The "Fair" Sex in LotR

[TolkienGurl]

Beware, readers! [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

Listen to this exerpt from TIME magazine, December 2, 2002 "Return of the Rings"

But is all this fantasizing really good for us? Should we worry about all these strapping men poking each other with sharpened phallic symbols? After all, on the politically correctness meter The Lord of the Rings is radioactive. Where are the women? Peter Jackson filled out Liv Tyler's role for the movies (it's much less prominent in Tolkien's version), but the Fellowship is still as much of a boys' club as Augusta National. And whiter too. Don't let all the heartwarming Elf-Dwarf bonding between Legolas and Gimli fool you. The only people with dark skin in Middle-earth are the Orcs.

First of all, why on earth are people applying politically correctness to a piece of classic literature?!? Times were different in the 1940s and 1950s. We should not judge LotR according to todays "new age standards." That is unfair to the author and really takes away the joy of reading it.

And what do they mean by Tolkien's version? His is the original, the truth!

Secondly, not only are the people who wrote this implying that Tolkien was a sexist (which has been thoroughly discussed elsewhere), they're saying he was racist, too! Also notable in this article are the comparison of the Somme to the War of the Ring (which Tolkien hated people to assume), statements clearly asking whether or not indulging in fantasy is "escapism," and they said that there are no "gray" areas when it comes to Middle-earth. Let me name some grey areas: Grima, Saruman, Gollum. Fantasy is not escapism; it is an explanation of reality. And, of course, Tolkien hated allegories.

Clearly these people did not read the books. They have not idea what they are talking about.

I do not believe that Tolkien was shorting the role of women in The Lord of the Rings. If he was, they would not have been portrayed as Ladies but as servants and "tramps," so to speak. We do not know how the society of Tolkien's time influenced LotR, so it is wrong to assume anything. But today, not giving men and women an equal role in everything is considered wrong. I really do not like to think that way.

Galadriel: one of the most important of the leaders of Elves, possesses one of the Elven Rings, very beautiful

Arwen: future Queen, daughter of the Lord of Rivendell, very beautiful

Eowyn: kick-butt chick who kills the Witch-King, niece of the King of Rohan, very beautiful

Do these women sound shorted to you? [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

[ December 09, 2002: Message edited by: TolkienGurl ]