Uh oh! It seems that some woman is offering some opinions about Tolkien!
Over on Time.com, Ruth Davis Konigsberg has a brief personal essay reflecting on the almost complete lack of female characters in the new Hobbit film, and in Tolkien’s ouvre generally. As she notes, it’s not until about two hours in to the nearly three-hour movie that “we finally meet someone without a Y chromosome,” namely Cate Blanchett’s Galadriel — and she was added into the originally all-male story by the screenwriters. Blanchette’s is the only female name out of 37 named in the cast list – though there are a couple of unnamed female characters who make brief appearances.
“I did not read The Hobbit or the The Lord of the Rings trilogy as a child, and I have always felt a bit alienated from the fandom surrounding them,” Konigsberg observes.
Now I think I know why: Tolkien seems to have wiped women off the face of Middle-earth. I suppose it’s understandable that a story in which the primary activity seems to be chopping off each other’s body parts for no particular reason might be a little heavy on male characters — although it’s not as though Tolkien had to hew to historical accuracy when he created his fantastical world. The problem is one of biological accuracy. Tolkien’s characters defy the basics of reproduction: dwarf fathers beget dwarf sons, hobbit uncles pass rings down to hobbit nephews. If there are any mothers or daughters, aunts or nieces, they make no appearances. Trolls and orcs especially seem to rely on asexual reproduction, breeding whole male populations, which of course come in handy when amassing an army to attack the dwarves and elves.
Yes, yes, as she admits, Tolkien’s few female characters tend to be powerful. But that hardly changes the basic fact that the Hobbit, and Tolkien generally, is overloaded with dudes.
These fairly commonplace observations have, naturally, sent the orcs and the elf princesses of the Men’s Rights subreddit into an uproar. Naturally, none of them seem to have bothered to read any of Konigsberg’s brief piece before setting forth their opinions, which sometimes accuse her of ignoring things she specifically acknowledged (like that whole powerful-female-character thing), and completely miss that the bit about reproduction is, you know, a joke on Konigsberg’s part.
Here are some of my favorite idiotic comments from the “discussion.” (Click on the yellow comments to see the originals on Reddit.)
Uh, Jane Austen’s books are filled with dudes. Especially Pride and Prejudice 2: Mr. Darcy’s Revenge, which was later adapted into a buddy cop movie starring Robin Williams and Danny Glover.
EDITED TO ADD: Somehow forgot to include two of my favorite comments:
Oh, and if you were unable to find a woman in the picture above, try this one instead:
Here is the website if you want to test the kid-friendliness. There are stories available for free. http://www.marthawells.com/compendium/
I have to say I think Judy Blume is great, all around. Not a series, but a lot of books.
Oh, absolutely! I just didn’t mention any because most of the children’s classics are rather short; something like The Princess and the Goblin would be little more than an appetizer to a kid who usually devours 300+ page books.
The Water Babies. I loved that book, and Peter Pan too. It’s hard to recall what I read as a kid… Oh! The Wind in the Willows.
If the kid liked The Hobbit, make sure to get Tolkien’s other novellas, Farmer Giles of Ham and Smith of Wooton Major.
Hell yes to Judy Blume! I also loved Lois Duncan at around 10, but I loved (and still love) horror. Great strong teenage girls in those books who all have psychic powers and awesome, but dead, grandmas. But, again, horror is so dependent on kid. My little (25+) sister still can’t handle it, but I’ve never had a problem.
@Abnoy
Well, you’re not the target audience for that review, and that hasn’t stopped you from grumbling on about it.
I return with more recommendations! All of these are books I read at around your daughters age or a little older:
The Books of Pellinor by Alison Croggan (a fantasy quartet)
The Hounds of the Morrigan by Pat O’Shea
The Wind on Fire Trilogy by William Nicholson (features one of my absolute favorite female lead characters)
The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis (this is a really great book, it’s about an 11 year old girl in Afghanistan under the Taliban (pre-invasion) whose father is arrested. There are no other men or boys in the family who aren’t infants so she has to go out to work to support her family disguised as a boy).
Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin (I adored this book, it’s set in the 18th century but features POC characters)
Hope these help!
I was lucky enough to have David Copperfield read to me, at around that age. Ok, sexual implications around Little Emily were omitted (I wouldn’t have understood anyway) but I just loved it.
I second Wind in the Willows and the Anne books. I also liked the Gerald Durrell books – I don’t know how well they’ve aged.
Had forgotten The Silver Brumby – I’m going to have to explore the top bookshelves & see if I’ve still got it. If your daughter likes horses, what about Misty of Chincoteague, King of the Wind etc?
The movie Osama has the same premise. Was it based on this?
Abnoy: so few men in the MRM, not so few men in the world. Learn to read for context, halfwit.
Kids’ book recs: Big Momma, has your daughter read the Percy Jackson books, or anything else by Rick Riordan? He’s good about including girls and PoC in his worlds (no queer characters yet, but some subtext here and there), and he’s funny as well. There are 2.5 series so far: the Greek mythology one (starting with The Lightning Thief), the Egyptian mythology one (The Red Pyramid), and the Roman mythology one that continues where the Greek one left off (The Lost Hero).
Wait: Ruth Davis Konigsberg is complaining about what?
Ahahahahahhahahahahaaaaa! No, really? Bwahahahahahahahaa!!
I can’t even.
Shut up, Joe.
Clues for Outraged Ruth and all who ride with her:
The Hobbit was a fantasy / folklore adventure storybook written for young boys by a donnish* chap called Tolkien (who was no great ladies’ man, to say the least).
Tolkien wrote it a long, long time ago – in a country that was pretty uptight about even talking about reproduction (“the birds and the bees”) – and long, long before feminism, the internet or any of all that.
(A don = an academic. As in a don / teacher at one of the collegiate English Universities: Oxford, Cambridge or Durham)
Also, it’s one of the shortest and most accessible of his works, which draw strongly on various folkloric cultures.
If Ruth or anyone moaning likewise actually gave a damn she could:
– Find the answers to all her questions about women and non-human females in Tolkien’s Middle Earth by reading e.g. The Silmarillian. Or she could’ve just looked it up in a Wiki.
– Write a fantasy adventure book that pleases her sensibilities.
Joe, you’re late to the party as usual, and you’re bringing nothing new to the table.
@Katz – Smith of Wooton Major is a lovely wee book.
I’ve a really old hardback copy I got for 10p in a Library sale with beautiful woodcut-alike illustrations.
It works so well at so many different levels, it reads easily as a little kids storybook, and then there’s layers and layers of allegory in it too.
And for the Ruth’s of the world. There are ladies in it. Human and otherwise. And people have children, and grandchildren and everything.
@Hellkell – Happy New Year to you too! 😀
Public Service Announcement:
women
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reproduction
Joe, it’s blindingly obvious that (a) you didn’t actually read the article, and (b) you didn’t actually read the comments here, many of which were made by people who have forgotten more about Tolkien than you will ever know. Happy new year, you asshat! 🙂
Dammit, why do I always get trolls that like the things I like?
Also, if you want a really awesome adventure / fantasy saga with a female protagonist (Lyra): Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy of is amazing. Mindblowing stuff for young and old alike.
Apparently the movie was rubbish. The books are incredible though.
If you haven’t read them, you’re really missing out.
@Cloudiah – Why would I waste an iota of my life reading an article by someone moaning about a film… of a fantasy book…. not meeting their whateverthefuck agenda?
Pointless.
Fiction it is not real. GTFOIA.
Also, I can’t believe you just tried to diss my Tolkien nerd status!
Ahahahahahahahaaaa!! Comedy gold!
@Katz – Yeah, hi, I am an actual person, with interests. I am not a Turing machine. :p
Go on, Joe, what you have to say is just fascinating.
No really, I mean it — it is fascinating.