Onward and Upward

I ended last post with a question, a question of why plots centering around woman soldiers are so compelling and recurring in literature. I'm not sure I have an answer to that, but I'll try to work something out by the end of this final post.

This is symbolic of my train of thought. Plus, it's pretty.

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As I sit here and write, the sound of zombie fighting rages on the Xbox (Left 4 Dead 2), my roommate and one of my friends sit playing violin and banjo (both terribly), and flowers threaten to overwhelm my screen (my boyfriend is pretty cool). I'm sitting at a table covered with a candy-striped Christmas tablecloth, and the Sharpie on my wrist, arms, chest, and leg is slowly fading. I don't know why any of this is relevant, other than that they are all facts of my life at the moment just as true as my years-long dream of joining the United States Air Force.

This is quite possibly the most American picture I've ever found online. If only there was an eagle.

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I don't know why I don't. Maybe it's because I don't think I could make it, because I believe I'm tough and it would kill me to find out otherwise. It could be fear, and the feeling of need to imitate the strong women in these stories. Maybe it's because I view soldiers and war through rose colored glasses, and I don't want my heroic, romantic view to be tarnished (though I know war is horrible and people are horrible and it's all just horrible business). Maybe I don't join for reasons that I don't even understand (though I really try to do self evaluations a lot).

Obligatory "And how does that make you feel?" joke.

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Regardless of my personal reasons, I wanted to use this last post to evaluate the state of women in combat around the world today. From days past when women were little more than stagehands in the field of war, integration of the sexes is strongly underway now. Many major countries have estimates of women having the exact same options as men open to them within the next decade. One of the main debates is over physical strength differences between the sexes. I personally agree that women should be held to the same standards as men for combat purposes, possibly partially because in the books that I've discussed before, the women have all been able to keep up or even surpass the skills of the men around them. To use a Halo example (in discussion of what may happen in Halo Xbox One (or Halo 5, as some of us call it)), Cortana and Master Chief work perfectly well together because they are evenly matched as they are--she's the brains, he's the brawn. There's a possibility that Cortana could become human in some future Halo (trust me, it makes sense). However, if she becomes human, she is not nearly at the same physical level that the Chief is, and she would slow him down. I believe teams of men and women working together need to be equal in their abilities, and so I understand that. I just want the option, that if I can be as strong as a man, I can fight like one.

I couldn't find a picture without text and was tired of wading through fanfiction-serving Google Image search.

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In many countries, this is quickly becoming a reality. I was thrilled to see headlines back in January about the US's plans to allow women to serve in the same positions as men. Leon Panetta, Secretary of Defense, gave said this great quote about it: "Our purpose is to ensure that the mission is carried out by the best qualified and the most capable servicemembers, regardless of gender and regardless of creed and beliefs. If members of our military can meet the qualifications for a job ... then they should have the right to serve, regardless of creed or color or gender or sexual orientation." (quote taken from a Jurist article by Votava). We're still not quite to perfect equality, though. It'll be some time before women work beside men in any and every position, and maybe that's part of the reason that the literature that I've discussed is so appealing.

I have this book. It's a great book. You should read it.

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Or maybe it's just that these women have adventures. Adventures are hard to come by in these days, or at least the classic adventures that we love to read about. As Cutler Beckett said in Pirates of the Caribbean 2 (I think), "the blank edges of the map are being filled in" and the world is shrinking. At least, for whatever comes next, we'll be able to fight alongside each other, no matter what gender we are.

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Tales of Tortall

I’ve covered a lot of different topics relating to women and war, but today I’d like to talk about a book series that got me started down the path that I’m on today. My grade school friends (whom I’m fortunate to still count among my friends, they currently study at Truman University) got me started on Tamora Pierce when I was fairly young. As in, young enough that I didn’t understand that the books included a sexual coming of age as well and had to get clarification as to what “making love” meant and why that had anything to do with the girl going into the boy’s room at night. Ah, the good old days. Anyway (I realized I really have a problem using that word to get back on track when I unwittingly used it 3-4 times in one discussion in a novel I was writing and had to turn it into a joke), the majority (I won’t say all because to be perfectly honest, I haven’t read some of her newer work) of her books take place in a fictional world called Tortall that is similar to our own medieval (I will never spell that word right the first time. Or the fourth.) times. That was a long sentence, wow. There are four series that I’m going to discuss in this, those following Alanna, Daine, Keladry, and Alianne. Fun side story, in middle school my best friends and I dressed up as them. I was Kel. We were dedicated fans. I’d include a picture, but I don’t want to embarrass myself.

