(no subject)
Okay, so first things first: semi-hiatus. AGAIN sigh. I caught the same thing my dad and brother had, and they were wiped out for 2-3 weeks. I may poke around with threads here and there, but if I do, then my apologies in advance if I'm horribly slow and thread-droppy. Frankly, playing Cordelia tends to take my full concentration and whenever I try playing her when tired or sick, I almost inevitably regret it because I drift OOC without noticing.
Second! I was going to do a rather more interesting essay on Cordelia's rather subtle sanity/insanity, but it requires way to much thinking on my part. Therefore, have a gender and sexuality meme.
Gender: Like the cut text says, Cordelia thinks of herself as purely and completely female. Except it's a little more complicated than that because the two societies she's lived in have such a contrasting view of female-ness and how she fits into it that it's a little more complicated.
On Beta*, Cordelia was viewed as female, but it was completely and utterly unimportant. Her being a woman didn't in any way impede her career as a Survey** captain, and Betans are continuously mentioned as being egalitarian to the point of insanity. This is the culture that created hermaphrodites in an attempt to resolve any inequities between the sexes. The character who undergoes surgery to change from a woman to man mentions specifically that Betans didn't treat her any differently as a man, while the personal space doubled and the response time halved for him as a man on Barrayar.
As you can see from the previous anecdote, Barrayarans have a rather different view of gender relations. To put it bluntly, women are second-class citizens. Men rarely regard them as equals. Women cannot hold aristocratic titles in their own right, but only through their husbands. They can't serve in the military. I...can't recall a single instance of a female Barrayaran doctor offhand, though mentions are made of the fact that women with galactic training tend to stay galactic, rather than return home to where they are expected to be wives and ornaments. The one native Barrayaran woman with military skills served the Princess as a personal bodyguard, and she was made to feel like a freak for her skills. And, very importantly for Aral, Cordelia, Miles, and Mark, you cannot inherit titles through the distaff line.
This last bit is very important because if titles were inherited through the female line, Aral would have a better claim to the throne than the current Emperor. Aral, however does NOT want the throne. Cordelia doesn't want the throne. Miles doesn't want the throne. Mark doesn't want the throne. Apparently, the best way to stop someone and his family from wanting the throne is to have one of them be at the very messy and painful dismemberment of a previous emperor. Who'da thunk?
What this means for Cordelia is both that she's dealing with a sexist society, and if she makes any great strides in changing that, her family's going to be stuck in a really nasty position. So. She tends to compromise a little. People who try to treat her the way they treat other Barrayaran woman gets schooled HARD, frequently with a sarcastic comment about how Barrayaran men treat their women. My favorite was the climactic scene in Barrayar for that, both for the way she used Barrayaran's males' expectations to double the effects of her one-upmanship, and for the sheer utter awesome of the scene. (How many books do you see where a man promises his wife that he'll change the world for her and, in the next book, 17 years later, has succeeded to the point where the entire tone of the book is different because Miles doesn't have to face the same corruption and civil war his parents had to? This is why Cordelia/Aral is my most romantic couple ever.) She's helped by this in the fact that she's the former Regent/Prime Minister's wife, the Emperor's foster mother, a Countess, and the Vicereigne of Barrayar's 3rd planet, and thus outranks pretty much anyone short of the Emperor, the Empress, and her husband (I couldn't say whether she outranks Counts, really. Does the Emperor's foster mother > Count?). But frankly, anyone who thinks that she couldn't do that without her titles obviously read different books than I did. Or I've been playing her wrong. D:
What gets a little more complicated is dealing with Aral. As a Barrayaran male, you'd think that he'd tend to fall into his societies' opinions on women. Part of the reason he does, in my opinion at least, comes from his sexual preferences. To paraphrase Cordelia "He's bisexual, with a rather strong leaning towards men. Or rather, soldiers." The first time he met Cordelia, they were in the middle of a battle. "He thought it was love at first sight. I never felt any particular need to explain to him that it was him compulsions leaping up." Cordelia, again. The way she analyzes people is something I wish I could get a better grip on. But basically, from the first, Aral regarded her as a soldier first. I wish I could get a better grip on how he dealt with other women, who aren't soldiers, especially in their early days together, but basically any inclination he might have felt to treat her as a woman was short-circuited by the fact that she was a soldier. What effect this has on her gender opinion of herself? Not much. She thinks of herself as a woman, and not even Aral's opinion could change that about her. Sure as hell his opinion of her didn't make her opinion of the military any less acidic.
