No Evil and "Women's Work": a mini feminist analysis
We talk about this conversation between Xochiquetzal and Murder a lot on this blog, but this isn't about yuri today. Rather, we're focusing on how these two characters mutually respect the work the other does: Xochiquetzal is your traditional girly-girl, nurturing, artistic, and surrounded by an entourage of butterflies. Murder is certainly not un-feminine, but she is a fighter - she has no ties to the domain of the home, considered strictly the woman's domain in both aztec and western culture. And yet, despite their immensely different paths in life (and subtly, their subsequent relationships to womanhood), they recognize the other's work as vital to the wellness of the world, traditional gender roles or no.
The same conversation is echoed on a smaller scale only a few pages later, between Kitty and Paula. Here, Kitty is so obviously in the right that Paula's insistence she'll never be taken seriously for her work is overtly comical, but the joke is not that Kitty's way is clearly better - it's the idea either form of labor is less worthy of respect. It's a difficult needle to thread without getting preachy, and that Lee does it so well here continues to impress me.
Speaking of Kitty, an adjacent idea shows up in Wrip an' Vinkle. Overtly, Kitty's quilt is a necessary component of the ritual, as much as Corn's shamanism. But! There's something she says to Ichabod that always struck me:
Icky: Wrip deserves a... cleverer partner. Kitty: Wrip deserves to choose what she likes.
It's a fantastic deconstruction of the idea "women always choose stupid men/jerks because they don't know what's good for them." While not about the work Wrip does, it's a lovely twist on the classic folklore adages about women - it's not that Wrip chose the right or wrong man, it's that she chose her man was what was right. To top it all off, Wrip's particular skillset does come in clutch in this same episode, convincing Corn to come by and do the ritual.
From warriors to seamstresses, all work women do is valuable, and the choices they make are to be respected. Lots of 'feminist' media doesn't engage this concept with half as much grace, feeling the need to shunt the traditional girly-girl under the bus (rick riordan COUGH) - but No Evil steadfastly refuses to dirt-talk any woman, from any walk of life. Pretty cool!