Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Fantasy novels, games, movies, and television shows provide a rich tapestry of the human spirit.
They invoke magic within, daring readers to dream impossible dreams.
Those dreams, however, have been dominated by men.
To have her books published in the 1960s,Alice Bradley Sheldonwrote under the pseudonym James Tiptree Jr.
In 2012,66 percent of Magic the Gathering characterswere male.
While authentic and gripping, it doesnt bode well for the depiction of women.
After a full paragraph describing the young girls beauty, three men mentally undress her.
Throughout the dinner, Pavettas mother and the men of the court, discuss her future at length.
The WitchersTV version gives Pavetta not just a motive, but a deeper connection to her mother.
The bloodlust Calanthe expresses in the books reads more like a love for the fight.
The battlefield is the one place she feels like an equal, despite her many privileges as queen.
Itll be done soon, Calanthe gently tells her.
You think I wanted to marry your father?
Ill have none of your waterworks here.
Youre the daughter of the Lioness, behave like it.
This moment gives Pavetta agency to tell her mother she deserves to be in a loving, committed relationship.
Or, better yet, let the poor girl decide her own fate.
Of course, limiting feminist representation to women defeats the purpose of the cause.
Of Banquets, Bastards, and Burials also highlights how the men ofThe Witchergot a glow-up for television.
During Prevettas wedding feast, Jaskier brings Geralt to protect him from angry husbands whose wives he bedded.
(Jaskier even courts a plus-size, older woman in the background of a scene.)
Geralt does nothing but laugh at his friend.
Sympathetic and enthusiastic, Jaskier instead stands out as a fan favorite.
Her backstory sees a few changes in Hissrichs adaptation and Anya Chalotras performance.
The idea that childbirth is the only way to have a legacy controls much of Yennefers story line.
The series makes clear, however, that magic comes from sacrifice.
For the beautification ritual to work, Yennefer must undergo horrifically painful surgery to have her ovaries removed.
Once beautiful, shell be assigned to a monarchy as an adviser.
Its later implied that the sterilization surgery exists to control women like Yennefer.
When real power and public acceptance are finally within Yennefers reach, she grabs it with both hands.
Highly intelligent, Yennefer is bored with the stodgy members of the kings court.
I love that I believed that this would all be worth it, that this would be my legacy.
The greatest mage to have ever graced a court.
Glorified royal arse wiper.
Kaliss newborn girl, her fifth child, leaves King Virfuril without a male heir.
Yennefers mage powers get a workout as she constructs portals from thin air to try and escape the assassin.
Get up, you stupid, useless witch!
How could you not foresee this?
You were supposed to protect me.
Second thoughts creep in and she goes back, but the baby drowns as she portals into an ocean.
She goes on to recount all the ways the world betrayed her.
Throughout time, women have been treated as vessels for mens emotions, lineage, and reputation.
Promisingly, it also joins a trend of women-led fantasy projects that suggest a brighter future.
Three current shows The Magicians,Charmed, andWestworld all boast women showrunners or co-showrunners.
In 2017, HBO optioned Nigerian-American fantasy writer Nnedi Okorafors novelWho Fears Death.
A more diverse, womanist fantasy comes true.
