(no subject)

[misstopia]

Bran had been left behind with Jon and the girls and Rickon. But Rickon was only a baby and the girls were only girls ... - Bran, AGOT

As ladies die in childbed. No one sings songs about them. - Brienne, ACOK


Do you think GRRM is interested in telling a story about women?

I've heard (er, read) him muse on telling the story of Robert and Ned and such from pre-AGOT times, and of course the Hedge Knight revolves around male characters. I think he realizes that literary tradition marginalizes women, but ... does he really care? Undoubtedly he loves Aryas, but can an Arya grow up and maintain his interest?

And I mean as a person, not as an object. Because that's no substitute.

Comments

[misstopia.livejournal.com]

they're so invested in believing that women's inferiority is a law of nature and only modern PC feminism combined with some male chivalry allows women to do anything.

I hate this so incredibly absolutely amazingly outrageously much. And relatedly or not, it reminds me a lot of the westeros.org board :P

But not only that, unfortunately. Even well intentioned people sometimes seem to me to need women's awesomeness proven to them instead of just assuming it's true. Why aren't you assuming it's true!

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

Seriously. It's especially evident in history, wherein evidence of women's achievements and power is treated with a much higher degree of skepticism than or pretty much any other phenomenon. The contrast becomes especially strong when you see how uncritically people (trained historians included) will accept claims of men doing wonderful things, and claims of women doing absolutely nothing or women being evil.

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

Take Cleopatra, for instance--she's famous for being a seductress, not for being a brilliant politician. The uber femme fatale is no more believable (much less, in fact) than a politically clever woman, but guess which prospect gets treated as more "realistic"?