Quote:
Originally Posted by taustin
Make a particular effort to avoid the Barsoom stuff by Edgar Rice Burroughs, then. Unlike the recent movie (where Dejah Thoris kicks ass better than John Carter, and they wonder why it bombed) the sole reason female characters exist is to get kidnapped, so that the he-man hero can rescue her (and she will fall madly in love with him and make his babies).
And I say this as someone who has a certain apprecation for the classics.
(Could not read the one written by his son, though. From what I could tell, by the writing style, the characterization, the plotting, it was written when said son was about three years old.)
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I don't think you're giving Burroughs enough credit. When we first 'meet' Dejah Thoris, she is part of a scientific expedition although we aren't told her role. She then functions as a diplomat, standing up to a Warhoon leader despite believing that she is soon to be tortured and killed. She attacks Sarkoja (a green woman twice her size at least) when Sarkoja tries to blind John Carter during a duel. She's pretty strong for a female character written in 1912.
It's been a while but I also seem to remember that John Carter taught his daughter Tara how to handle a sword.
Thuvia saves John Carter's life in the Gods of Mars when they're about to be attacked by banths, and takes care of herself pretty well in her own book.
Tavia fights beside Tan Hadron in A Fighting Man of Mars.
Barsoomian women even get some independence in the reproductive process - they lay eggs and don't have to deal with pregnancy and delivery. We don't get a lot of detail about that, or about child rearing. (We do know that the green women are responsible for young children, but they're the 'barbarians' after all.)
I'm not claiming Barsoom is a feminist paradise by any stretch....but the women aren't simpering weaklings just waiting to be rescued.
I don't actually think of the Barsoom books as being primarily sci-fi. They are (along with all of Burroughs' other books) escapist romances aimed at men. They're essentially equivalent to the bodice rippers aimed at women....that's either your cup of tea or it ain't.