Solution to Weak Females in Series (My First Post)

[ad-kelley.livejournal.com]

    Hi, I'm new here.  I guess I should mention that there are potentially some spoilers for Bullet sprinkled throughout what I wrote.  That being said, I would argue something the quality of Bullet is really incapable of having 'spoilers' beyond the fact that it was written at all.

      I just migrated to this page from the Bullet threads on the Amazon website.  It's good to see there are plenty of people of thinking critically of what's going on in this series. I'm currently re-reading Circus of the Damned since its the only one I actually own, and after taking in the rest of the series through Bullet, the differences are staggering.  Do I see some seeds for whats to come?  A little.  But all in all, its like reading two entirely different characters.  Anyways, I don't necessarily want to talk about that.  One thing that occured to me the other day is the relatively minor role women play in these books.

        Aside from Anita, there are maybe two capable women in the entire Anitaverse.  Claudia, and then maybe Ronnie (who seems to have disappeared with her wererat boyfriend?). Three, actually, I just remembered Sylvie.  I don't know if that's really any better though because since shes a strong woman, clearly LKH had no choice but to go ahead and make her a somewhat mannish lesbian.   All other females we meet are incredibly weak and cowed.  Wereleopards (which less face it, kind of suck anyway) females are basically just laying around all the time crying for help.  Werelion females are apparently kept locked up somewhere.  In bullet, we meet a young tiger princess (?) who can't even control her own technicolor dreamcats in front of Anita, and Anita forcibly brings her beast (with no median form? Such weakness!) The (theoretically) powerful Tiger Queen Bibbiana can't keep her cats in tow in front of the world's sexiest lady either.

     The vampires? Don't even get me started on the vampires.  Every single vampire female that is brought into the series is either insane, jealous of Anita, or insanely jealous of Anita.   
 
     Bullet only further reinforces this as the ancient black tiger that Anita meets is even smaller than her and cuddles up against her after their impromptu grind session on the floor (and the aforementioned bringing of the beast of the impotent red queen).   If you weren't aware of LKH's gender you could almost accuse the writer of misogyny.  The primary protangonist is the only capable female character brought into the narrative, and even she is (somewhat) made to have sex with EVERY STRONG MALE CHARACTER.  Now granted, without exception she is the best they've ever had as she has bucking, screaming orgasms one after another, but still.  How does no one involved in LKH's writing process think it is unhealthy for her to fantasize about herself to this extent in this type of arena? At this point its not even speculative, it is just truth that LKH sees herself as the girl all the "big boys kiss" and other women pale in comparison.

    I do however, come equipped with constructive criticism.  The werehyenas.  The werehyenas (whom if I'm correct, we have yet to even see in beast form) are a severely underdeveloped animal group in the story for a demographic that is supposedly the third most powerful in the city.  They are also dominated typically by an alpha female.  How great a story would it be if a powerful werehyena alpha female came in and challenged not only Narcissus but was able to resist Asher's call? We'd get to see what I think would be a really interesting animal group more deeply explored, have a real, tangible (on-screen) conflict, and fighting/killing.  Maybe even have some of the old police work too.  Maybe some corny jokes.  Some story development? What do I know though. 


Final note: Does no one else wish there were green tigers? BattleCat anyone?

Comments

[lilian413.livejournal.com]

Does no one else wish there were green tigers? BattleCat anyone?

You win the internet with this comment :DDDD

[ad-kelley.livejournal.com]

I was hoping that might be appreciated.

[ladyniko.livejournal.com]

Seconded!

Here, have virtual mint chocolate chip ice cream bars - no calories! :)

(With another 80's classic as my icon too *g*)

[desert-vixen.livejournal.com]

My BattleCat icon is in for reworking, but Cartoon Felines of the 80s approve of your comment.

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

And since hyenas are matriarchal, and LKH prides herself on her OMGBIOLOGY!!! knowledge, it would make a lot of sense to have some strong female werehyenas around. Which is probably why it will never happen. Sigh.

