#seadwelliz rants
I always find it kind of weird that matriarchal cultures in fiction are always “women fight and hunt, men stay home and care for the babies” because world-building-wise, it makes no sense
think about it. like, assuming that gender even works the same in this fantasy culture as it does in ours, with gender conflated with sex (because let’s be real, all of these stories assume that), men wouldn’t be the ones to make the babies, so why would they be the ones to care for the babies? why is fighting and hunting necessary for leadership?
writing a matriarchy this way is just lazy, because you’re just taking the patriarchy and just swapping the people in it, rather than actually swapping the culture. especially when there are so many other cool things you could explore. like, what if it’s not a swap of roles but of what society deems important?
maybe a matriarchy would have hunting and fighting be part of the man’s job, but undervalued. like taking the trash out or cleaning toilets: necessary, but gross, and not noble or interesting. maybe farming is now the most important thing, and is given a lot of spiritual and cultural weight.
how would law work? what crimes would exist, and what things would be considered too trivial to make illegal? who gets what property? why?
how would religion work? how would you mark time or the passage into adulthood? what would marriage look like? if bloodlines are through the mother, bastardy wouldn’t even be a concept - how does that work?
what qualities would be most important in a person? how would you define strengthorleadership? what knowledge would be the most coveted and protected? what acts or roles are considered useless or degrading?
like, you can’t just take our current society and say you’re turning it on its head when you’re just regurgitating it wholesale. you have to really think about why things are the way they are and change that.
Exactly!
In fact, Robin Hobb wrote a matriarchal society very well in her Realm of the Elderlings saga. The Outislander men are the the fighters and the hunters, while women own the land and rule it, get to choose their partners (and also how permanent said partners are going to be), so bastardy really is not a concept there. I really like it how different kinds of society are explored in the Realm of the Elderlings: we have the “fantasy gender equality” in the Six Duchies, where both men and women do the jobs most often deemed male, like fighting; different shades of patriarchy from a rather light Bingtown version to the horrible, close to real world medieval patriarchy, Chalced style; matriarchy in the Out Islands; and (mild spoiler alert!) a budding new society, where gender and sexuality don’t matter at all (unfortunately for one of the main characters, even the Six Duchies are prone to homophobia).
Also - not exactly a matriarchy, but imo relevant to the post - society in The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson, which I’ve just started and am completely enamored with (just like with other Sanderson’s books). It’s a play on a “fantasy gender equality” type of setting, where women are not being discriminated against… except there is no gender equality at all. Men usually do men’s jobs, and women do women’s jobs, but for the fact that women’s jobs include everything that involves reading and writing. Women do science, art and economics, while it is frowned upon for a man to be literate at all (the clergy are an exception). Which makes for a very interesting and unusual setting. Again - I’ve just started the books, so I’m not sure if the theme of a woman wishing to pursue masculine arts is present there, but, knowing Sanderson, it most likely is.
Kinda wanted to rant about some of my thoughts on, uh, relationships in fiction. Mostly about why a quality canon pairing is so rare to come by. Sooo here we go?
There was a time when I blamed bleak and boring canon relationships (you know, the ones you look at with an “ugh did they REALLY need a romance in this story”) on heteronormativity. However, when I started browsing through some fantasy books with lgbt+ protagonists, I discovered all the same faults within them.
By the “all the same faults” I don’t mean heteronormative abusive clichés adopted by mlm/wlw fiction - dozens of people before me have elaborated on that topic much better than I would have, besides, those books I read (or tried to) were by no means your typical yaoi manga. In fact, most of them could’ve been filed under Tumblr Approved Certified 1000% Healthy Relationships, which, alas, didn’t save them from being Boring As Hell and/or Completely Unbelievable. In some cases, the overall writing was decent, and I could’ve enjoyed the plot if not for an extremely poor-written romance. In other cases the authors managed to write amazing, believable and thrilling non-romantic interactions between characters, utterly failing the romantic ones.
At some point I understood that being able to depict an emotionally fulfilling relationship between characters had little to do with said characters’ gender. It’s more about (most probably unintentional) writing laziness.
