Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Tolkien and Eowyn: The Gender Binary
In one of my grad classes (Issues: In Gender Communication), we had to show some sort of way gender issues are present whether masculine or feminine. First of all, I will not label myself as either activist. I just like to observe... I'm more of a critical theorist when it comes to my scholarly work but I found this one pretty fun to write about. I also want to note that I do not believe Tolkien was a feminist or trying to portray those messages within his works, but I wanted to point out in this paper that he really was an advocate for writing strong female characters. In this paper I focused on Eowyn in particular. So if you are interested in gender studies or have something interesting to comment please by all means say something!!! With no further ado my paper on Tolkien and Eowyn (its rather short hehe):
J. R. R. Tolkien is my absolute favorite author. Although he has never proclaimed to be
feminist or what not I have been able to analyze his work in a different
perspective as I reread his works. Tolkien, from my knowledge so far, has
always written strong independent female characters in his novels. I am going
to focus on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, particularly the third book “Return
of the King.” There are not many female characters in his works, but when he
does present them these characters are able to stand alone if need be (no
supporting male character). Eowyn is a fictional character in the trilogy, present in the “Two Towers,” and “Return of
the King.” She is a noblewoman of Rohan (the horse masters) who is described as
a shield maiden.
The reason Eowyn sticks out to me so
much is because of her attitude of how women are “supposed to be” even in
Tolkien’s fantasy world. He did have the medieval overtones in his works and
women of this time, especially noblewomen, were expected to stay inside, be
lady like, and not contribute to a bigger cause. It is an important aspect that Tolkien
decided to put this character in his books. He must have realized the
inequality issues among men and women and the power men had to perform greater
deeds. In the book, Tolkien describes her character as wanting to win renown in
battle, but loathing the idea that she would be “in a cage” all her life
because her duties were supposed to lay at Edoras. Quoted from Eowyn’s
character:
“to stay behind bars, until use and old age
accept them, and all chance of great deeds is gone beyond recall or
desire.”
After
reading Foss and Bordo, this line came clearer, not only in reality does the
gender binary exist, but we are forced to recon with it even in fantasy. Even
though Tolkien was being more authentic as to how men and women would perhaps
act in this world; it showed me that even this great author was greatly
influenced by the gender binary and the social constructed reality surrounding
it. Not even in fantasy could he escape it. The gender binary is a social
constructed reality that we cannot escape, no matter how marginalized we
believe ourselves to be. We know it exists, but yet we must coexist with it.
Eowyn was trying to escape the roles their society placed upon her. She wanted
to confront enemies in battle and contribute to the cause all men were fighting
for: the salvation of Middle Earth from Sauron’s dark and menacing hold.
Eowyn breaks
the hegemonic norms of their cultural practices and disguises herself as a male
warrior and participates in the biggest battle of Middle Earth. The upcoming
events depict how women are physically and mentally able to with stand the
toils of war as well completing outstanding acts of courage. Tolkien decides to
break the hegemonic norm as well by writing a female character of this caliber
(Tolkien also wrote the trilogy during most of WWII and it was published in the
1950s). A crucial break of the gender binary is performed when Eowyn encounters
the Witch King of Angmar, Lord of the Nazgul. A battle proceeds between the two
of them and the Witch King boasts,“No living man may hinder me,” which referred
to an old prophecy foretelling the Witch-king would not fall “by the hand of
man.” Eowyn then removes her helmet and declares:
“But no living man am I! You look upon a
woman. Eowyn I am, Eomund’s daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin.
Begone, if you be not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you,
if you touch him.”
In a few
more moments of exchanging blows, Eowyn delivers a sword into the Witch-kings
head, thus killing him. This is a crucial moment for women in the trilogy, this
showed that women can embody the same power and courage as men even though they
are advised against such behavior. It also proved that a woman can change her
course of fate besides that gender has delivered to her. This is a challenge
faced by all women today, past, and future. There will always be a battle
between who is superior and who is able to lay the “unwritten rules” and who has
to abide by them.
Being a
female myself, I have stood numerous trials leading against who I want to be
versus what society tells me I need to be. I am like Eowyn. I want to earn
respect through what you would consider “masculine deeds.” Why? Because masculine
deeds are worthy of respect and praise in our categorized world. Eowyn enacted her own agency by taking action.
She “assessed conditions around her and saw that she could change something by
taking a particular action.” (Foss pg. 19) Although my agency isn’t created
through real battles between Witch-kings, I still have created some through my
physical conditioning and ability to outperform some men. Of course I was
scrutinized, but I also created a world of rigid respect. I was strong; people
didn’t want to cross wrong paths with me. I reveled in it. Eowyn wanted the
same type of renown and respect. Not to just pass her life by living to what
duties her culture assigned to her. I don’t know many women that have won the
respect of her people by sweeping triumphantly.
Then we step
back and take a look at what the social construction of reality has completed
for us; what has been categorized as female duties versus male duties. It seems female duties are equivalent to the
behind the scenes techies at a play production. They do a lot of work but it
doesn’t really get recognized, they dress in all black, try to stay invisible,
but because of them the play runs smoothly. Just like the Foss sisters say,
“the social construction perspective says is that the pile of dirt and rocks
cannot be conceptualized as a mountain until someone gives it that label.” A
woman’s deeds usually go unnoticed unless they are conceptualized as a
masculine label. “Symbols not only create a particular reality, but they create
orientations or attitudes that generate various motives for actions.” (Foss pg
33)
Although
Eowyn’s deeds do go noticed she ends up falling back to the gender binary. I
believe that is what a lot of women do after exploring the hatred that
associated with men’s territories. It
was almost as if Tolkien realized that that was too much power for a woman to
hold and she ends up falling in love with a great warrior Famamir (this is
after recovering from nearly dying from the Witch-Kings spells). Tolkien writes:
“Then
the heart of Eowyn changed, or else at last she understood it… … “I will be a
shield maiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in
the songs of slaying. I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are
not barren.”
I must admit
I felt a little defeated by this line, almost as if it was too much for her to
handle. This situation only reiterates that war is only for men. Only they can
keep carrying the burden and rejoicing in slaying enemies. She ends up
accepting the role society has placed upon her, which most women end up doing
anyway. She still held the respect of
men and was renowned as Lady of the Shield-arm in recognition of her triumph
over the Witch-king. It took a deed this huge, slaying an enemy that was
supposedly could not be killed, for her to earn the title “Lady of the
Shield-arm”.
Even in
Tolkien’s world we are faced with many aspects of the gender binary and the
challenges people have to face because of its existence. Unfortunately, I do
not think the binary will ever disappear. It is our job as communication
scholars to help people to become voluntarily aware of what is being
subconsciously practiced and hopefully we can veer somewhat away from the
constricting practices. Hopefully recognizing this will also help people meet
enlightenment of themselves, instead of always fighting and exhausting
themselves trying to continue to maintain the mask they are wearing.
Unfortunately, Eowyn did “give in” to the societal roles but she did make a
stand for what she believed in. Ultimately, I think that is the goal for many
people. To continue to follow and stand up for what they believe in.