Unfortunately, my bookshelf did not look like this as a child. But my best friend's did.

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The Song of the Lioness quartet follows Alanna, a girl who wanted to be a knight during a time when knights were only boys. The first book lays all the groundwork to a universe that becomes amazingly detailed through the novels. Girls are expected to be wives, competent noblewomen. Fortunately for Alanna, she has a twin brother who wants to be a mage, so they trade places. Alanna disguises herself as a boy to become a knight, and her brother goes to learn magic. By time Alanna is revealed to be a girl (first to her friends, then eventually everyone), she has already proven herself. She is never dismissed as the madwoman that comes often in literature’s cautionary tales. The series ends with Alanna’s acceptance of a marriage proposal. As is shown in later novels, she never becomes the typical noblewoman, but remains a knight for her close friend the King.

Man, I wish my copy looked like that. That's legit.

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Daine (who I’ve always called Diane in my head) is the star of The Immortals quartet. She was my hero coming out of a child when I played puppies instead of babies (no judgment, okay?) as her special brand of magic allowed her to communicate with animals and eventually even shape-shift into animals. Her magic is a type that many people dismissed early in the series, branding her with the insanity plea often given to those who are different in early times. Her unique magic allows her to do all kinds of crazy things that most women can’t, giving her special opportunities such as traveling with a group of delegates to foreign countries (Emperor Mage, the book I checked out about a hundred times because it was the only one of that series my library ever had). While Daine was in battles, she had a different method of warfare than most stereotypical fighting women, using the animals in the surrounding world to help them or hinder the enemy. My friends and I played dollhouse enacting one of those final battles when we were babysitting once. Man, I’m having all kinds of good long-forgotten memories resurface writing this.

Wow, go Tumblr. That looks legit.

Credit for this awesome thing that I wish was real goes to this chick.

Daine was my favorite for years, but Keladry stole the show when I read the Protector of the Small quartet. After Alanna, a law was passed allowing women to be knights. But while it is mentioned that the king’s daughters wanted to be knights, no women followed in Alanna’s footsteps for years (the king wouldn’t allow his daughters). Kel was the first woman after Alanna, and the first woman not in disguise, to become a knight. She faced all the same trails that Alanna and every male knight faced, only she did it while getting mercilessly teased and pressured harder by many around her who thought that Alanna was just a fluke. She did it all, though, and became a female knight, inspiring many others to do the same. It’s worth noting that Kel is the only one of the four that I’m discussing here who did not end up with a man at the end of her series. While she had romantic trysts (and the end of Lady Knight suggests that there is a special someone out there), her story didn’t have the happily ever after ending that the others did, and it wasn’t necessary. Kel didn’t need a man. She came into her own, ending up exactly where she wanted: as a knight, respected for who she was and not just looked down on for her sex. Although, arguments between my friends and I ensued over who was better for her, Dom or Cleon. (If you went with Dom, you, my friend, are correct.)

I must have read this book a hundred times.

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The final duology (which is apparently a word, thanks Wikipedia) that I mentioned earlier centers around Aliane, Alanna’s daughter. The point is made early on that Aly is vastly different from her mother and doesn’t get along well with her parents. Unlike the other characters, she doesn’t engage in direct warfare, but is a spy much like her father. Her gender never really plays a huge role in the story, as she has many of the same freedoms as the men around her.

Trickster's Choice and Trickster's Queen

It really bothers me that those don't line up.

Pierce also has written Provost’s Dog, set 200 years before the Song of the Lioness series, about a girl training to become part of the equivalent of Tortall’s police force. Even 200 years before Alanna had to disguise herself as a boy to become a knight, women wanted to do the same jobs as men. The Circle of Magic series is set in this universe as well, though in a different country, about a quartet of young mages with magic different than most.

Yeah, that's from deviantart. That looks super legit.

I'd love to give credit, but can't find the source... It's just a dead lead to deviantart.

The fun thing for me was that I was born at the right time. The books seemed to grow up with me. By the time Will of theEmpress (the conclusion book to the Circle of Magic series) came out, I was old enough to appreciate the deeper themes present that hadn’t been there from the start. Tamora Pierce’s books are wildly popular, all about women stepping outside their “place in society” to work and fight alongside men.

All of these are wonderful and you should read them all.

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That leads me back to the question that I started the blog with: Why? Why, even as a young girl, were these themes so powerful? In a time where men and women have a lot of equality, why are these women fighting as men so compelling?

Until next time.