Let’s take a generic romantic plot. Two characters meet and have some bonding moments which result in both of them liking each other, both of them Definitely Not Liking Each Other (they lie, we all know they lie), or one of them liking the other (presumably unrequited; chances are the other one was also interested right away but was damn silent about that). Bonus points if the main reason for getting attention is the good looks and/or being an oh-so-special snowflake, totally not like the others. So, the characters got their mutual interest. And - that’s it. Really. Everything else that happens between the destined lovers has one single excuse: they are romantically interested in each other, ergo this is True Love. Character A will rush in to save Character B regardless of the consequences despite having known Character B for, like, a couple of days. Character M will be willing to abandon all their values and purposes for Character N’s pretty eyes. Character development? What character development, let’s have some awkward lovey-dovey moments. Not enough tension? Enter The Horrible Ex, enter jealousy aimed at a lamppost that was lucky to receive a warm lingering gaze from the object of crush (they should be looking at meee!). Never underestimate the power of Damsel In Distress trope: even if the damsel in question is not, in fact, female, the trope will a) give the other party a strong purpose; b) release the author from burden of writing sappy interactions for the next part of plot; c) plenty of opportunity for dramatic longing and a bittersweet reunion. Tl;dr: boooriiinggg.
(Side note: I’ve got nothing against saving-each-other situations, in fact, it’s one of the strongest dynamics ever, perfect for forging bonds between characters. I’m talking about using the trope excessively and on an otherwise weak character dynamics).
Now let’s take a generic fan-favourite non-canon ship. Well, not the “take two hottest guys in the canon and make them make out” one or the “take the hottest character and the most relatable character” one, but the one with actual interactions, perhaps a semi-canon with heavily dropped hints or just a really strong well-written bond. Also, healthiness of the ship is irrelevant here. Usually those pairings are based on a friendship, a partnership of some sort, or a rivalry. The characters have come a long way, they’ve endured lots of things together (or, perhaps, inflicted lots of things on each other). The point is - they didn’t have that magical excuse of being star-crossed lovers, or (in some cases) the luxury of showing it on-screen. That’s why everything that happens between them has to have much more solid reasons, thus feeling more real, thus building the tension and the closeness without all of the romance-ish superficial means.
So, the difference is rather clear. Now for another issue: minor characters’ canon pairings which can turn out surprisingly well, much better than the main characters’ love story. What’s their secret?
There are two main ingredients for their success. Number one: well-written secondary characters tend to have distinct or even borderline eccentric traits to leave an impression despite having less screen time than the main character. Matching two quirky personalities can be fun and look good. Number two: due to their - again - not having too much screen time, their relationship development consists of several colorful bonding moments, and then - ta-da! - they are together (or mercilessly torn apart by cruel fate). No excessive brooding and moping around, no fillers - just the essence of it.
So… is it even possible to write a decent love story for your main characters?
It sure is, though there are far more examples of the opposite.
Here is an unusual tip: try leaving love out of equation for time being, at least for the first part of the story. Imagine your characters as friends, or as enemies-to-friends, whatever suits best. Does the story still look good? Do the characters have reasons to be together besides being lovestruck - like respect, trust, common goals or, vice versa, contrary goals? Is their bond strong enough without sexual tension? If not, it would be better to reconsider some things in their relationship.
Love takes time. That doesn’t mean any good love story is a slowburn - hell, given right personalities and/or circumstances, the characters may bang the first day they get to know each other, or one of them can get a crush-from-the-first-sight (mutual crush-from-the-first-sight? rather unlikely). The trick is to remember neither of those are straight paths to Eternal Love. In the first case the characters would need time and bonding events to decide they mean to each other more than a one-night pleasure or friends with benefits. In the second case the fallen-in-love character may experience disillusionment after realizing that the object of their crush is, in fact, a real person much unlike the idealized image they’ve built earlier. Afterwards it’s again up to time and bonding events to help decide whether this real and far-from-perfect person can be an object - and subject - to a stronger, more mature feeling than a fleeting crush.
Hope that helps!
I’ve stumbled upon a cutting-to-the-core article about DreamWorks’ deceptive marketing that I quite recommend reading: https://geekdad.com/2020/01/baitworks-how-dreamworks-engaged-in-predatory-marketing-towards-lgbt-fans/ It explains the magnitude of the disaster of Voltron: Legendary Defender’s finale and makes a rather gloomy prophecy about future of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.
