Reading and gender issues
May. 3rd, 2016 08:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainwatersparkI am the last person to say "men cannot identify as feminists/analyze fiction from a feminist viewpoint." However, at the same time I have seen, on occasion, examples of men who try to analyze fiction from a feminist viewpoint and turn out to have a colossal blind eye to certain gender issues, thereby perpetrating kind of skewed gender analyses. It's the same reason why I would not feel comfortable saying "this book is a profound and nuanced exploration of issues faced by the black community"...because I'm not black and lack that kind of expertise and personal experience. And I think it's wounding when someone outside of a marginalized community proclaims a work of fiction to be positive for a marginalized community when an actual member of that marginalized community finds it harmful.
The particular example I have in mind is Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo.
I've talked about this book before; I haven't disguised the fact that I dislike the book. I wouldn't tell a female fan who found the book empowering for women that she's wrong, but I think the way the book is obsessed with the beauty/lack thereof for the female protagonist is, at the very least, not feminist; the female protagonist has close to zero agency for most if not all of the story and is also portrayed as completely incompetent for the first half of the story (not to mention that, bizarrely, she actually has less characterization in the book than some of the male characters); and most female side characters are portrayed as vain, shallow, and/or jealous rivals and get less characterization (and less presence) than the male characters. (Also, the book treats East Asian culture in a gross way, but that's a whole different problem.) There's certainly a strong case to be made for the idea that the book perpetuates a lot of rigid and unhealthy gender stereotypes regarding women.
So when a male reviewer comes along and says "I think this book is empowering because it's telling girls they shouldn't dumb themselves down for a guy, and self-love results in your best, most beautiful self"...I'm going to have a major problem with that. Because that reading of the book completely ignores the fact that the female protagonist (Alina) is completely obsessed with how "plain-looking" and not beautiful she is for much of the book, until she suddenly gets a beauty makeover. It only reinforces the stereotype that it's natural and expected that girls will obsess over their appearances and want to be "beautiful," and it also comes with the unpleasant undertone that only beautiful women are competent and valuable.
[Given the ending of the trilogy, I think it's pretty safe to say that that reading is also probably objectively wrong, since the last book ends with Alina completely giving up her powers so she can fade into anonymity with her boyfriend.]
(Without further delving too much into the details of the book, there's another reason why the above reading is strained: when Alina initially suppresses her powers, it's not because she had a crush, but rather because she didn't want to be taken away from her only friend. So it's kind of a weak argument to say she was "dumbing herself down for a guy," since she was initially motivated by friendship.)
There are positive ways to spin a message about self-acceptance, but it's a stretch to say that was what Shadow and Bone was going for, based on more than a skin-deep understanding of gender issues faced by girls/women. So ultimately what I want to say is: guys, if you want to talk about gender issues faced by girls/women, please educate yourselves first.
The particular example I have in mind is Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo.
I've talked about this book before; I haven't disguised the fact that I dislike the book. I wouldn't tell a female fan who found the book empowering for women that she's wrong, but I think the way the book is obsessed with the beauty/lack thereof for the female protagonist is, at the very least, not feminist; the female protagonist has close to zero agency for most if not all of the story and is also portrayed as completely incompetent for the first half of the story (not to mention that, bizarrely, she actually has less characterization in the book than some of the male characters); and most female side characters are portrayed as vain, shallow, and/or jealous rivals and get less characterization (and less presence) than the male characters. (Also, the book treats East Asian culture in a gross way, but that's a whole different problem.) There's certainly a strong case to be made for the idea that the book perpetuates a lot of rigid and unhealthy gender stereotypes regarding women.
So when a male reviewer comes along and says "I think this book is empowering because it's telling girls they shouldn't dumb themselves down for a guy, and self-love results in your best, most beautiful self"...I'm going to have a major problem with that. Because that reading of the book completely ignores the fact that the female protagonist (Alina) is completely obsessed with how "plain-looking" and not beautiful she is for much of the book, until she suddenly gets a beauty makeover. It only reinforces the stereotype that it's natural and expected that girls will obsess over their appearances and want to be "beautiful," and it also comes with the unpleasant undertone that only beautiful women are competent and valuable.
[Given the ending of the trilogy, I think it's pretty safe to say that that reading is also probably objectively wrong, since the last book ends with Alina completely giving up her powers so she can fade into anonymity with her boyfriend.]
(Without further delving too much into the details of the book, there's another reason why the above reading is strained: when Alina initially suppresses her powers, it's not because she had a crush, but rather because she didn't want to be taken away from her only friend. So it's kind of a weak argument to say she was "dumbing herself down for a guy," since she was initially motivated by friendship.)
There are positive ways to spin a message about self-acceptance, but it's a stretch to say that was what Shadow and Bone was going for, based on more than a skin-deep understanding of gender issues faced by girls/women. So ultimately what I want to say is: guys, if you want to talk about gender issues faced by girls/women, please educate yourselves first.