[ad-kelley.livejournal.com]

That's another bone of contention I have...I am, in actuality a wildlife biologist. And while I work primarily with coastal waterbirds, I do have a fairly well-rounded zoological knowledge base. Most of LKH's "facts" and "research vary anywhere from "meh" to "how in the world do you think that's right?"

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

Her handling of werecreatures is one of things that annoys me most about the series. I'm certainly not a wildlife expert by any means, but I can see how much crap she's pulling from the air. I'm very proud of how much research I've done into wolf behaviour and body langauge for my werewolf books, because at least when I deviate from fact for the sake of the story, there's still a basis in reality. LKH left that behind looooooong ago.

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

IMHO LKH barely made it through college with her vaunted biology degree. She talks about how she wanted to be a wildlife biologist, but I suspect her grades were too low to get even atarting job. You did need to either have or eventually get a MS to get your job, right? I don't think LKH had the GPA for grad school.

[ad-kelley.livejournal.com]

You definitely have to have a MS for any job worth having (particularly in this economy). I actually work through a university and am working on my PhD as well, which is the only way you ever get to be in charge of any research or have a job that's not full-time field. That's not saying its a market full of geniuses, it's just a very saturated field so employers/agencies can be very picky.

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

Remember this is the woman who wrote all male lion prides in Flirt. What are these a group of werelion monks or something?

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I know. I know you've got make some allowances for fiction, but at least try and ground your craziness in reality so readers don't sit back going "what the hell?" every page.

*cracks up*

[gatitagitanilla.livejournal.com]

This is a really good point! You made me laugh really hard.

[killiara.livejournal.com]

This. A woman can internalize the misogyny spit out at her by just being a woman in today's society.

[cryptaknight.livejournal.com]

Women can be misogynists, and I think LKH is. She, and Anita, are so intent on being one of those guys, and they use the fact that they are not like those women to do it. She clearly marks a line on which she and Anita are on one side, and those other icky/weak/jealous/bitchy women are on the other.

[acrimonyastraea.livejournal.com]

Yes. She very much subscribes to the "exceptional woman" line of thinking. She has such essentialist views of women and gender, and thinks things typically associated with women are bad so when a woman doesn't display those characteristics she's just an exception.

She can't seem to see people as individuals with a mix of various traits and strengths, many of which are shaped by how we're taught. Which I think is part of why she's so terrible at characterization.

[amiedoll.livejournal.com]

LKH generalizes pretty much about everything, not just gender, but race, culture, sexual orientation, age, and image. Her characters are cardboard cut outs because she categorizes everyone and fails to see that we are all individuals.

Its pretty flagrant in her books, but even more obvious in her blogs, because she can then hold everyone else up as an example of why she is so different, superior and special. I think one of my favorite examples of this was when she was looking at pictures to send to her comic guys. She bragged that she had spent the day looking at pictures of naked men and predatory cats while everyone else looks at pictures of kittens and flowers.

What I find truly bazaar in her blogs is her instance that she is manly, while she always points out how feminine her husband is. She parades around other people weaknesses and points out her own strengths, its one of the reasons I haven't read her blogs in a while, that and the rampant sexism.

Well said

[gatitagitanilla.livejournal.com]

I think this is a really good point. Its part of the reason why I hate hearing the played out, "I dont get along with other girls, I have more guy friends, Girls are catty" statements when they come out of other females. I used to have nothing but guy friends and men can be pretty catty themselves. I think that women who perceive other females this way are DEFINITELY mysogynists and their experiences with women are affected by their own negative outlook.

[atriums.livejournal.com]

I think one of the only decent wildlife facts I know are that hyenas are a female-dominated species, and it irks me to no ends whenever I see this mentioned in her books. Werehyenas don't appear to have any female member that I can recall off the top of my head.

