The Golden Compass

Why, yes, I am a bit behind on reading Great Modern Classics of Fantasy (*rolls eyes*). I just did a very long road trip and because I hadn't gotten around to reading His Dark Materials yet I picked up the first and second books on CD.

I finished The Golden Compass the other day about an hour before the road trip was over. I haven't started the second yet (but I'll listen to it soon). I'm kinda glad I did read it because now I can see the movie and have a better perspective on things.

To me the book is not the stunning work of fantasy that everyone seems to say it is. I mean, I liked it but I wasn't bowled over by it. I did like some of the concepts (daemons, Dust, the neat steam-punk-ish atmosphere of the world) so I will read the other two books. However, it's not my favorite fantasy series.

Anyway, enough of the general stuff, I want to talk about feminism in the book!
(this will involve spoilers if you haven't read it yet)

I am not satisfied at all with the portrayal of women in The Golden Compass. The female characters are few and far between and have very limited roles. Men get to have a variety of positions and jobs and personalities but women are limited to only a few. At least thus far in the trilogy we seem to have two main types of human women, with Lyra in the middle as an androgynous child-innocent. Those two types are a) Unattractive Good Women and b) Attractive Evil Women. Non-humans (witches, bears and daemons) seem exempt from those roles but have their own sexist bits, as well.

Lyra, the main character, is female, but lives a very androgynous life. She is a tomboy through and through: fighting, climbing, playing outdoors, lying, spitting and cursing. While she becomes a bit more traditionally feminine later in the book it is mostly due to Mrs. Coulter's influence (who I will get to later). However, it is very strongly stressed throughout the book that Lyra has not yet hit puberty and this is critical for her abilities with the golden compass and her daemon's characteristics, and her innocence.

As the Chosen Child of this world's prophecy (due to Christian themes running through the trilogy) her position is as an innocent who has not yet been tainted, who is free from sin and sex and experience. This is very key to the plot. Personally, I don't think anyone's gender should really matter until they hit puberty and even after that not so much. So I don't object to Lyra being an androgynous character. However, it means that Lyra as a powerful, critical character to the plot isn't really seen in terms of being female. She is seen as an Extraordinary Child; all her normal activities and choices that aren't stereotypically female, and her above-normal powers are not seen as choices and desires that break the male/female mold, but rather as things inherent to her as the Chosen Child. The other female children she meets are very much girls while Lyra is only one by default. The book seems to be saying that girl children have to fit certain molds, except for Lyra but that's because she's Special, not because she's just being a normal child and ignoring traditional gender roles.

Meanwhile, the women of her world seem to fall into two categories: Frumpy Kind Women and Beautiful, Smart, Evil Women. Just for kicks let's compare what roles males have in Lyra's world with those that females have. Men can be: servants, cooks, polar explorers, boatmen, fishermen, scholars, clergy, doctors, politicians, aeronauts, warriors, consuls, Gyptian leaders, husbands and fathers. Women can be: servants, wives, mothers, nurses, scholars, gossips and polar explorers. This does not sound equal to me, and it's all based on traditional gender roles: that women either cannot or should not do things other than tend to children and the house. The female scholars are portrayed as unattractive and dowdy and Lyra thinks of them with disdain, as lesser scholars and as inferior humans; there is never any evidence that they actually have intelligent things to say. As for polar explorers, Mrs. Coulter is the only female one of those. So men can go hither and yon doing whatever while women have passive childcare/housecare-related roles.

The only truly active female character (and the one who is the most feminine, as well) is Mrs. Coulter. She is clever and ambitious (as if she is the only woman in the world with cleverness and ambition!) and beautiful (using her beauty and sex as a weapon to control people). All in all this presents the view that beautiful, smart women are conniving, evil and malicious. That they are dangerous exceptions to the female sex. That women should normally be kindly, moderately-attractive and passive. But watch out world! If women are beautiful and clever and active, they're evil temptresses bent on controlling you! How ridiculous! How insulting!

Also, there is the undercurrent to all this in which Mrs. Coulter is held up as an example of a woman who does not know her place in regards to her child. Mrs. Coulter is a Bad Mother which is a death sentence in this society. Lord Asrael was a pretty shoddy father (and then revealed to be as bad as Mrs. Coulter) and yet he is portrayed in a sympathetic fashion about his care for Lyra; with implications that he does care for her and love her. Mrs. Coulter on the other hand, is portrayed as greedy and wanting Lyra only as a doll or pet, to control her. In this patriarchal world, any paternal love is considered a bonus and shows extraordinary character in men, but any maternal love is considered basic and not extraordinary for a woman at all. When maternal love is absent in a woman it must be something as drastic as being a sadistic villain; it wouldn't have any other non-evil reason like perhaps just not really being all that maternal by nature.

Meanwhile, you have the non-humans: daemons, bears and witches.

I don't really have much to say about daemons other than the fact that it is interesting to note that humans have daemons of the opposite sex. Except for one noted case in The Golden Compass, same-sex daemons aren't mentioned. I'm wondering if a reason for the normal state of things, and the exception, will be revealed in the later books.

For bears, things are just as sexist. Well, no, they are more sexist than with human women. Male bears are seen as warriors and kings. Female bears are mentioned twice: as the evil bear king's harem and as the reason why Yorik Bearnason killed a rival. Female bears are seen only in terms of sex which is worse than the portrayal of human women; at least human women could be something other than sex objects. Female bears aren't even given much thought by the author beyond their use in furthering the species.

Witches are an odd example and one that I am curious to see how they are portrayed in the next few books. On the one hand they are portrayed as being wise, magical, strong and intelligent. On the other hand they are constantly shown to be non-human: ambivalent of human concerns, alien in nature, they cannot feel cold and they can see and feel other worlds. This is constantly reinforcing the idea that witches are Other, as in, not like Us. The fact that they are all women (and pretty much the only smart, competent, attractive women in the books' world) leads this line further in associating women in general as Other. Which isn't a good thing. Men are not the default and women are not a deviation from the norm. In real life, we are all human, men and women. The fact that the fantasy women in this world are all strange, alien non-humans is a bit disturbing.

So, onward into The Subtle Knife. I'll post more when I have finished it.