(no subject)
Dec. 14th, 2007 11:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yubsieSo, while realizing I should stop looking at the BFC thread in Lit because it makes me want to throw a wizard in a snowbank. (Background for those of you I haven't been ranting at: People are praising BFC for being some amazing piece of work. Largely based on Leia's plot. I chimed in that Leia's plot COULD have been interesting if she weren't so OOC it HURT. This led to a long argument with them calling it character development and me calling it writing a strong female character as a simpering idiot. The difference is, one of us is right. :p)
This has, however, led to two interesting linked realizations. The first is the latest reason that Del Rey's run has sat so badly with me. The other is a theory on why it mostly seems to be male fans who DO respond well to Del Rey's run. Not that all male fans do, as some are obviously just as annoyed and bitter as I am.
What it basically comes down to is that Star Wars isn't a universe for gritty reality. Star Wars is a universe for childhood hero. Who do female Star Wars fans frequently point to as their childhood hero? Not the helpless Princess Aurora. :p Princess Leia, kicker of asses. :p
Which leads to part two. Little girls of our generation didn't exactly have a lot of options for FEMALE heroes. Male characters were a dime a dozen, but female characters who were actually childhood hero material were a rare breed. So that reinforces Star Wars as a universe for childhood heroes. And the fact that the female characters have been written so consistently lousily? Well that's just a kick in the teeth.
At least Robert Munsch has never betrayed me by deciding to write "The Paperbag Princess Made a Lousy Queen". :p
And even if he did, my final childhood hero is my Great-Great Aunt Kate and no publishing company can spoil THAT. And she was so completely and utterly awesome. :p
This has, however, led to two interesting linked realizations. The first is the latest reason that Del Rey's run has sat so badly with me. The other is a theory on why it mostly seems to be male fans who DO respond well to Del Rey's run. Not that all male fans do, as some are obviously just as annoyed and bitter as I am.
What it basically comes down to is that Star Wars isn't a universe for gritty reality. Star Wars is a universe for childhood hero. Who do female Star Wars fans frequently point to as their childhood hero? Not the helpless Princess Aurora. :p Princess Leia, kicker of asses. :p
Which leads to part two. Little girls of our generation didn't exactly have a lot of options for FEMALE heroes. Male characters were a dime a dozen, but female characters who were actually childhood hero material were a rare breed. So that reinforces Star Wars as a universe for childhood heroes. And the fact that the female characters have been written so consistently lousily? Well that's just a kick in the teeth.
At least Robert Munsch has never betrayed me by deciding to write "The Paperbag Princess Made a Lousy Queen". :p
And even if he did, my final childhood hero is my Great-Great Aunt Kate and no publishing company can spoil THAT. And she was so completely and utterly awesome. :p
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-15 06:06 am (UTC)I haven't read the Black Fleet books, but I've always heard fairly bad things about them. Considering that I've already suffered through the Callista books, the DN trilogy, and now LotF, I think it will be a long, long time before I look at Black Fleet. There's only so much bad one can take. But I completely believe what you say about it.
I hadn't consciously thought of it this way until you'd said it, but I agree that it seems to be primarily male fans who are pleased with Del Rey. Not all, no, but more men seem happy with it than women. And I agree with your reasoning.
Gritty reality has its place, but you're right, SW is also about ideals. I think that in far too many ways, the idealism has been gutted in the name of realism, and that's not right.
As far as female heroes, good heavens, how right you are. When I was a little girl, it was a source of serious irritation to me that no female characters ever seemed to DO anything. They generally seemed to be evil, completely passive, or pseudo-men who only succeeded because they suppressed their femininity. Leia was awesome in every way. Even in SW, though, there was pretty much ONLY Leia. You know who was my hero besides her? The female officer on Hoth who ordered the firing of the ion cannon. A woman ordering the big gun, the one that could disable a Star Destroyer. I adored her.
Then in the EU, we started to see other strong female characters. There wasn't just Leia any longer - suddenly there was Mara, and Winter, and Iella, and Mirax, and all the female pilots in Rogue and Wraith Squadrons, and on and on. And look what's happened to most of them. They're either written very badly or forgotten or ignored altogether. And how often do we ever see a book that has more than one strong female character featured as a major player in the plot? Even with Mara and Leia, it's often one or the other. Because apparently we can have half a dozen guys running around accomplishing things, but only one, maybe two women doing the same.
So yeah, I'm annoyed too. And without even going into Lit. :p And I still like your Great-Great Aunt Kate too. :D
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-15 06:12 am (UTC)My other childhood hero was the paperbag princess because she didn't take any of the prince's nonsense. I'm sad I didn't see Classic Who as a child, because Sarah Jane is TOTALLY childhood hero material. :p
I still don't understand how we went from so many awesome women to, well, Del Rey with Jaina's love triangle of stupid.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-23 08:47 am (UTC)I'm hoping the series ends with the three of them being just friends and that's it!