I think that if Tolkien included women at Helms Deep, then it would be very possible that Eowyn would have been there too. I think one of the reasons Theoden did not let Eowyn join the battle is because Eowyn was a woman. Although he never said it directly, to me it seemed he hinted at it. Besides, if he did come out and say it directly, how furious do ouy think Eowyn would be? If women were allowed to fight at Helms Deep, then Eowyn would be there. There would probably be some official or somewhat high ranking captain looking over the villagers who weren't fighting. And if you look at the time period that Tolkien, I don't think women were allowed to fight. Throughout history, there have been few cases where women fought, if not then none.
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And being a girl myself, don't you think about calling any of this sexist
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Good point Orual, but I don't think that anybody could call it sexist even if a man said it. I'm glad you are not one of those feminists who calls anything they can find sexist. And I am glad to see a feminist who agrees the fellowship should be made of men. But hey, I'm not going to get into that. It's already done and we can't change it. But here's why it's mainly men and why they don't have many women with active roles.
First of all throughout history, the warrior was usually a male. In LotR, you have the rare case of a woman warrior, Eowyn. In history, one would be Joan of Arc. And in LotR, the views about women are almost the same as throughout history. It is just the way it is, so don't call Orual or her post sexist, and for that matter don't call LotR sexist either. Because if you were to do that, you would be doing just what Dr. shapiro did. And I am a man but that doesn't mean you can call my post sexist either. I'm not saying it shouldn't be women, I'm just saying why it isn't.
And it is the same throughout history for the racist issue. LotR is not racist. It's just throughout history, it's been light vs dark or good vs bad. And as Tigerlily said, they confuse those with white vs black. But I don't really think that they confused it. I think that know its not like that, but they just have to go out of their way to make it look like that. It soiunds kind of wierd and confusing, huh? But I really am confusing myself and getting lost in my own thoughts.
I'll close this by saying good posts all of you. Sorry if this post is confusing, I'm sure it is. Please don't jump all over me for it. If you disagree with something, go ahead and I'll try to explain that individually. Sorry again.