Sexism and Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series

"Separate But Equal."

There’s a slogan which most people associate with the propaganda against the civil rights movement of the 1960’s. Separation is just a step away from disadvantage and stereotype, which is a step away from oppression. For this reason, I have trouble accepting the notion that "men are from Mars and women are from Venus." We are all human, and gender crossovers do exist.

Robert Jordan makes a point in his Wheel of Time saga to starkly delineate the separate properties of male and female. Everything in that world is a balance between the two. Men and women have different functions and behave in separate ways, and in Randland (as fans refer to it), no crossovers exist.

In my article Robert Jordan: Genius or Hack?, I praised the author for his powerful portrayal of female characters. While my opinion on that remains firm, I left out my criticism. Here I’m going to let loose. I do have some bones to pick about Robert Jordan’s apparent opinion of womenfolk.

Some uncomfortable examples:

Let’s go for worst first. As I recall, there was a scene where Perrin "put Faile over his knee" until she couldn’t sit down later... meaning he spanked her. Hello, domestic violence? Not once do we see a woman physically humiliating her husband like this. Strangely, Faile forgives Perrin almost immediately. I might have dismissed this scene as a fluke, or some kind of weird Robert Jordan fantasy... except I read some of his historical fiction under the name Reagan O’Neal. More than once in the Fallon series, women are beaten by big, strong men, and then forgive them as though nothing happened.

Yes, there were some cultures where domestic violence was commonplace, and the old South was one of them. But a world dominated by women who can channel the One Power does not strike me as a world that would permit that type of society. Perrin’s treatment of Faile doesn’t quite fit. I get the feeling that Jordan was implying that women (in general) do not mind being beaten as long as they’re in love with the man doing the beating. I beg to differ!!! That’s how many solid relationships fall apart.

During the first three volumes, I was under the impression that men and women during the Age of Legends had been equal in the One Power. Some men were stronger than women, and some women stronger than men. Remember, we’re talking about the One Power here, not physical strength. Well… later in the series, it was mentioned that men were generally stronger than women during the Age of Legends. One of the characters specifically thought that this made sense because men are generally stronger physically.

Once again, I beg to differ about this reasoning! Men are often stronger than women physically… so to create a balance, wouldn’t women be stronger in the One Power? The Wheel of Time is all about balance: the Light and the Shadow, saidar and saidin, female and male. If Jordan feels the need to make men stronger in the One Power- and I can understand his desire to do this- then he should have spared us the faulty logic. I’d rather just pass it off as a fact of nature. Say they evolved that way.

Polygamy. Yes, we are dealing with a male fantasy author- but once again, equality and balance are not apparent. We hear about polyandry (the practice of a woman having more than one husband) in the Aiel culture, but it’s rare, and we never see an example. Meanwhile, we see many Aiel men with two or three wives. And I can’t neglect to mention Rand… and Min, and Aviendha, and Elayne! The improbability of four people sharing each other like this is heightened by the fact that Jordan promotes womenfolk as a sort of ‘sisterhood.’ Women in Randland all ‘understand’ each other.