I just want to say to my fellow female Tolkien fans that we should not feel ashamed for loving these books that are admittedly male-centric.
It’s tempting to call Tolkien a sexist for including so few female characters in his legendarium, but we must remember that the women he did include are the epitome of girl power and some of the best role models we could ask for: strong and willful and noble and brave, without sacrificing their femininity to prove themselves.
It’s glorious to me how you can flip through the books and see page after page of men doing everything … and then suddenly:
There’s Varda creating the Stars, Sun, and Moon!!
There’s Yavanna saving her trees by inspiring the creation of the Ents!!
There’s Melian making an Elf king forget his own people and then shielding an entire kingdom!!
There’s Lúthien defeating Sauron himself AND Morgoth himself!!!
There’s Idril preventing the complete annihilation of her people by creating the secret path out of Gondolin!!
There’s Galadriel resisting the One Ring!!
There’s Éowyn killing the lord of the Nazgûl!!
There’s Ioreth saving the victims of the Black Breath through her knowledge that the king will be the healer!!
There’s Arwen bridging the gap between Elves and Men as Queen of Gondor!!
There’s 100-year-old Lobelia beating Ruffians with her umbrella and leaving money in her will to help homeless hobbits!!
There’s Rosie raising 13 kids while simultaneously serving the whole Shire as Mistress of Bag End!!
There’s Elanor guarding and preserving the Red Book so that we can read it now!!!
That’s why I just can’t hold too big of a grudge about this. Yes, Tolkien didn’t write female characters too often, and it would’ve been fantastic if there were more. But when he did write them, they were amazing.
And on top of that, his male characters display literally our dream level of healthy masculinity in a man. Frodo, Sam, Aragorn, Faramir, etc. are our wish fulfillment. We have every right to enjoy that.
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