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Women, Violence and Urban Fantasy - WTF


LugaJetboyGirl

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Indeed. One of my main problems with this new-fangled UF is that contrary to what Saintcrow said, it is not about female empowerment, but often the opposite. Not only are the heroines habitually torn up about their powers and constantly need to apologize and rationalize (internally or externally) for being bad-ass or taking the lead, but they can't actually be allowed to be the star of their own story!

Because the tropes require a romance and the man in question must be an "alpha male" to be desirable, i.e. at least technically more powerful / bad-ass than the heroine. Then, the heroine being able to do stuff is actually a matter of his forbearance/ contrivance of the plot that prevents him from taking over! Add to that the fact that the heroine is typically a queen bee and all the other detailed characters are men, usually with some romantic interest in her.

If you want Urban Fantasy that avoids some (if not all) of these tropes, give Kim Harrison's "Hallows" series a try. They're light fluff, but the main theam is actually friendship, and in particular; female friendship. The romances on the other hand are of a far more fleeting nature. Sure, the main character is a chick in leather, but she kicks arse and doesn't apologise for it. In fact, she often gets to rescue/assist male characters which makes it a bit unusual.

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If you want Urban Fantasy that avoids some (if not all) of these tropes, give Kim Harrison's "Hallows" series a try.

Oh, I did. Read them all, actually. They do have a certain charm. But they still suffer from romance being shoved down the reader's throat at the most inopportune moments - when the heroine really has much more pressing issues to believably mope about her personal life! Like, ensuring that she'd survive the next couple of days... and/or her city does.

Also, I do feel that most of the characters get the lime-light due solely to sexual tension (mutual or one-way) that they can provide. Not all of them, thankfully, but way too many, IMHO. And developements in the last couple of books make me worry about the overshadowing BF syndrome, not to mention "tamed, adoring bad-boys, cause our heroine is so very special" trope.

Generally, I'd vastly prefer a series with a female heroine where romance doesn't take more room than, say, in Harry Dresden novels. A pipe dream, apparently.

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Sex. Combat. Video Games?

Nah.

The schools of Magic in M&M were four elemental schools (air, fire, water, earth, duh) and three "Schools of the Self" (Body, Mind, Spirit) also Light and Dark magic.

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Generally, I'd vastly prefer a series with a female heroine where romance doesn't take more room than, say, in Harry Dresden novels. A pipe dream, apparently.

This is an interesting thing. I don't mind romance, and like it when it's done well, and I suspect this is true of most people who will read books about female main characters. But I very much dislike the idea that an important female character always, always must be paired off, particularly when the equivalent is not true for male characters. Even leaving aside heroines (although it's certainly true that romance is likely to be more prominent when the main character is female), I'm hard-pressed to think of important female characters period who are between 15 and 40 and whose sex/love lives are simply never an issue. The same is not true of important male characters.

Which goes to show, first of all, how we could still use more female characters in books. Beyond that, I don't know whether the phenomenon is driven more by people of both genders feeling like a woman isn't complete without a man, or by women wanting romance in books while men don't and meanwhile men avoiding books about women, or what. Meh.

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This is an interesting thing. I don't mind romance, and like it when it's done well, and I suspect this is true of most people who will read books about female main characters. But I very much dislike the idea that an important female character always, always must be paired off, particularly when the equivalent is not true for male characters. Even leaving aside heroines (although it's certainly true that romance is likely to be more prominent when the main character is female), I'm hard-pressed to think of important female characters period who are between 15 and 40 and whose sex/love lives are simply never an issue. The same is not true of important male characters.

Which goes to show, first of all, how we could still use more female characters in books. Beyond that, I don't know whether the phenomenon is driven more by people of both genders feeling like a woman isn't complete without a man, or by women wanting romance in books while men don't and meanwhile men avoiding books about women, or what. Meh.

Are there really that many important male characters whose sexuality is simply off the page, or non existant? In any work of significant length, theres usually something, be it cheesy, trite, annoying, patriarchal, whatever. Action heroes have to save the girl and Tom Clancy characters muse about their virility and immoral gritty fantasy assassins have melancholy one night stands with surprisingly sensetive hookers, etc. I'm not saying its typically done well, or that it follows the same lines that female characters are usually fixed to, but its hardly a rare issue outside of genre romance.

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Are there really that many important male characters whose sexuality is simply off the page, or non existant? In any work of significant length, theres usually something, be it cheesy, trite, annoying, patriarchal, whatever. Action heroes have to save the girl and Tom Clancy characters muse about their virility and immoral gritty fantasy assassins have melancholy one night stands with surprisingly sensetive hookers, etc. I'm not saying its typically done well, or that it follows the same lines that female characters are usually fixed to, but its hardly a rare issue outside of genre romance.

I would say yes. Not talking about the hero because these days the hero generally has a love interest, but other guys--yes. We may be reading different sorts of things though; I stick mostly to standalone books, which you might not define as "of significant length."

But also, I'm more focused on characters who never wind up in relationships, not characters with no sexuality. I wouldn't count saving a girl or having a one-night stand as "being paired off," nor can I think of any important female characters at the moment for whom this is the extent of their love lives.

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