Girl Heroes in Current Fantasy Novels: A Lament

by Stella Atrium
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Back to my first complaint.  I was making a case that women characters are cheated in sci-fi / fantasy stories.  A reader countered my assertions that several writers present the young lead hero as a girl.  So I decided to look into this trend that is a common trope for the 2001 -2011 decade.

I read The Bone Doll’s Twin (the trilogy) by Lynn Flewelling where a boy/girl named Tobin starts out as a boy due to magic, because the girl heir would have been killed.  She fights the last battle, though, in full armor on horseback wielding a sword AS A GIRL.  The ambiguity of gender confusion was interesting, but the forest witch was a more fascinating character.  This book, at least, presents the troubles of other women who want to join the fight, or who serve fighters.

I read the Poison Study series by Maria V. Snyder where a girl named Yelena is trained by a mean minister named Valek who later admits to sexual interest and becomes her savior when her foolhardy trust in his lessons get her in trouble.  They succeed together, but he has all the real power.  There’s another female character in this story named Star, but she serves only as counterpoint.

I read The Book of Deacon, which is the first in a series by Joseph R. Lallo.  This female lead character, a too-naïve girl named Myranda, is always alone and persecuted until she reaches hidden island where everybody has magic; a cloying feast of description and little plot.  She also bonds with a mean, mysterious character older than her and with sexual interest.  She sheds all the security and friends in this paradise to follow him into trouble.  Do you see a pattern yet?  

I read The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold and enjoyed every paragraph.  This female character has a brother who should be heir, and a teacher who is more than he seems.  However, she has a mother and grandmother, a BFF and ladies-in-waiting.  Within the feudal society where the bad guys have no redeeming qualities, she makes decisions to side-steps the fate that only a woman would face – marriage to the wrong man as a pawn in court politics. The solutions were too easy, but the character of Cazaril was a delight in his fatalism.  A fun romp into formula writing.

I’m currently reading Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson because of the buzz on GoodReads about the next upcoming book in the series – and something about a video game based on the series.  Here the primary character is a guy named Kelsier with specific powers based on real physics. I can see the appeal to sci-fi readers who are mostly guys.  The female lead, since his wife is long-dead, is a street waif named Vin who…  wait for it…  has special powers she knows nothing about because she was orphaned from her noble family.

Another big surprise…  in Mistborn there are NO OTHER WOMEN.  Oh, yeah, there’s a cook who cuts Vin’s hair so she looks more like a girl. Where are her sisters, aunts, cousins, BFFs, younger girls she persecutes?

Guys…  Women live in a world of women.  Women solve problems differently than how men solve problems.  Women don’t act on inflamed anger or rush into danger like Keifer Sutherland in 24 – so not believable (even for a guy).

Where are the stories where women solve the kinds of problems that women have using the kinds of resources that women can gather?  Unwanted births, little access to wealth, no voice in the public square, the demand to follow custom, submission in a confrontational situation, secret revenge, and more.  Stop putting a sword in their hands and look around.

How do women succeed in adversity?  Here’s a hint…  They work WITH other women.

Aaahhh, I feel better now.  Got that off my chest.

Acts Like a Man: Female Leads in Fantasy

by Stella Atrium
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I just finished the Tamir series by Lynn Flewelling, including The Bone Doll's Twin, Hidden Warrior, and The Queen's Oracle.  The fantasy series addresses young girls as leaders and warriors, nurtured by hiding her true gender from mentors. The prince/princess has a mother who was murdered, along with female role models who appear to her as long dead relatives.  Living women in the series are cook, nanny, and two warriors also held back from advancement by gender.

The improbability of a 16-year-old girl leading an army into a decisive battle of civil war is glossed over by statements of medieval blood rights to the crown, a thin veneer at best. But, this is fantasy and caters to the age of the audience.

The idea that a woman succeeds when she acts as a lone wolf feeds into characterization of a female protagonist who thinks like a man and acts like a man, exemplified by the Laura Croft character. She is trained for weapons and hand-to-hand combat.  She has analytical skills and adequate financial resources to put her ideas into action. She is equal to the men in a chase scene or a mono-a-mono contest.

Where are her sisters?  Where are her students or a mentor (besides Daddy) or women of equal strength and ambition? The men in The Tomb Raider stories all travel in groups. Why does she have no support system besides a computer geek who lives (apparently) in the lobby of her mansion?

Amazingly, the movie industry still debates whether the public will attend an action movie with a female lead, and this topic came up again with the Angelina Jolie movie Salt or Hilary Swank as Amelia Earhart.

