Sandry’s Book
Mar. 22nd, 2019 11:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI read a lot of books about tomboys when I was young. I don’t know how much this was a result of my reading preferences and how much it simply reflected the prevalence of tomboy books in the 1990s, but either way I came away from it with the impression that all proper heroines dislike women’s work in general and sewing in particular.
I didn’t exactly have a big a-ha! moment when I read Tamora Pierce’s Sandry’s Book, but reading about a heroine whose stitchery is literally magic did start putting the dominoes in place to knock out an epiphany eventually.
In fact, one of the things that the Circle of Magic books do really well is take a particular false dichotomy in feminist pop culture - women’s work sucks and all true heroines hate it OR women’s work is valuable and it’s actually more feminist to have a heroine who loves it (I think this one is often a defensive reaction to the plethora of tomboy books) - and basically explode it. Sandry has sewing magic (traditionally feminine); Daja has blacksmithing magic (traditionally masculine); and Tris has weather magic, which is not gendered on the grounds that it is generally beyond the ken of us mere mortals, and they’re all powerful mages with absolutely necessary skills.
In recent years I’ve become a very strong proponent of the importance of having multiple heroines, or at least multiple important female characters, because there’s only so much variety you can show with one character, you know? Especially if she has to be exemplary because she’s the only female character in the thing and therefore is supposed to somehow represent all women everywhere.
(This insight I think is also applicable to characters from other marginalized groups.)
Other fine qualities about Sandry’s Book in particular and the Circle of Magic quartet in general:
The found family vibes are top notch, A++.
Lark and Rosethorn. I totally didn’t get that they were a couple the first time I read the books (or the second, third, fourth…), but I doubt the book would have been published with any more explicit acknowledgment of that fact, and it blew my tiny mind when I heard about it years later.
The general existence of Tris. (Did the “Tris goes to Lightsbridge” book ever happen? I’m not as up on my recent Tamora Pierce books as I should be. I still haven’t read Battle Magic. Should I read Battle Magic?)
I didn’t exactly have a big a-ha! moment when I read Tamora Pierce’s Sandry’s Book, but reading about a heroine whose stitchery is literally magic did start putting the dominoes in place to knock out an epiphany eventually.
In fact, one of the things that the Circle of Magic books do really well is take a particular false dichotomy in feminist pop culture - women’s work sucks and all true heroines hate it OR women’s work is valuable and it’s actually more feminist to have a heroine who loves it (I think this one is often a defensive reaction to the plethora of tomboy books) - and basically explode it. Sandry has sewing magic (traditionally feminine); Daja has blacksmithing magic (traditionally masculine); and Tris has weather magic, which is not gendered on the grounds that it is generally beyond the ken of us mere mortals, and they’re all powerful mages with absolutely necessary skills.
In recent years I’ve become a very strong proponent of the importance of having multiple heroines, or at least multiple important female characters, because there’s only so much variety you can show with one character, you know? Especially if she has to be exemplary because she’s the only female character in the thing and therefore is supposed to somehow represent all women everywhere.
(This insight I think is also applicable to characters from other marginalized groups.)
Other fine qualities about Sandry’s Book in particular and the Circle of Magic quartet in general:
The found family vibes are top notch, A++.
Lark and Rosethorn. I totally didn’t get that they were a couple the first time I read the books (or the second, third, fourth…), but I doubt the book would have been published with any more explicit acknowledgment of that fact, and it blew my tiny mind when I heard about it years later.
The general existence of Tris. (Did the “Tris goes to Lightsbridge” book ever happen? I’m not as up on my recent Tamora Pierce books as I should be. I still haven’t read Battle Magic. Should I read Battle Magic?)
no subject
Date: 2019-03-22 06:10 pm (UTC)I had two friends who were best friends in college and cosplayed Sandry and Tris, and it was awesome because that was exactly who they were!
no subject
Date: 2019-03-24 12:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-24 02:00 am (UTC)