Who are the rapists on Pern?
This is about the Dragonriders of Pern books - the fairly early grouping, not some of the more recent ones. THERE ARE SPOILERS HERE - but the books are 46 years old, so I'm not bothering with a cut.
I've been re-reading* through the series with an eye towards handing them to my kids. The first one (Lessa is found, the Oldtimers brought forward) is not particularly problematic. There are about three sentences that would give me pause for kids under 10 or so, and only one I feel a little dicey about for my own kids. *I've probably read these books two dozen times since I first read them as a teen.
The second one (Oldtimers turn into jerks and are sent South, thread falls out of phase, white Ruth impressed) has a lot more sex in it. I'm not sure I'd hand this one to my kids yet. I haven't read the third one with all the stuff about Robinton and the discovery of the landing site.
The main problem I have right now is the whole business about the dragons having consensual mating which is echoed, often without consent, by the riders of the female dragons (both Weyrwomen and green riders, the latter usually being male.)
Everyone in this society knows that if you are a dragonrider, you end up having sex with the riders of the dragon(s) who your dragon mates with. Everyone except for those who are originally "commoners" (non-weyrfolk) and are not informed about everything... such as Lessa, our heroine. She didn't consent to this, because no one informed her. She didn't even get told what happens at a hatching. (This gets corrected for newcomers as time goes on, but I'm talking about the first few books.)
F'lar's Menementh mates with Lessa's gold dragon Ramoth, and the humans have sex while mentally joined with their dragons - but Lessa has not consented to this. At that first mating, did F'lar rape Lessa?
"It’s different when dragons mate, love. You’re the dragon, too, caught up in emotions that have only one resolution.” - F'nor to Brekke, in book 2.
I believe that in the first mating of Ramoth and Mnementh, the removing of consent was done by Ramoth. Lessa's self-determination was swallowed up in Ramoth's mating drive, therefore at least in the first circumstance, it wasn't F'lar who transgressed, it was Ramoth.
This entry was originally posted at http://cvirtue.dreamwidth.org/149800.html. There are
comments at DW. You can comment here at LJ, too.
I've been re-reading* through the series with an eye towards handing them to my kids. The first one (Lessa is found, the Oldtimers brought forward) is not particularly problematic. There are about three sentences that would give me pause for kids under 10 or so, and only one I feel a little dicey about for my own kids. *I've probably read these books two dozen times since I first read them as a teen.
The second one (Oldtimers turn into jerks and are sent South, thread falls out of phase, white Ruth impressed) has a lot more sex in it. I'm not sure I'd hand this one to my kids yet. I haven't read the third one with all the stuff about Robinton and the discovery of the landing site.
The main problem I have right now is the whole business about the dragons having consensual mating which is echoed, often without consent, by the riders of the female dragons (both Weyrwomen and green riders, the latter usually being male.)
Everyone in this society knows that if you are a dragonrider, you end up having sex with the riders of the dragon(s) who your dragon mates with. Everyone except for those who are originally "commoners" (non-weyrfolk) and are not informed about everything... such as Lessa, our heroine. She didn't consent to this, because no one informed her. She didn't even get told what happens at a hatching. (This gets corrected for newcomers as time goes on, but I'm talking about the first few books.)
F'lar's Menementh mates with Lessa's gold dragon Ramoth, and the humans have sex while mentally joined with their dragons - but Lessa has not consented to this. At that first mating, did F'lar rape Lessa?
"It’s different when dragons mate, love. You’re the dragon, too, caught up in emotions that have only one resolution.” - F'nor to Brekke, in book 2.
I believe that in the first mating of Ramoth and Mnementh, the removing of consent was done by Ramoth. Lessa's self-determination was swallowed up in Ramoth's mating drive, therefore at least in the first circumstance, it wasn't F'lar who transgressed, it was Ramoth.
This entry was originally posted at http://cvirtue.dreamwidth.org/149800.html. There are
comments at DW. You can comment here at LJ, too.