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I've been rereading as well... and yeah, there's a lot that raises eyebrows in 2020. Legolas Send a noteboard - 15/12/2020 07:04:15 PM

I'm currently in LoC, the bit where Egwene is raised to the Amyrlin Seat - which involves all Aes Sedai present having to strip to the waist to prove their womanhood. That part definitely had me thinking the same thing, and it's far from the first time.

View original postFirst, The good guys are more sexist than the bad guys. Or rather the good gals are more sexist than the bad gals.

View original postIn our world sexism towards men would be considered in some circles reverse-sexism, I guess, but for WoT it is the stand in for 'regular' sexism. Egwene, Nynaeve, Elayne and co are more sexist than Lanfear which lived in a much more egalitarian age. Before the 'original sin' of the Breaking of the World.

I have the same impression - it's not so much a question of good guys or bad guys, as a question of people from the present day vs the survivors of the previous Age, who as it happens are only the Forsaken.

But the fundamental and very binary difference between saidin and saidar is something of all Ages, I guess - which is definitely a major obstacle not just for trans people, but for anyone who views gender as not or not entirely binary. The Third Age social views reinforce the same point. And while they could play down the latter, it's hard to see how the TV show can play down the binary saidin/saidar split.

Of course, once you start paying attention to this, you'll find most fantasy that wasn't written in the last decade or two problematic, with some mostly female exceptions who were paying particular attention to gender. If you read Tad Williams' books, first his original Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy published in the 80s and 90s, and then the sequel series The Last King of Osten Ard, first book published in 2017, it's a great way to see how fantasy has evolved in that time, in a number of aspects including gender, less black-white morality, more racial diversity, more different viewpoints, and so on.

By the standards of the male fantasy authors who had gone before him, Jordan in WoT is really very good at writing credible female characters, despite the infamous sniffing and the reverse sexism you mentioned. And based on what the series suggests about his personal views, you can't say he was socially conservative, for a guy of his age... but he definitely did see male/female as a binary and made that a key part of the series.

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Some stray thoughts about gender on the Wheel of Time show - 15/12/2020 09:28:59 AM 278 Views
Interesting that you bring this up - 15/12/2020 12:52:51 PM 184 Views
Thoughts on Aran'gar - 15/12/2020 04:31:55 PM 187 Views
I've been rereading as well... and yeah, there's a lot that raises eyebrows in 2020. - 15/12/2020 07:04:15 PM 187 Views
Raises *whose* eyebrows? - 18/12/2020 11:17:55 PM 142 Views

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