From the Kidlet Lexicon

[resonant]

I was recommending books to the ten-year-old, and I mentioned Anne McCaffrey's Dragonsinger. "I think I remember it being a pretty good book," I said, "but I'm not sure, because she also wrote books for adults, and as I remember it, the gender politics were pretty awful."

"What do you mean, gender politics?"

"Well, it's been a long time, but what I remember is that all the women were beautiful and tempestuous, and mostly they were there to be prizes for the men to win. The books weren't very interested in what they wanted, unless it was a man, and they fought over men, but aside from that they didn't really have relationships with each other."

"Oh, yeah, I've read books with women like that. Sugarboxes."

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

out of the mouths of babes.....:)

[giglet]

Awesome!

[rian_aphasia]

Anne McCaffrey is so fucked up. I read her books and just pine for the amazingness that could have been written in that universe. And unless her stand has changed, she thinks gay men become gay as a result of being anally raped. Seriously. ::headdesk::

[sorrel]

Dragonsong and Dragonsinger are actually not bad, as far as McCaffery goes. The only deeply squicky thing is Menolly's... thing with the Masterharper, which isn't actually sexual but apparently in earlier versions of the series it was going to be, and you can tell. But unless the Kidlet is even more awesomely precious than it seems, it probably won't ping for a little while yet. I didn't even notice till I was rereading as an adult.

[sanj]

I feel VERY SECURE knowing the future is in this kid's hands. :)

And Dragonsong/Dragonsinger is actually pretty good for what it is, gender-wise, if memory serves me right. Menolly is a strong character and something of a gender outlaw.

It's not until later in the series that McCaffrey sort of backs away and remembers she's a girl and should have babies. ;P

[delurker]

Your kidlet is awesome.

I remember reading Dragonsinger when I was in year 6 (so 11 or 12) and I enjoyed it a lot. It was actually recommended to me--we'd gone on a class excursion to a house in the countryside where we met an author who read us her book (it was a picture storybook, I remember) and talked about how she wrote it and how the collaboration between author and artist worked. Afterwards we visited the bookshop, and one of the booksellers saw me wandering around and recommended it to me. I remember my teacher arguing with her that the book was too adult for me, and I remember looking at the dragon on the cover, deciding it sounded hella awesome, and slipping off to buy it while the debate raged. :D

[lobelia321]

Sugarboxes! Brilliant.

But, Res, have you abandoned LJ??

[fullygoldy]

Oh, this is so going into my vocabulary!

[mad_martha]

The Pern novels were my gateway into fantasy fiction, but I hardly re-read them now because, as you say, the gender politics are dire. The women are allowed to be strong, but only in a way that doesn't threaten the males' supremacy, and her handling of gay characters leaves an awful lot to be desire to put it mildly. Having said that, Dragonsong and Dragonsinger are among the better reads of the series and I liked Menolly as a character in those. At the other end of the scale, I found The Skies of Pern to be particularly offensive in its gender politics, but that might just be me.

And Kidlet is wise beyond her years :-)