[sanclemente99]

With a provocative title like that the topic had better be a good one. I was wondering if any of you know how old Robert Jordan was when he first... http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif

Seriously, I am coming to the conclusion -- perhaps an incorrect one which is the reason for this topic -- that most (considerably more than 53%) of Jordan's fans are women. From what I observed at our local book signing I would say that is true.

The reason for this question is that there seems to be two divided camps on virtually every author in this forum. No one is in the middle, everyone is either in the Best or Worst camp.

I'm wondering if perhaps the dividing line for at least some of these works is the sex of the reader compared to the general portrayal of men vs women by the author. Xanth has dopey women, WOT has powerful women, Martin's books have some of both.

Thoughts?

[FitzChivalry]

Here is the thread about that.

Male vs. Female taste in fantasy. (http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000626.html)

[Duarh]

I am male, and a great fan of WOT, but Jordan's female character just, well. . .I am getting very annoyed with them

Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against gender equality and stuff like that, and I've got nothing against strong women. What I don't like in novels is unrealistic stuff. ALL (well, almost) of Jordan's MAIN female characters are strong, wilful, and will argue about just everything, trying to get their way, step on men's heads. There are women like that in life, yes, but there are also a lot of different women. Also, Jordan's men seemed to accept it a bit too lightly. Yes, I realize very well how easily I am manipulated by females in my life http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif it happens all the time. Sometimes, and some men, though, just won't budge, and will bully women around. . .

Enough said,

Duarh

[ChrisW]

Ah yes but remember that females in WoT have more power than in our world. The men broke the world and since then occasionly go crazy and kill lotsa people. That would tend to make males a little subservant to females especially when the the most powerful organization in the world is a female only one. So You can't really say its unrealistic as it fits in with the history of the wot world.

[Cadfael]

I have never thought of it from that perspective before... the argument does have it's merits... it does seem extreme though... the women are REALLY strong, the men VERY weak... if the argument holds... Jordan is not putting it across to well, he is just making the males look like whimps.

I have not read 'Heart of Winter' yet... but the balance has to change.... and I hope it starts with Rand giving the braid pulling bitch a good hiding http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif (I support Zero tollerance, this is a work of fiction).

[FitzChivalry]

It seems to me that the women in Randland are pretty childish not strong, if you say a 5 years old that yells and yells until she gets something she wants is a strong person, than they are strong yeah.
The men of course (except for Mat maybe) indulge the whims of the women, because that's probably how Jordan is acting in real life.
I used to be under the impression that this situation is not very realistic, but i talked to girls about that... and although some of them agreed that it isn't realistic, some said that yeah, that's how girls really are.
So i guess that sort of people really exist... in Randland though, it's all of them...

[Canaris]

Its a long time ago since a read a WOT book, but as far I seem to remember, Sex and Jordan are 2 separate items all together.

Jordan writes a lot about "being in love" and feelings , but so far I have not yet read that Rand had given any of his girls a good , well you know what I mean.

[FitzChivalry]

The thread is about sex as in gender...

[ChrisW]

oh and rand has been intimate with all 3 of his girls http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/biggrin.gif.