Another classic lone-woman-acts-like-a-man story is the Alien series with Sigourney Weaver. She has no kids or support group of women, but she has knowledge of weapons and electronics, and she solves problems the men also try to solve by using similar reasoning. The only true female in that series was the monster that was busy laying eggs where they might mature and expanding its species.

When I ask these questions about how female characters act, I'm often accused of looking at details that are peripheral to the story. The plot is about the actions of the hero to solve the problem presented in the inciting event and gain revenge on the bad guy. Nobody cares how his sister gets the laundry done.  One reviewer told me that nobody cares what the characters wear and I should stop describing wardrobe in detail.  I suppose that's why the men in these stories all dress alike and never get clean.

Indiana Jones' fedora in not an essential element of his character? Jones Junior's leather jacket (homage to The Wild One with a young Marlon Brando) was not a conscience choice?

The sidelines action is all the good stuff, forgotten or edited by the men and now available for us to exploit for unique point of view.

For example, in the movie Beckett, Peter O'Toole plays Henry Plantagenet and Richard Burton plays his chancellor (and archbishop) Beckett. There's a scene where Henry speaks to his wife Eleanor in harsh tones saying her bed was cold. She is depicted as bound by restrictive fashion and relegated to a sewing circle.

However, this wife of Henry is Eleanor of Aquitaine who was Henry's equal in matter of state, finance, property, and war. She was older than him, had more property than him, bore him 8 children, opened schools and hospitals, wrote law where women could own land, saw her kids married to the royal families throughout Europe and the Mediterranean, even in Russia, and was the mother of Richard the Lionhearted who she rescued from prison in Germany when she was 80 years old.  Why are there no movies about this peripheral material?


Eleanor is shown again in The Lion in Winter (played by Katherine Hepburn with Peter O'Toole still doing Henry) where she has spent 10 years in the Tower of London and is still his best sparring partner in matters of state, family, and finance.

The Lion in Winter is a great example of how a strong woman character makes the male hero look better. When we place the female protagonist stage front-and-center, we may displace the male lead, but we strengthen him as well by providing dimension. If a female character is solving problems about how to manage the kids and live on a budget, the male character has contributed to those questions and must bring his (partial) answer to the theme.

Left to Tell: A Review with Partial Answers

by Stella Atrium 12/28/11
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Did you ever sit with a big question for a good long time? Maybe you found the easy answer, or the glib answer, or the partial answer from an outsider. But the truth about motivation and outcomes still doesn't fit.

I have puzzled over the big questions often, a pleasant way to spend the quiet time.  Like, why does the Great Plains have no trees? The soil is deep and fertile, made verdant by centuries of buffalo dung deposits in the gazillions. So why are the Great Plains not called the Great Forest?

I actually found an answer for that question that sits well with me. A forest was burned away when the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs crashed into the Gulf of Mexico off the Yucatan.  There's a petrified forest, in fact, in Arizona with tree trunks that were made into rock by the event. Then the grazing animals, eating all the seedlings, rose in great numbers before the trees could overtake the acreage.

One puzzle piece of my world fits snugly into place.

The cyclic massacres of the Tutzis and Hutus in Rwanda was another big question that came around in quiet moments. How could neighbors who were cousins indulge in widespread massacres every 12-18 years? What was the motivation? What were their explanations for the outcomes?

This is a heavy topic, not light banter for the dinner party. I could just ignore the question of relative motivations. Or I could explore the grievous actions and utilize some underlying truth to provide motivations for characters in my novels. The issue is relevant in many countries just now.

I read different partial answers that fit the rhetorical stance of the writer or organization more than the participants. I read much later the neo-Malthusian chapter by Jared Diamond in Collapse.  His argument called for more trees and fewer babies, and the relative responsibilities of developed countries.  But the example illustrates his articulated themes, rather than some open-ended investigation of inductive reasoning.

But what about the participants in the Rwandan massacres?  A GoodReads friend suggested that I read Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza in which she describes her experience as a Tutsi hiding in a Hutu's bathroom with six other women. To my surprise, this was a book of Catholicism and the power of faith, except the proofs of faith were thin. 

Immaculee claims a Hutu killer turned away when he saw her face, I suppose like the visage of Moses could bring conviction in the spirit.  She claims that God helped her onto a path of compassion and forgiveness so she could get past urges of revenge. The author was remarkable indeed, but what about the other Rwandans who participated, and will participate again in a decade or so?

The author claims that her prayers covered her friends so the killers didn't attack the defenseless group while she hurried toward them with French peace-keepers.  Except this scene happened late in the four-month-long massacre when passion was burned out and outside soldiers were armed with guns, not machetes.

