Ego Meme and Subtle Mysogyny
Feb. 8th, 2006 11:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deoridhe1. Reply to this post if you'd like some ego boosting.
2. Watch my journal over the next few days for a post just about you, only you, and why I think whatever I do about you.
Alli-kun so totally stroked my ego. No one has actually said I'm FUNNY before!!! *slips him a twenty on the side* ;)
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I've been rereading the Belgariad, by whathisface, recently and I'm finding it harder and harder to ignore the subtle mysogyny in it. There is some overt feminism - some women might actually be good rulers! - but the mysogyny slithers into all of the crevaces and may end up with me no longer reading the books if I reach the point where I can't stomach it... which would be a first for me; I've stopped reading books because I didn't like them, but not because I liked them but disapproved of the assumptions and values of the world created.
Let me explain what I mean by subtle mysogyny, since I'm here. Take the character of Polgara - the daughter of Belgarath and a powerful sorceress and disciple of Aldur. There is an overt reference to and sidestepping of overt mysogyny when she is declared the last - her father says he wasn't used to the idea of women as disciples or equals and the implication is that was obviously wrong - but the subtle mysogyny infuses her entire existence as a character through the following:
1) differences in sexual mores based entirely on gender. Belgarath and many of the other disciples are all sexually active, and often lustfully so. Polgara, despite living thousands of years and loving several men, is a virgin on her wedding night and appears to have no sexual desires whatsoever. In fact, the only female character to demonstrate sexual desires is turned into a snake.
2) differences in moral demands. The male disciples are allowed to be violent and overtly powerful. It is seen as a basic part of their nature. Polgara's only fits of violence are destroying a bedroom when her father outsmarts her, and is portrayed as a childish fit.
3) differences is the types of roles. The disciples are active or exploritory. Polgara's main tasks are taking care of people via manipulaiton, be they the Arends or her own family.
4) a bloody fucking annoying emphasis on the inscrutability of women. Every time I turn around in these books, there's another one. We're the same species, people; don't you think we can set these ideas of the cultural differences between men and owmen aside and approach each other as people??? And don't even get me started on the whole idiocy around Belgarion's wedding where all the young men getting married looked baffled and all the women looked smug.
5) the whole fishing nonsense. Men like to fish. Women don't understand it, but agreeing to clean fish is betraying womanhood. C'mon, it's a hobby, people, not some sort of amazing and perplexing thing. Incredibly, women can even fish and enjoy it! I know, shocking.
6) the relegation of woman's influence as manipulation. Even if it's presentd flatteringly, it's still women who manipulate instead of act.
I could probably come up with more, but honestly - can't we let this fallacious men are from mars, women are from venus nonsense GO already?
2. Watch my journal over the next few days for a post just about you, only you, and why I think whatever I do about you.
Alli-kun so totally stroked my ego. No one has actually said I'm FUNNY before!!! *slips him a twenty on the side* ;)
-----------------------------
I've been rereading the Belgariad, by whathisface, recently and I'm finding it harder and harder to ignore the subtle mysogyny in it. There is some overt feminism - some women might actually be good rulers! - but the mysogyny slithers into all of the crevaces and may end up with me no longer reading the books if I reach the point where I can't stomach it... which would be a first for me; I've stopped reading books because I didn't like them, but not because I liked them but disapproved of the assumptions and values of the world created.
Let me explain what I mean by subtle mysogyny, since I'm here. Take the character of Polgara - the daughter of Belgarath and a powerful sorceress and disciple of Aldur. There is an overt reference to and sidestepping of overt mysogyny when she is declared the last - her father says he wasn't used to the idea of women as disciples or equals and the implication is that was obviously wrong - but the subtle mysogyny infuses her entire existence as a character through the following:
1) differences in sexual mores based entirely on gender. Belgarath and many of the other disciples are all sexually active, and often lustfully so. Polgara, despite living thousands of years and loving several men, is a virgin on her wedding night and appears to have no sexual desires whatsoever. In fact, the only female character to demonstrate sexual desires is turned into a snake.
2) differences in moral demands. The male disciples are allowed to be violent and overtly powerful. It is seen as a basic part of their nature. Polgara's only fits of violence are destroying a bedroom when her father outsmarts her, and is portrayed as a childish fit.
3) differences is the types of roles. The disciples are active or exploritory. Polgara's main tasks are taking care of people via manipulaiton, be they the Arends or her own family.
4) a bloody fucking annoying emphasis on the inscrutability of women. Every time I turn around in these books, there's another one. We're the same species, people; don't you think we can set these ideas of the cultural differences between men and owmen aside and approach each other as people??? And don't even get me started on the whole idiocy around Belgarion's wedding where all the young men getting married looked baffled and all the women looked smug.
5) the whole fishing nonsense. Men like to fish. Women don't understand it, but agreeing to clean fish is betraying womanhood. C'mon, it's a hobby, people, not some sort of amazing and perplexing thing. Incredibly, women can even fish and enjoy it! I know, shocking.
6) the relegation of woman's influence as manipulation. Even if it's presentd flatteringly, it's still women who manipulate instead of act.
I could probably come up with more, but honestly - can't we let this fallacious men are from mars, women are from venus nonsense GO already?
