Weather…

It’s a cooler day than it was yesterday, although it keeps looking like rain is imminent.  The weather report changed several times today about the rain, but the current one shows no rain tonight, but calls for fog patches in the early morning pre-dawn hours.  The boys are both having a nap on the sofa, with tiny snores emanating occasionally 😊. It’s so cute to listen to — although I’m 100% certain that I’d hear vehement denials if I mentioned it.

So I’ve been happily lost in my book lately, thoroughly enjoying it, when I encountered a blog that discusses the series.  Normally I’d ignore that until after I’m done reading, to avoid spoilers, but I partly don’t want this book to end!! so I skimmed the entries.  The blog writer raised an interesting point that I’d subconsciously realized but hadn’t expressed clearly.  It was that this series (an epic fantasy) had a number of strong female lead characters and the world that it built had effectively flipped gender politics.  It’s a world that’s largely, although not exclusively, led by women, and many of the existing beliefs that we hold either don’t exist or have been inverted.  For instance, the largest, most powerful organization is led by women; and men — even those who hold positions of power — do not dominate women.  It’s sometimes jarring to have that pointed out, but in this case it’s done rather well, so it’s only when the women say (or do) things like ask, “Can the men control their feelings and do the job?” does it even register.  Even with that world construct, it’s unusual for women to go into combat, and some men still hold the belief that women are weaker than they are.  Now, I have ZERO interest in joining a combat unit but in my view, anyone who wants to do something that crazy should (after appropriate psychiatric evaluation) be patted on the head and told to go ahead.  But a world in which the most powerful group is all-female is definitely interesting.  The arguments are comparable to the ones used now, which include things like, “if men were meant to do that, they’d have passed the entry requirements by now.” (One of which is to take an oath of entry “sky clad” or buck naked.  I don’t see any men qualifying for entry with that requirement!)  Because it’s fiction, it’s fascinating to play with those concepts.  That’s one of the reasons that I really enjoy science fiction and fantasy, because we can explore real world issues with few of the real world angst.

Reading through the gender-flipped world led me to consider that our language can sometimes create divisions among people.  Innocently or otherwise, there are some expressions that are inherently negative.  It would be a great exercise if we worked to eliminate those from our speech and from our thinking.  It’s not easy, as people who’ve used them for a long time will feel challenged, and possibly threatened, if they’re asked to stop using verbal props.  It’s a long standing struggle to be more clear in speech and respecting others and their difficulties.  I’m deliberately not using any of those offensive expressions because I don’t think that they need any attention drawn, and we are all adult enough to find and eliminate them without needing too many prompts.  

I’ll quietly get off my soap box now, and get ready for sleep.  There’s a small black dog who’s butting my leg with his persistent little nose so I’d better do what he wants!  Fingers crossed for moderate weather over the next few days, as too much heat and humidity are difficult for me!  Hugs all around for everyone, and I wish you enjoyable dreams!  Good night.