with the fact that it was a more matriarchal society.

Also, I agree. I really, really didn't like Mat's rape. It made me very uncomfortable.