The Inequality Prototype: Gender, Inequality, and the Valar in Tolkien's Silmarillion by Dawn Felagund

Fanwork Information

Summary:

The Valar present an interesting case study of sexism in Tolkien's legendarium because they occupy a prototypical role, representing Iluvatar's intentions on how the universe should operate. My research shows that the female Valar not only appear far less frequently in The Silmarillion than the male Valar but are less involved, less assertive, and speak less.

Major Characters: Nienna, Valar, Varda, Yavanna

Major Relationships:

Artwork Type: No artwork type listed

Genre: Nonfiction/Meta

Challenges: Analysing Arda

Rating: General

Warnings:

Chapters: 1 Word Count: 5, 059
Posted on 8 July 2018 Updated on 8 July 2018

This fanwork is complete.

Table of Contents

The Inequality Prototype: Gender, Inequality, and the Valar in Tolkien's Silmarillion

Comments

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I could have sworn I commented on this last night - I hope I didn't accidentally post the comment meant for here on your most recent fic...

I knew going in that it would be a bit lopsided, but even so I have to say your numbers surprised me - I would have thought that Yavanna, Nienna, and Varda would have been worth more mentions. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, though. I'll keep track over on HL as well - interested to see what kind of discussion this provokes.

I did not have a new comment on "Peril," so I'm hoping that the comment didn't get eaten by a database blip or something ...

I was also surprised when I initially ran the data. And like a lot of the historical bias stuff I've done, as I've run more data, it has all reinforced my initial conclusions.

So far not a lot of chatter on the HL--maybe because HL readers saw most of this data when I initially posted it a couple years ago--but maybe something will get kicking! :) Thanks for reading and commenting! (I'm psyched for your essay, which I haven't had a chance to read yet!)

Thank you for writing this! 

As a woman functioning in an overwhelmingly male professional environment, my only response is nodding so hard my head is about to fall off.

Just because something looks like equality, does not mean it actually is, and often the difference will not come out until someone goes through the trouble of applying a numerical metric to the matter at hand. You have done a great job with the counts of mentions and words spoken: your data is objective, value-neutral and very, very eloquent.  

I think your last paragraph is very significant: just like fishes have no concept of being wet, we tend to lose sight of how steeped we all are in thousands of years of culture that rendered women and their achievements invisible.

 

Thank <u>you</u> for reading ... and especially for commenting! ^_^

Numbers do possess a force that "qualitative" measurements often seem to lack. I mean, we've all read the Silm, most of us many times (many of us more times than we can now recall ... >.>) and yet simply seeing how various characters are treated, even once we are called to notice it, often lacks the power to convince the way that saying, "Hey, the guys talk more than four times as much as the women do ..." It's always interesting to me to visualize the legendarium through numerical data.

I'm glad you liked the last paragraph. I started the research for this years ago now, and having occasionally waded into the feminist side of the Tolkien studies pool, I can say that my kind of conclusions do not sit well with many fans, many of whom seem to think that feminist fans want to censor or rewrite his work ... but that misses the point entirely, which is simply to avoid prototypes when we know we can now do better. We are all, after all, carriers of his tradition.

Thank you again for reading and commenting! <3