I enjoyed the writer's descriptions, and I thanked God more than once for my easy lifestyle. Her statement of faith seemed true but too glossy in print form.  I'm certain Immaculee Ilibagiza is an inspiring motivational speaker, and I admire her work with orphans and raising international awareness through the UN.

One woman's answer for how she survived the nightmare doesn't speak to how we, the human race, can indulge this horror or how we prevent future massacres among neighbors and cousins.

Unfortunately, I'm still seeking that big answer for my big question.

Seven Christmas Things I'm Surprised I Don't Like: My Grinch List

by Stella Atrium 12/20/11
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In the spirit of writing a blog as a list (the newest route to securing blog traffic), I thought I would write out my Grinch list.  There's a plethora of these lists circulating, so please view mine with a grain of salt.

1)  Articles Written as Lists:  Too obvious to explain.

2)  Andy Williams Christmas Specials: When I was a kid (I'm giving away my age here), we waited all day for the hour of the Andy Williams Show with the in-jokes and set decorations and his colored voice that everybody recognized.  The Osmond Brothers were introduced on that show. Now a mock-up of William's voice is used for Target ads.  The old hour-long episodes are faded and jaded, looking sadder than "Lawrence Welks" or "Sing Along with Mitch" from a decade before. 

3)  Christmas Blow-out Giveaway on Twitter:  Think about lead time, folks!  Twitter is for last minute planners, I know, but a Christmas list is not.  Any woman who plans for a large family knows the gift packages were wrapped ten days ago.  She's now in the stage of polishing silver and making fruitcake before the real cooking begins.  She may not return to Twitter until time to return gifts starting on Monday.

4) Politically Correct Stance against Saying Merry Christmas:  Deal with it, and may God bless...

5) Warnings about a Hard Chicago Winter: Supposedly, the hardest winter in twenty years is coming, touted with images from last year's blizzard just for good measure, when it's 44 degrees outside. This is why everybody's so dissatisfied; the doom and gloom of the news broadcasts.  We had one hard freeze and no snow. The grass is still green and making buds. Let's enjoy the moment. 

6) Over-cheerful Helpers at the UPS Store wearing Santa Hats: Don't you just want to slap them? They're celebrating the slow death of the US Postal Office so they can charge three times as much for the same services. 

7) Dry, Smelly Christmas Trees; The Most Grinch Dislike of all:  At least the men no longer chain smoke in the same room, because I make them go outside. Next year the men can decorate a tree outside, and maybe light the gas grill and cook their own holiday meal.  Just my luck, though, it will snow in Chicago in December 2012.

Merry Christmas, all!

Ella Sykes: Why no Bio-Pic?

Stella Atrium 12/12/11
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Why am I surprised that on the same day I stumbled across two women who are ignored for developing bio-pics about their adventures? 

Ella Sykes traveled widely with her brother, Sir Percy Sykes, on his diplomatic missions in central Asia. She was the first western woman known to have ridden from the Caspian Sea to India, and published five books on the topic. 

Ella Sykes paid two visits to Persia, spending nearly three years there in all. The first took place in October 1894, when Percy Sykes invited her to accompany him on his trip to the districts of Kerman and Baluchistan, where he was being sent to establish British consulates. She spent two years in the interior of Persia and was one of the first European women to visit these parts. Ella also traveled with her brother on his subsequent missions along the Persian Gulf, visiting the major coastal settlements on the way, and spent the winter of 1896-97 with him in Tehran before returning to England at the end of February 1897. She paid her second visit to Iran some ten years later when she stayed with her brother in Mashad.

Ella shared her brother's interest in and affection for Iran and its people. This is evident in her three books about the country. In, Through Persia on a side-saddle (1898),she vividly describes her first visit, her long horseback travels and life in Kerman where she was probably the first European woman ever seen. The book received favorable reviews as "a very readable narrative" (The Times, p. 7) The Story Book of the Shah (1901), intended for young readers, recounts some of the legends in the Shah-nama. The book is well illustrated and has decorated chapter headings by her sister Ethel. Persia and its People (1910), was written after Ella's visit to Mashad and is a useful, though dated, introduction to the country, with chapters on its history, government, religion, antiquities, flora and fauna, Mashad, etc. Subsequently, she published several articles and lectures including "Persian family life" in the Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society for 1914, where she had been a founder member since 1905 and was twice elected to its council, in 1916 and 1921.

