Women in the Eye

Women seldom play a role in traditional fantasy. Tolkien started it, really, having very few female characters,  and even fewer strong ones. That trend carried until Frank Herbert's sci-fi classic, Dune. There were plenty of strong women in Dune, but only in the magical sense.  Dune set the bar, causing many stories to include magically gifted women with their male sword wielding protectors. Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World is a perfect example of said trend, however, it begins to break away from it in almost invisible but incredibly profound ways.

Like Dune's Bene Gesserit an intergalactic organization of magically gifted women, The Eye of the World's international Aes Sedai spend their time scheming, manipulating, and otherwise controlling the world. Neither the Bene Gesserit nor the Aes Sedai share their power with men, and in both stories almost all of the main female characters are either a member of the respective groups, training to become one, or contemplating training to become one. Everyone is generally afraid of them. Vaguely sexist 17 year old main character,  Rand puts it best. "Oh Light! What if all women are Aes Sedai?"

The comment is said when he discovers that the main love interest, Egwene, is entering training under Moiraine Sedai. Readers know that much of his apprehension comes from his desire to change Egwene Al'Vere to Egwene Al'Thor when she would rather change it to Egwene Sedai. However,  he is not alone in the sentiment. The other vaguely sexist 17 year old hero, Mat, also voices the concern. The almost vaguely sexist 17 year old hero, Perrin,  is too wrapped up in his own problems and is just grateful for the assistance the Aes Sedai, and Moiraine Sedai in particular, provides. Perrin is a rarity.

The Aes Sedai are slightly less edgy than the Bene Gesserit, in that their male sword wielding protectors are actually official. The character Lan is Moiraine's "bonded Warder," a very official, important, and powerful job to have, the only job that men can have in regards to the Aes Sedai. 

Then cult of domesticity ideology is enforced. Once, the Aes Sedai had male members, just as many male members as female members. But at an event called "The Breaking of the World" the male half of the True Source, or the magic the Aes Sedai use, was tainted with eeeeeevil and now only women can use it without going nuts.

That brings us back to vaguely sexist 17 year old hero number one, Rand. He discovers that he is one of those men in an almost biblically inspired battle with Ba'alzamon,  the Dark One, or, to use his real name at the horror and dread of the characters, Shai'tan. Of course, the male Aes Sedai can be tenfold more powerful than the female. Moiraine Sedai is not quite utterly useless in the fight, though to be fair, Lan, the sword wielding protctor goes down before she does. Rand single handedly defeats the Dark One completely untrained. At least he still can't use a sword right, to Lan's utter frustration.

After going though all the ways The Eye of the World perpetuates existing gender roles, let's turn to all of the ways it shoots them down. These are relatively few, but more impacting than the weight of all the above combined.

Let's turn first to vaguely sexist 17 year old hero number one, Rand Al'Thor and his relationship with main love interest Egwene. It becomes very clear about half way through the book that Egwene Al'Vere is never, ever, going to become Egwene Al'Thor. The prophet Min says so straight after seeing them together. "You're in love with her. She loves you, too, but she's not for you, or you for her, in the way you both want. When I look at her, I see the same as when I look at Moiraine Sedai. She won't refuse it." It may take a female prophet dressed like a man to say it, but Egwene needs to join the Aes Sedai and Rand has no say in that whatsoever. By the end of the book, the couple readers are lead to root for is split up in all but name.

Then there is the structure of the Kingdom of Andor, where the story takes place. Queendom of Andor may be the better phrase, as power descends from mother to daughter. The eldest son acts as a sort of advisor to his sister, the Queen. Kings don't really even exist. There is the royal consort, but the Queen is essentially free to spend her time with whomever she wishes and the recipient of her affection doesn't really gain any political power to show for it.

Other relationships in the book create much the same effect. Besides Egwene's relationship with the main character,  she has a brief fling with a gypsy, and there is definitely something between her and almost vaguely sexist hero, Perrin Aybara, and she isn't alone. Egwene's first mentor, village Wisdom Nynaeve seems to have something going on with Moiraine's sword wielding protector, Lan. She very nearly asks him to marry her, as Rand discovers when the two think that everyone else is asleep. Lan refuses, pressured by the societal requirement of providing for one's wife. A requirement that Nynaeve says repeatedly she doesn't care about.

The two spend the book caught in petty rivalry, as Lan is a talented Warder (a.k.a. sword wielding protector guy) and Nynaeve was trained by her father as a replacement for the brothers she never had. They both hide things from each other, sneak up on each other, and otherwise test their hunting, tracking, and other survival skills. Nynaeve wins those fights just as frequently as Lan does.

Despite Lan's incredible Warder talents, Nynaeve meets his every challenge. By the end of the book, they have more respect for one another than anyone else in the party. And that contradicts every set role women have in traditional fantasy.
 

The Eye of the World and it's fourteen follow-ups both enforce and challenge the roles set for women in traditional fantasy. It is a shame the author is dead. I would have liked to hug him.