She calls Narcissus a hermaphrodite, and in one book, they even mention he was pregnant in passing. Unless it was in the book I skipped, I don't think they ever touched base with that and it died. I could have been okay with that if he didn't primarily identify himself as masculine. =\

It makes me wonder if she considers gay men as those weak womenz, too.

So far I think it's along the lines of: Blake/LKH, other women/gay men, then sexy men who share Blake's many beds.

I think she just might be misogynistic after all. ;o

[roguetailkinker.livejournal.com]

She pointed out that there were no females among St Louis' werehyena group because Narcissus keeps them out, afraid the matriarchal tendencies would allow a female to take over.

And you can identify however you like, but if you've got the equipment to get pregnant, your self-identification is not going to stop pregnancy from happening.

[ad-kelley.livejournal.com]

Well unfortunately, the hermaphrodism is what would have kept it from happening. Hermaphrodites are uniformly sterile (this goes back to LKH's wonderful over-reaching and over-relying on that vaunted degree). I'm aware of why there aren't CURRENTLY any females. That just adds to the story development. I really just think its weird you have this group that is supposedly a major dynamic that has never even really been broached other than "they guard me" and that Asher can call them now.

[roguetailkinker.livejournal.com]

I don't have the bio knowledge to agree or disagree that one with you, but there's a big difference between "Narcissus can't get pregnant because s/he's a hermaphrodite" and "Narcissus can't get pregnant because s/he identifies as male". If your equipment doesn't work then that's one thing, but sperm and ova don't care about your gender identification.

[sehkmetschild.livejournal.com]

Some hermaphrodites can GET pregnant, but not stay pregnant. It has to do with how ambiguous the sex organs are. There are 5 (or 6) kinds and 2 can become pregnant but sooner or later the body will cause intrauterine fetal demise.

[ad-kelley.livejournal.com]

Also, and I just thought of this. If a female alpha were to take over, it would be the ONLY significant animal group where Anita was NOT the were-leader or whatever. So in actuality, if this did happen it would probably be immediately squashed when, after 600 pages of description Anita summarily inhaled the hyena female into her vagina off-panel and the book ended. There would, of course, be an epilogue letting us know exactly how long Nathaniel's hair was.

[roguetailkinker.livejournal.com]

I agree with you in some things, but I should point out that Elinore is a female vampire and is neither insane nor jealous of Anita. Even Anita had to (grudgingly) admit that Elinore is intelligent, canny, and can be ruthless when she wants to be. It's true that Elinore probably vanished (I haven't read Bullet yet so I don't know if she's in it), but while she was around she was a good character.

It's a shame, though; keeping Elinore around could make things interesting. Her presence forces Anita to view another woman as something other than a rival or a flunky.

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but I don't even remember who Elinore is.

[roguetailkinker.livejournal.com]

She was mostly in Danse Macabre. Her best scene was in chapter 25, when they're plotting their strategy to deal with the other MotCs. She has a sweetie so she doesn't care who Anita messes with, and even Anita has to admit she's smart and ruthless.

Under the ladylike exterior, she was tough, fair, and harder than a box of nails. She just hid it much better than I did. We got along. Besides, all the male vamps were prettier than me, why shouldn't some of the female vamps be prettier too?

[deceptica]

I thought Elinore was an interesting case because she was allowed to be strong and good, but still under the clear condition that she would never ever compete with Anita for her mens, which was achieved by establishing early on that she was in love with a knight and didn't care for anyone else. We never got to see the guy though, probably because if Anita had ever met him he would obviously have converted to the Church of Anita immediately.

Basically, all heterosexual women who might do as much as give one of Anita's boys a look are jealous and evil. They are only allowed to be around if they are very obviously non-threatening to her queen status, by being lesbian (Sylvie), appearing asexual (Claudia), or otherwise being "taken" by someone unattractive (Hannah, Catherine) or someone who's never seen (Elinore). I reckon this is why Cherry was written out as well, because Zane was interested in her. What, another woman getting male attention? Perish the thought!