Misogny and fantasy: inextricably linked?

[yoshitsune]

Historically authentic sexism in fantasy? Let's unpack thatThis is an interesting and thought-provoking article about the role of women in fantasy and about the idea that misogynist fantasy worlds are somehow "historically accurate" and therefore should be taken for granted. Mostly I find it hilarious how people are all for "historical accuracy"

Comments

[bobthetrout]

THIS REMINDS ME OF THIS CLASS I TOOK AND I TOTALLY WOULD HAVE RAMBLED AT YOU AND YOU WOULD HAVE HAD INSIGHTS AND TOLD ME TO SUCK IT UP BUT I COULD NOT CONTACT YOU TO BE WHINY.

No, seriously, one of my classes was Women in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. The prof (and at least me in one of the papers, if not the rest of the class) argued that women had it better in the late medieval period than reformation/early modern.

And I would have whined at you about the library being slow on my book request so I had to read Margery Kempe in middle english because that's the only free version on the internet, and you would have told me to suck it up.

[yoshitsune]

Ahahaha YOU ARE ENTIRELY CORRECT IN YOUR ASSESSMENT OF THE SITUATION

And yeah, women did have it better in late medieval than early modern, IMO; there was much more support for females owning businesses, for example, and widespread numbers of convents offered options for women who did not want to marry and wanted to be educated, options that were mostly gone post-Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries.

And hahaha, I do sympathize - Margery Kempe is a trip even in translation, let alone in ME - but still SUCK IT UP, AT LEAST IT'S NOT JULIAN OF NORWICH IN MIDDLE ENGLISH. THAT WOULD MAKE EVEN ME WANT TO SLIT MY THROAT, IF SHE WOULDN'T READ IT AS A LACTATING BREAST-VAGINA

[bobthetrout]

Part of it too was the reformation created this moral backlash that hit women far harder than men, meaning that if a woman was not married and raising a family she was instantly suspect.

Honestly I didn't used Margery Kempe for any of my papers. Christine de Pizan all the way, yo. XD

[bluewoodensea]