In 1911, wishing to discover what opportunities there might be in Canada for Britain's "surplus" of educated women, she worked there as a home-help for six months. In the spring of 1915, she again accompanied her brother, this time to Chinese Turkestan where for six months he was in charge of the British Consulate-General in Kashgar. Ella did not marry or have children and towards the end of her life gave much time to volunteer work with girls, primarily as honorary secretary of the Girls' Friendly Society in South Kensington. She died at her home in London on 23 March 1939.

SOURCE: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/sykes-ella-constance



Through Persia on a Side-Saddle is a notable travelogue of the first recorded land journey of a western woman from the Caspian Sea to India. With a keen eye toward the lives of women she encountered on her way, Sykes wrote a detailed account of an adventure that no other woman had experienced. The freshness of her observations comes through in her fluid and empathetic style. Starting her observations with the preparations in London, Sykes takes the reader on a lavishly descriptive journey of a world that no longer exists. Tracing her route to Tehran, she offers a full disclosure of her experiences in the capital of Persian. From there the reader is taken along to India and back to Tehran, and eventually, London. Giving a woman's perspective on an ancient center civilization, this volume proudly joins the Gorgias Historic Travels in the Cradle of Civilization series.

Ella Constance Sykes (d. 1939) was a world traveler and the first female member of the Geographical Society. She was also a member of the Central Asian Society and served as secretary to the Royal Asiatic Society.

Why No Bio-Pic?
Stella Atrium 10/22/11

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Article update:  Angelina Jolie to play Gertrude Bell.  See The Washington Times article 11/20/11.
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I'm looking forward to the premiere of the bio-pic for Gertrude Bell developed by Ridley Scott. 

Ms. Bell is certainly deserving of the attention from our filmmakers who are our myth-makers.  Here's why...  Atlantic Monthly article from 2007 reviews a biography by Georgina Howell

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/06/the-woman-who-made-iraq/5893/


The outspoken Bell was in the middle of world events then that led to our current morass.  She spoke out in the company of Winston Churchill and was in community with many Middle Eastern leaders at a time when women were without voice in those countries. 



A critique from a stage play about Ms. Bell included this observation:

"Ms Bell meddled in Middle Eastern politics well into the modern era, playing a significant role in persuading warring Sunni and Shia tribesmen to subsume their tribal identities into the fragile, cobbled-together state of Iraq. Ultimately, Bell was disillusioned and then disconsolate to see the unraveling of her hopes, and to face the mutant harvest of her life's work. To an uncanny degree, her words echo the concerns raised since day one about the wisdom of current American military intervention in Iraq."

"Gertrude Bell describes a dawning awareness of her own and her country's naive entanglement in ages-old loyalties and blood feuds,"

http://www.voiceoftherivervalley.com/why-gertrude-bell-haunts-my-dreams-aug-23-sept-2/

So here's my question...   What other women who impacted history deserve a bio-pic?  Who has been overlooked in your opinion? 

Prime Suspect as Newest in Lineup of Women as Cops and Lawyers
9/23/11 by Stella Atrium

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Maria Bello has been on TV episodes of cop shows so often, she seem familiar to the audience in her first starring role in Prime Suspect as Det. Jane Timoney, a tough homicide detective who gives as well as she has to take from the sexist boy's club in the NYC squad room.

Somehow Bello comes off as older and meaner that Kelli Giddish as Annie Frost in Chase, and with none of the personal quirks that enliven Kyra Sedgwick's performances in The Closer. 

Bello is often cast as the female heavy, in fact.  She played the hard-nosed dog trainer in Jane Austen Book Club who gets the sweet guy almost in spite of herself.  She has been cast opposite A-list actors in the movies, often as the unhelpful wife.

Johnny Depp -- Secret Window - unsympathetic wife
Mel Gibson - Payback - junkie ex-wife
Viggo Mortensen -A History of Violence - long-suffering wife

Prime Suspect is placed in a NYC squad room with alcohol slurping, snide comment dropping, probably cursing, definitely resentful co-workers.  Even Aidan Quinn, as Bello's boss, looks like he gained 20 pounds to fit the stereotype of Irish Catholic cop.

Bello's snap-brim hat is a nice touch, but too reminiscent of a 1960 cop show with Frank Sinatra titled The Detective.  The new series seems stuck in the previous decade because Jane Timoney is the ONLY woman at work.  Her female nemesis, the mother of the boyfriend's son, folds her hand with the first threat. 

This addition to the lineup of women as cops and lawyers is the more gritty, harder-hitting, less forgiving flavor.  At least it's not Charlie's Angels that premiered the same night.