Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Belen" data-source="post: 979491" data-attributes="member: 1405">Well, another way of thinking about the subject is this: Can anyone identify female fantasy and/or science fiction writers that have published in the last few decades that have strong female characters saving weak male characters.  I think the answer is yes.Now, did those female characters grow romantically attached to those males?  I read a lot and I cannot think of any as of yet. I will keep trying though.Now, in the current literature, I can think of a lot of female characters who have saved competent males (those able to contribute EQUALLY) in the relationship.However, I have not seen these women fall in love with these men.  I could be wrong, but that is one way to think of it.Traditionally, women who do save men, always seem to save valiant kings, warriors, poets, or clergy.  They sometimes fall for the first three (clergy usually shown as older precludes romance.)Let's take a look at some current fantasy:Kate Elliot's Crown of Stars: Liath saves Prince Saglant several times- Saglant however is a prince and accomplished warrior.Anne McCaffrey's Pern: Lessa saves everyone, but still falls for a very competent F'lar.Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar: Cannot think of any of the prodigious female characters falling for a weakling.  Selenay's traitorous husband may have been a weakling, but do we know yet?  She ends up lifebonded to a warrior prince.J.K Rowling's Potter series: Girls always seem nice to Neville, but never attracted to him.Just a few examples.  I could be wrong about the literature and I'd love to see an example of things.However, it seems that even female fantasy authors do not have ladies falling for weak males.  Those they do save are always strong in some regard.  If anything, weak males are subject to pity rather than romance.Of course, I am a firm believer that women can fall for a non-archetypical male in real life.  Again, in many respects these males have their own strengths such as intelligence, wit, ambition....Now, if you look at traditional fantasy, do women heroes fall for good-looking, yet mindless vapid waifs.  Male heroes do all the time.  The scantily-clad vapid blond princess who needs saving is a strong stereotype that gets used in abundance.We just have not seen strong women fall for the Prince Vallium's of the world.Just a thought.</blockquote>

Verification