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

[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 :-)

[resonant]

They were mine, too! (Specifically a short story called "The Littlest Dragonrider," which was basically crack for a kid who couldn't understand why none of the other kids were interested in the things she was interested in.)