Sirens Panels

[rachelmanija]

I am on two panels which I might be moderating - I'm not sure. One is going to be more of a general discussion, though, since there's only three of us.

I know that most of you, sadly, will not be present for these panels. (If you're lucky, someone will take and post notes.) But since I got really rushed due to grad school and traineeships, please help me out by proposing thought-provoking questions and discussion topics on either or both of these subjects. If I like them (and I'm modding) I'll put them to the panel.

The Huntress and the Dude in Distress: Gender Roles in The Hunger Games

Rachel Manija Brown, Faye Bi, Marie Brennan, Artemis Grey, Shveta Thakrar

This panel will discuss gender and gender roles as they relate to characters in Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games trilogy. We will focus our discussion on the changing roles of Katniss, Gale, and Peeta, but will also explore gender roles as they pertain to secondary characters and to the societies of Panem.

[NOTE: Discussion will be spoilery for all three books.]

Women Who Run with Wolves and Dance with Dragons

Rachel Manija Brown, Cora Anderson, Janni Lee Simner

From the magic horses of Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar series to the psychic wolves of Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear’s A Companion to Wolves, fantasy novels have featured a wide variety of soul-bonded animal companions. These bonds, which range from wish-fulfillment fantasy to outright horror, are as diverse as the creatures themselves. This panel will discuss the tropes and themes of the animal companion motif, and explore the metaphoric nature of the bonds between women and their very special animals.

[NOTE: Bear and Monette's series was mentioned because it explicitly deals with gender roles; however, we'll discuss both women with animal companions, and any gender issues which involve animal companions. We will not discuss men and their animal companions unless there's some gender issue involved. ie, no discussion of Ged and his otak.]

Comments

[oyceter]

There's also the evil horse things in Sherri Tepper's Grass. I think the riders are of both genders, but I vaguely remember a female rider disappearing or really being entranced and a male one being injured?

Also don't know if it's applicable, but the generally female-reader-targeted horse books, versus other animals books, which I think tend to be more evenly distributed among genders? Which come to think of it is a little weird since I think Black Beauty is owned by people of different genders, and Marguerite Henry's King of the Wind (the only Henry book I read) has a male trainer? And maybe I am making up the female-audience of horse books, except that has been my general impression in a way that dog books are not (eg. Where the Red Fern Grows and Lassie and dogs + hunting stories). I mean, I do think it's interesting that there is more than one cannibal horse soul bond book out there.

Girls and their dogs: Mette Ivie Harrison's The Princess and the Hound, Robin McKinley's Deerskin, ...?

And now just rambling, but wondering how the stereotype of Crazy Cat Lady fits in.

Also, I'd be interested in how romances between bonded animals and their humans are treated in different ways (Lyra and Will's daemons fondling each other when they hit puberty, Pern dragon mating and noncon sex, can't remember how Valdemar does it, etc.).

For Hunger Games, I don't know if it's relevant, but I found Jennifer Lawrence's movie portrayal of Katniss as Stoic Action Hero to be really interesting and cool.

tldr comment now ending.

[rachelmanija]

Thanks! I'd forgotten about Grass, but it's an excellent example of the "evil horse" subgenre. Also (note to self) Maggie Stiefvater's The Scorpio Races..

I too think of horse books as being a female-targeted genre, but one of the ur-series in that line - still in print today - is Walter Farley's The Black Stallion, which had a male horse and a male rider. Later, he noticed how popular the books were with girls and added in a filly and a couple female riders as supporting characters.