can’t hardly throw a rock without hitting one

[dichroic]

There’s an article up on Tor.com, Break the YA Monopoly — Give Us Female Heroes for Adults, by Emily Asher-Perrin. OK. While I’m very happy that Tor.com has feminist articles, WTF? What has Asher-Perrin been reading? I’d expect an article like that in the NYT, but on Tor??? Because I can name female heroes in adult fantasy and SF for days, for any definition of hero. There are the ones like Mor Phelps (Jo Walton’s Among Others) who is ‘merely’ the hero of her own life; there are the ones like Kate Daniels (eponymous series by Ilona Andrews) or Beka Rosselin-Metadi (Mageworlds series by Debra Doyle and James D. MacDonald) who could take on any Marvel heroine; there are the gritty ones like Toby Daye (Seanan Maguire’s October Daye series) or Elizabeth Bear’s Jenny Casey, who kick ass and win battles but only at the cost of great personal pain. There are the ones who make mistakes and do their damnedest to fix them, becoming a hero in the process, like Kim Murray aka Aurelia Dsaret (Sherwood Smith’s Coronets and Steel). There’s the older ones like Paksenarrion, the paladin of a warrior god (1980s, I think) and the newer ones like Verity Price, cryptozoologist, martial artist, and ballroom of Seanan Maguire’s just-begun Discount Armageddon series. There’s even mythical ones, like the fairy-tale heroines of Jim Hines’ Princess books.

The entire subgenre of Urban Fantasy is centered on female protags; granted there are Bellas among therm but there are lots of real heroes too, some mentioned above. In addition, mysteries these days more often have female detectives than not, and while some of them are bumblers who always need rescuing, others are smart and brave.

I don’t know what exactly Asher-Perrin, is missing in her reading, but it doesn’t seem to be missing in mine. I’m sure there are plenty of mysogynist books out there in recent SFF< but I’m not even deliberately trying to avoid them, just buying books that sound appealing to me. Based on what’s ended up on my shelves and Kindle, I’d have said rather that the genres of fantasy and SF, both adult and YA, are serving as shining beacons right now, that other forms of literature ought to consider following.

Mirrored from Dichroic Reflections.

Comments

[legionseagle]

The thing that boggled me was

And, more importantly, there are certain types of characters who are practically never written as women. Captain Jack Sparrow. Ford Prefect. Loki. Jonathan Strange. Gandalf.

What types of characters are these supposed to be, because they don't seem to me to have a unifying thread. They aren't (with the exception of Jonathan Strange, who is a co-protag) the protagonists of the stories in which they appear - I'd argue that Elizabeth was far more the protagonist of Pirates and she has an element of Sparrow in her makeup, which is how she becomes Pirate King.

[bombasticat]

I think she meant that each one represented a different character archetype. Which doesn't quite make sense since Jack Sparrow and Loki are both tricksters, but if she means that there aren't many female trickster or female ancient guiding wizard roles, she might have something.

[dichroic]

I can't quite figure out what types she's thinking of either. Sparrow is a trickster but also attractive and probably good rather than neutral or malign like Loki. I did come up with one female analog: she's a character in Flora's fury by Ysabeau Wilce ( saying who would be a spoiler). But its true there are fewer female tricksters. As for Gandalf, you don't have to go too far: isn't Galadriel a similar type?

I don't know that Ford Prefect is a type at all - it can't be hard to find books with a female friend who knows more than the protagonist (Hermione?). And I found Jonathan Strange eminently forgettable, so can't think of analogies.

[bombasticat]

Yeah; I don't really remember The Hitchhiker's Guide since it's been about fifteen years since I last read it. I think the Ford Prefect role is rarer among female characters than male, but not unknown.

Should I check out Flora's Fury?

[dichroic]

Not unless you're already read Flora Segunda and Flora's Dare, and if you had I don't think you'd be asking. They're great, but I think they need to be read in order.

[bombasticat]

I will check them out in order, then.

[bombasticat]

I think the writer was thinking primarily of books that make it to film, but didn't explain that clearly. It was an unfocused article.

That said, if my takeaway is right, the books that get optioned for film don't tend to be the ones by Catherynne Valente or Octavia Butler; they tend to have few female characters survive long enough to get assigned actors, and if there is a lead female character, they don't interact much with female supporting characters. The Hunger Games is the only recent exception I can think of, and only partly an exception (though to be fair I don't watch many movies).

[dichroic]

In that case, I'm not sure I even care - not a big film buff, and anyway the idea that there aren't enough female heros in movies is a truism. Of course I can name some; I love the way Jamie Lee Curtis finds her inner superhero in True Lies. Of course she has to be rescued, but she's new at it and is learning all the time. But there definitely arent enough.

But it's also true that a bunch of the books I named above would make GREAT action movies!

[dichroic]

By the way, when I said "don't care" I hope it's clear I wasn't talking about your post. I just think "there aren't enough adult female heroes in movies these days" barely deserves an article unless someone has a new way to look at it or a constructive suggestion - though if the movies truly are doing better with YA heroines, that IS news.

[bombasticat]

Oh, no-- I didn't think you meant my post at all. And I agree. It's not news unless it includes suggestions.

I'd like to see things from industry people talking about how, hello, you can get female extras in background scenes, make your casting notices less *-ist and the audience won't faint if a woman actually talks to another woman.

*fill in the -ist, really.