Reader Question Day #38 – the anachronism of warrior women

Manwe asks:

Seeing as how you like to use history, rather than myth, to influence your writing, and seeing as how you do go out of your way to craft a medieval world…why some of the anarchronisms? I’ve been meaning to ask you that. Things like warrior women, for example. Granted that is standard fantasy stuff these days, and alot of your tales have strong female leads. I’m sure it’s not for feminist reasons! Is it just something you like doing? I don’t mean this in a negative sense either! Were there female warriors in the past, sure. It was rare though. How about the Middle ages (and renaissance)…actually yes! There were even a few generals that were female, rare of course, but still…. So it’s not a trope totally without merit, but…but I’ve never had a chance to ask an author why they like this trope so much!

In my case, it’s for four reasons.

The first, baldly, is commercial. More women read books than men do. I’m not sure why this is, but that’s what the data says. For while there is a market for a fantasy book where the men do all the fighting, it’s a smaller market. In fact, books where the men do all the actual fighting tend to be historical romance novels, which are read, again, mostly by women. So there’s no sense in cutting myself out of a big chunk of the market by having only male warriors.

The second is that while warrior women are a straight-up anachronism in an ancient or medieval setting, I’m writing fantasy, so you can cheat a bit. 🙂 It’s common for “hip and gritty” writers to cite historical accuracy for the reasons their books are a torture/murder/mutilation/rape gorefest, but that’s no more accurate than a book that shows the Middle Ages with perfectly equitable gender roles. So I’m I going to cheat, I would prefer to do so in a way that tells a more interesting story.

The third is that while I’m writing fantasy, these are nonetheless preindustrial societies, so warrior women would be quite rare due to technological limitations. It’s hard to justify using female soldiers when there’s no birth control and no Social Security or 401K plans and living with your children is how you will support yourself in the infirmity of old age. So when I do have warrior women, I try to justify it in terms of the setting.

In Romaria Greenshield’s case, it’s because she’s half-Elderborn. The Elderborn live for centuries, and their women can generally conceive only about every century. This is different than say, a ancient human society, where it would be foolish to have the women fight, since a.) women can bear children, and b.) if all your women get killed fighting, you’ll have no children to support you in your old age. But if you live for centuries, that’s less of a problem. So Romaria grew up in Deepforest Keep, which was strongly influenced by the Elderborn way of thinking. (Plus, she hated her mother, and wanted to leave.) This flaunts the social conventions of the nobles of the Grim Marches, but they respect her and are a little bit afraid of her (the story about the traigs at Deepforest Keep has circulated), and they don’t particularly want to cross her, and they especially don’t want to cross Mazael.

In Molly’s case, she turned into a warrior because she was brought up by the Skull assassins of Barellion and the Old Demon. Molly is also somewhat nuts, due to the aforementioned upbringing by evil men. She’s also Demonsouled, which means she enjoys fighting in a way a normal person would not. Like Romaria, she flaunts the social conventions of the Grim Marches, but the nobles of the Grim Marches are afraid of her, so she can get away with it.

For Caina, she would much rather live the more traditional life of a Nighmarian noblewoman. If she could work her will, she would marry, have children, and spend her days overseeing her husband’s household. But because of what happened to her in CHILD OF THE GHOSTS, this is an impossibility. So instead she is a Ghost nightfighter.  (This tension between what Caina is and what she actually wants makes it interesting to write the character.)

The fourth reason is less of a reason and more of an observation, but DEMONSOULED has more male readers than female readers, and THE GHOSTS have more female readers than male reasons. I suspect the readership for DEMONSOULED is about two-thirds male and one-third female, and the readership for THE GHOSTS is two-thirds female and one-third male. (Obviously there is some overlap between the two.) I think of DEMONSOULED as a series with a male lead character and supporting female characters, and THE GHOSTS as a series with a female lead character and supporting male characters. So I keep that in mind as I write them.

Finally, I think the final rule is whether or not something strengthens the story. So if warrior women make for a better story, in they go!

-JM