LKH Lashouts

In another venue, the lovely troubleinchina pointed me towards a post where someone was discussing gender issues and had used as their example the Harry Potter Universe. I found the discussion very interesting, especially when Severus Snape became Severa and could then be compared to Morgan Le Fay of Arthurian Legend.

And it hit me then that used for Anita Blake, a genderswitch might quite clearly show how lopsided things seemed to have become and how much changed Anita is as a character. And there's so much more:

Antonio (because we must keep the Mexican connection, yes?) Blake is a Vampire Hunter. He's known as the Executioner. Vampires only fear one other person, a hunter known as Death, whose real name is Edwina. Antonio does everything he can to deal with the monsters but in the course of a rapidly political and magically stressed set of events, he finds himself blurring the lines between monster and person. One of the things making the line blur is Rachel Zeeman, a were-wolf who struggles with what she is and tries so hard to be human, unlike Jeannette Claudia a centuries old vampire who never claims to be anything other than different, powerful and seductive. Soon Antonio isn't even sure if he's a monster as things get more and more complicated with the women he thinks he loves and the life he's living. And then comes the ardeur.

What does it say about the story when we reverse the genders and suddenly Anita is Antonio a man with a veritable harem of girls to have sex with, and who has a power to make other people want him? Who has a power (that as far as I know, given I haven't read the books) makes someone (a girl) trying to recover from an addiction to the ardeur want him and become addicted to him. Is that rape? Is that reckless endangerment? Is that fear of the power? Or is it a sneaky use of trying to get what he always wanted deep down in his Catholic heart but was afraid to pursue?

What about Rachel's determination to make the Pack a democracy? Or Rachel's stubbornness to hold on to her humanity and how she loses her acceptance of what she is at the start of each new book?

Does the fear that Antonio might use the arduer against Lisa his young apprentice animator become more poignant? Less?

Does our fear as readers that Antonio is a monster and doesn't realize it, and Edwina might and perhaps should put him down, become more realistic?

Questions? Thoughts? Suggestions? Discussions? Anyone? Bueller?

[pith, this is allowed, right?]