Comments for Shadowguard

Comment on Women in Urban Fantasy, and Mistreatment Thereof by Nonny

Nonny — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 03:53:33 +0000

I haven't gotten around to reading Patricia Briggs. I've heard a lot of good things about her work, but I've also heard a lot of stuff that really annoys me. I hate when writers include in their world setting reasons for there to NOT be women around. I don't mean stuff like, say, the book takes place at a boy's school (but even then, All Men of Genius by Lev AC Rosen does exactly that; the whole book is about a girl disguising herself as a boy to get into the top science school, and the book has several well-rounded, involved women characters, including Ada fucking Lovelace -- should mention this is steampunk, not urban fantasy) -- but rather, decreeing things like "female werewolves are rare". Which I think is in Briggs. And why? What is the point of that?

Comment on Women in Urban Fantasy, and Mistreatment Thereof by Nonny

Nonny — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 01:20:36 +0000

Wow. That’s pretty… wow.

Comment on Women in Urban Fantasy, and Mistreatment Thereof by Nonny

Nonny — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 01:20:14 +0000

Ah, I didn’t remember her being prominent in the later books. But even still, throughout the series (or at least to the point I stopped reading, which was around 11), Anita is heavily critical, sometimes downright insulting, towards other women, and makes a point of saying that she’s “not like those women.” This is really a problem, and a strong trend in UF.

Yeah, the way Anita treats men in her life is definitely a problem too, but I wasn’t focusing on men in UF in this article.

Comment on Women in Urban Fantasy, and Mistreatment Thereof by pixxelpuss

pixxelpuss — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 21:58:40 +0000

I was just bitching about this the other day. I find that Patricia Briggs is bad for the lone female and defanged tropes (I mean, her protags are basically professional victims for all their supernatural awesome powers), although her last book was a bit better. And as much as I love Kelley Armstrong, she constantly makes her female characters (none of whom are stupid) behave as though they were incapable of rational thought to move the plot along. It drives me batty.

Comment on Women in Urban Fantasy, and Mistreatment Thereof by Jenny

Jenny — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:35:42 +0000

Anita’s best friend is Veronica and she stays throughout the series. Another female in those books is Claudia, the wererat. And the wererat doctor, Lillian. And Sophie, Richard’s second in command.

It’s weird to me that you included Anita in this post because what annoys me the most about that series (even though I still love it) is that the men are all Anita’s bitches. Jean-Claude doesn’t say boo to her and she is constantly going against what he tells her with no repercussion. And don’t get me started on Richard.

I don’t read much UF outside of Laurell K Hamilton, so I can’t speak to the genre, but I believe you when you say a lot of authors rely on weak reasoning to manipulate their heroines into distress. In the romance genre, I find a lot of instances where a character does something completely out of character and there’s no good reason provided for it. It’s frustrating, and you’re right, it’s lazy writing. Inconsistency for the sake of drama.

Jenny

Comment on Women in Urban Fantasy, and Mistreatment Thereof by Evangeline

Evangeline — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 12:16:48 +0000

What made me uncomfortable was that Mercy is half-Blackfoot/feet, but never took the time to learn more about her heritage, yet she used it as a scapegoat to explain why she could never fit in with any one or group (much less her white mother, step-father, and half-sisters, whom she pushed away not because she is a shape-shifting coyote, but because they’re blonde and white–it smacked of unconscious self-loathing). Briggs did tie Mercy’s heritage into the last book, but it was too little too late, and actually backfired for me because her Native American heritage isn’t another interesting facet to her character, the revelation of her background made her secretly Super Amazing Special! As a result, Mercy being mixed race seemed less like actual diversity in UF and more along the lines of injecting something “exotic” into her character. :/

Comment on Women in Urban Fantasy, and Mistreatment Thereof by Nonny

Nonny — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 03:30:16 +0000

@Minx:

Yay! This is part of why I wrote this post, actually — to get other writers to think actively about the choices they’re making in their fiction. It’s like theme, kinda. Most people don’t really focus on it when they’re writing, but it’s there in the story, underlying everything. And like theme, if you actively think about what messages you want to send, you can end up with a much stronger story.

That reminds me, I have some links I should probably post…

Comment on Women in Urban Fantasy, and Mistreatment Thereof by Nonny

Nonny — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 03:26:49 +0000

@Evangeline,

Somebody pointed out to me in my mirror of this over on my Livejournal that Anita Blake had a female friend too — who was also written out after the first few books. Sigh.

I love urban fantasy, a lot, but it’s frustrating what’s out there. There are a handful of really great books, but they’re few and far between in comparison to how much UF is out there. It’s sad, because the genre has a lot of potential, and it purports to be woman-focused, but really, it’s not.

I have heard folks talk about various issues with the Mercy books, but the mixed race part, I’m unaware of. If you don’t mind my asking, what made you uncomfortable? (I haven’t read the books, and I’m trying to figure out whether I want to or not!)

Comment on Women in Urban Fantasy, and Mistreatment Thereof by Minx Malone

Minx Malone — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 01:19:58 +0000

Great post! You’ve summed up everything that annoys me lately about UF and why I’m so determined to write the kind of heroines that I can relate to. Maybe I’m not a sharp shooter or six feet tall and physically strong but I’d like to think that my creativity and determination can be heroic traits as well. Hopefully UF will evolve and we’ll see more female characters other than the same tropes/stereotypes popular right now.

Comment on Women in Urban Fantasy, and Mistreatment Thereof by Evangeline

Evangeline — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:51:02 +0000

And this is why I’ve drastically cut back on UF. Once the genre exploded, a great, great majority of what’s out there are merely derivative of one another to the point of blandness. I would also lump the once great Mercy Thompson and Sookie Stackhouse series’ in that group, as both women have issues with other women (in Sookie’s case, she might have a female friend, but they manage to get written out after two or three books and the focus comes back to Sookie+Eric/Bill/Quinn/man of the month). The Mercy Thompson series definitely fails the Bechdel Test, and I gradually grew uncomfortable with the portrayal of Mercy’s mixed race background. I wish I had the patience to write UF, because I miss what made the genre great in its early years.