Date: 29 Sep 2010 08:43 am (UTC)
From: [personal profile] maire
Wow. I have a few things to say about all that.

1. Giving birth.
I don't feel this is a good argument for women's will. Giving birth really doesn't take a very strong will, necessarily. It's a huge effort, and a lot of suffering, often, but it happens willy-nilly. One doesn't have a choice. I was awake for two full days, and in pain for most of 27 hours, and it was bad enough that I made several sincere attempts to tell those with me to euthanise me. I'm proud of how well I did in the whole situation, but one thing it's left me very aware of is that the birth happens without the mother's volition. Her body, and the infant's, do it without needing the involvement of her conscious choice. There are surely countless other examples of women's wills that rely more on things the women have had choices about.

2. Wolf-mother.
Again, I disagree slightly. I think one reason the protectively dangerous older woman is more acceptable is because the overwhelmingly strong protective feelings many women experience when they have children cause *enough women* to act as though it's normal for them to have this set of behaviours that it has influenced our culture. This is one of the few areas we have automatic entitlement in, when it comes to fighting. It's pathetic that we don't get it until we have had a baby, but I don't think it's about the hero. For example, in the final fight in 'Aliens' ("Get away from her, you bitch!"), the mother (Ripley) is certainly not protecting either the hero or a man, but it's a clear case of maternal protective fighting.

3. Have you ever read 'The Dark Angel' series? ('The Dark Angel', 'A Gathering of Gargoyles', and 'The Pearl of the Soul of the World')
If not, and you like YA fantasy at all, I think you might like it. I didn't realise till I'd read it several times, but it breaks most of the conventions you list. The girl rescues a boy and a girl. The hero is coded non-white, although seems mostly hetero. The sidekick doesn't sacrifice herself. The purpose for fighting is survival, and stays that way, despite clear chances to turn it into being all about the love interest. The hero getting the love interest is not the final reward. What I particularly liked was it managed all that, but never felt like it was just rebelling against perceived norms -- it was more that that was how the story went.

4. You are so right about nurses!
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