Title text: No, we actually do have a woman who's basically part of our fellowship. She lives in Rivendell, you wouldn't know her.
this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
466 points (97.6% liked)
Tolkien, Lord of the Rings (LotR), etc.
1219 readers
2 users here now
For all things Tolkien, Lord of The Rings (LotR), and The Hobbit across all media. Speak friend and enter.
Rules:
- No abusive language
- No buying, selling or advertising
- Be civil
- No politics
- No discussions about race
- No bots
- No memes or AI-generated content
- Don't criticize others for their opinions
- If you found the image on the web, it is encouraged to put the direct link to the image in the ‘Link’ field when creating a post, instead of uploading the image to Lemmy. Direct links usually end in .jpg, .png, etc.
- No unrelated posts
- No spoilers in title, mark spoilers
- Let people like what they like
- Follow all Lemmy.world rules
Please report any rule violations.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
"Why are there no women or children in this band of medieval warriors? Social and societal division of labour, what's that?"
The idea that female medieval warriors only exist in fantasy is made up by misogynists to gate keep female representation.
Here is a list of named women that participated in battle. Keep in mind that this is just the tip of the iceberg given the erasure of women in history
Joan of Arc Eleanor of Aquitaine Æthelflæd Artemisia I of Caria Zenobia Matilda of Tuscany Margaret of Anjou Tomoe Gozen Grace O'Malley Isabella I of Castile Fu Hao Teuta Joanna of Flanders Lozen Jeanne Hachette Caterina Sforza Khawla bint al-Azwar Lagertha Sikelgaita Mavia Dihya Isabella of France
If you want women in your fantasy novels, why not - it's fantasy.
Let's be real though - sexual dimorphism is very pronounced in humans, and the women you listed were absolutely the exception. Militaristic societies overwhelmingly used men for fighting, if only because women were too valuable for their ability to bear children.
It's impossible to overstate the importance of women throughout history, but they don't have to have been physically fighting in wars for that to be the case.
I know, never mind.