Who am I to argue with truth? DreamWorks does have shitty policy and most likely we won’t see a queer relationship between major characters bloom onscreen in this show. Yet there are numerous reasons why She-Ra can’t be put at the same level of queerbait with Voltron.
The major difference is between the showrunners. While VLD creators were clueless and ignorant, She-Ra’s creator is queer herself and she fully well knew what hardships she and the show’s crew had to endure and what concessions had to be made for her work to see the light.
A little off-topic about VLD: while I’m not defending the showrunners, the catastrophe that was Season 8 was very likely… not completely their own decision. There are lots of useful meta on Tumblr about the Season 8 having major last-minute changes - things that have solid proof in the season itself. A major character was erased from the season, other characters’ arcs were mutilated and sewn together anew, so it became indigestible both plotwise and character-wise. Sadly we will never know the true reasons behind these changes, but most likely they were not entirely the showrunners’ fault. What definitely was their fault, however, was marrying Shiro off to a stranger and having the audacity to boast their being “progressive” for it. Most likely, the story went like this: Shiro had his usual share of development and interactions in the initial Season 8 (we know for sure the moment with Zethrid holding Keith hostage went differently and involved more action from Shiro than just gaping into the void) - changes to the plot happen (for whatever reasons) - away go all the scenes involving Shiro except for him barking orders - the showrunners go oops. Didn’t we boast having a heroic character that is also gay. Welp, nothing heroic about him now, so we definitely need to throw a bone at lgbt+ community - how about we have a gay wedding! It will be so charming, such a win-win, lgbt+ audience is gonna looove it! …Well, what could possibly go wrong.
Trying to salvage the season’s remnants, they destroyed their only gay character’s arc trying to pass it off as representation, killed off their only woman of color in the main cast trying to pass it off as a dramatic turn of events, then stood in the enormous pile of fuck-up they made preaching about how it’s okay if not all the viewers’ expectations are met. Ew. Real gross.
Noelle Stevenson, however, is nothing like that. She knew the limits of what she could do from the start, so she’s been subtly preparing everything since the show’s beginning. I’m quite sure that She-Ra’s finale is not going to be nearly as disastrous as VLD finale. Moreover, all the show’s seasons were finished (and confirmed) beforehand, so they are not getting last-minute changes.
Most importantly, Noelle made sure that all the relationships between characters are treated equally, be they f/f, m/m of m/f. There are literally three canon couples in the show, all of them are secondary characters, there is one m/f couple (Micah&Angella), one m/m couple (Lance&George) and one f/f couple (Spinnerella&Netossa). There are no relationships in the main cast that are stated as romantic in-canon. No homosexual relationships between major characters are allowed? Well, there will be no heterosexual ones either! All romance becomes subtext, all of it. Painfully obvious crushes (Seahawk’s on Mermista, Hordak’s on Entrapta, Scorpia’s on Catra) are repeatedly named “friendship”. There is literally nothing that could prevent the hetero crushes from becoming text, yet they stay subtext, because the lesbian crush stays subtext.
Text is always better than subtext, yet subtext is better than nothing - if treated with due respect and care. She-Ra is wonderful representation-wise: it has a world full of diversity and devoid of xenophobia, an amazing cast of female characters with well-written personalities and interactions and diverse body types, a major non-binary character, portrayal of healthy happy homosexual relationships (although between secondary characters), thought-out and dramatic queer dynamic between major characters (although kept subtextual).
The article above states that Steven Universe, unlike She-Ra, treats its lgbt+ audience with respect. But, while SU is an amazing show with breathtaking canon lesbian relationships, it still uses an excuse to bypass censorship: the “rocks from space” are officially sexless. Sadly, She-Ra can’t have such an excuse.
In She-Ra’s case DreamWorks are to blame for censorship, not the author. I’m sure that Catradora is going to get the best subtextual confirmation that can be done in these circumstances.
Though the end of She-Ra is going to be a bit sad (Catradora and other queer ships getting no i-love-you and no wedding onscreen), it will definitely not be as devastating as Voltron’s ending.
While we hope for a better future where queer characters and relationships are treated fairly in all media, we can still enjoy She-Ra and what Noelle managed to do for representation - which is quite a lot, especially in comparison with other popular kids’ animated shows.
