In defense of the dresden files

[darthyan]

One of the most common charges levelled against the Dresden files series is that is mysogonistic. While it is possible to understand where these critics come from, this interpretation isn't entirely accurate.

Point 1: Sexism only gets you into trouble

Harry's sexism is not something that makes his life easier; in fact it often makes it worse. In the

Comments

[arkan2]

Interesting. I've only read up to book 3 myself, and I admit I failed to catch how some of Harry's problems in the first two books were tied to his misogyny. (I realized they were tied to his secrecy, but I failed to make the connection between the secrecy and the misogyny.) Perhaps this series has more subtlety to it than I've given it credit for.

This is a good analysis of the series, and I find the discussion of Harry's evolution as a character pretty compelling. Coincidentally, I've encountered a couple other criticisms of Jim Butcher's writing and I wonder if you'd care to address them?

First, there's the charge that all of the women in The Dresden Files are sexualized (i.e. described in highly sexual terms). I would add that many of them go along with this: just from what I've read so far you have Susan; the victim in book 1; Bianca; and the werewolf from book 2, Tera West. The sexualized description part makes sense coming from Harry (though it's still kind of sketchy), but according to some people who've read Codex Alera say

[darthyan]

1.) Can't comment on codex alera since i have never read them

2.) Murphy's a female cop in a job dominated mostly by men which means she's somewhat of an outcast.

3.) Harry hasn't been laid in 9 years come storm front. Also, most of the magical creatures are those that manipulate the mortal world (white court vampires where the males do the same thing

[darthyan]

there actually are compelling reasons given for murphy's views; she's the only female cop in the branch of the agency, and many of the men are rather sexist. She loves the job, but fitting in with a group you feel out of place in can be pretty daunting. There's only one or two statements that I know of and by and large they are fairly innocuous (one is that girls like cute animals, and the other is that she can grunt as well as men; since grunting is generally considered uncouth the later can be viewed as a compliment

[arkan2]

Re: Murphy, okay, that does sound reasonable. I still haven't read past book 3, and probably won't in the near future, so I guess I'll have to take your word for it.

One of the things Winterfox's reviews said that bugged me is that Harry's attitude was supported

Well, I think she was referring specifically to Storm Front (the only one she's read). If his attitude is largely supported in that book, then I think criticizing it specifically is valid, even if the series as a whole ultimately condemns that attitude.

[darthyan]

the main bone of contention that winterfox cites for her views is the love potion that Harry creates. She essentially claims that it's unbridled proof that all women in the book are money loving bitches. there are several problems with this theory