Holy shit that was long. And rambly. The scary part is its still shorter than the essay on her sanity, so whatever.
Sexuality: The only two people she's mentioned having a relationship with are men. I tend to figure Cordelia's mostly attracted to men (and probably men at least a little older than her, if only because Bujold tends to write women who fall in love and marry older guys. The only exception I can think of offhand is Iselle. P.S. read Curse of Chalion), but she wouldn't have any issues with being attracted to women, and probably has been a few times. In my head, Cordelia has also had sex with a hermaphrodite. Just because. Also she had a tiny crush on Kareen that wouldn't have gone anywhere unless Aral had died, but in my head there is an epic AU where Aral dies in the Vordarian Pretendership (sob) and Cordelia and Kareen (with Alys' help) take over Barrayar in order to protect their sons. Yes.
She's probably heterosexual, but don't deny a sick girl's dreams~
*For those of you not familiar with my canon (FOR SHAME): To know how to describe Beta: think California, amped up to the nth level without any federal restrictions on its crazier impulses.
**Survey is basically an organization that combines the most difficult aspects of explorer and scientist, with a tinge of military. To be in it, you have to have a astronomical grades (a scientific genius in A Civil Campaign mentioned that he couldn't have hoped to get in, if it weren't for the fact that Betans let some non-Betans in with lower standards), a high degree of sanity, and presumably, a certain degree of athleticism.
Second! I was going to do a rather more interesting essay on Cordelia's rather subtle sanity/insanity, but it requires way to much thinking on my part. Therefore, have a gender and sexuality meme.
Gender: Like the cut text says, Cordelia thinks of herself as purely and completely female. Except it's a little more complicated than that because the two societies she's lived in have such a contrasting view of female-ness and how she fits into it that it's a little more complicated.
On Beta*, Cordelia was viewed as female, but it was completely and utterly unimportant. Her being a woman didn't in any way impede her career as a Survey** captain, and Betans are continuously mentioned as being egalitarian to the point of insanity. This is the culture that created hermaphrodites in an attempt to resolve any inequities between the sexes. The character who undergoes surgery to change from a woman to man mentions specifically that Betans didn't treat her any differently as a man, while the personal space doubled and the response time halved for him as a man on Barrayar.
As you can see from the previous anecdote, Barrayarans have a rather different view of gender relations. To put it bluntly, women are second-class citizens. Men rarely regard them as equals. Women cannot hold aristocratic titles in their own right, but only through their husbands. They can't serve in the military. I...can't recall a single instance of a female Barrayaran doctor offhand, though mentions are made of the fact that women with galactic training tend to stay galactic, rather than return home to where they are expected to be wives and ornaments. The one native Barrayaran woman with military skills served the Princess as a personal bodyguard, and she was made to feel like a freak for her skills. And, very importantly for Aral, Cordelia, Miles, and Mark, you cannot inherit titles through the distaff line.
This last bit is very important because if titles were inherited through the female line, Aral would have a better claim to the throne than the current Emperor. Aral, however does NOT want the throne. Cordelia doesn't want the throne. Miles doesn't want the throne. Mark doesn't want the throne. Apparently, the best way to stop someone and his family from wanting the throne is to have one of them be at the very messy and painful dismemberment of a previous emperor. Who'da thunk?
What this means for Cordelia is both that she's dealing with a sexist society, and if she makes any great strides in changing that, her family's going to be stuck in a really nasty position. So. She tends to compromise a little. People who try to treat her the way they treat other Barrayaran woman gets schooled HARD, frequently with a sarcastic comment about how Barrayaran men treat their women. My favorite was the climactic scene in Barrayar for that, both for the way she used Barrayaran's males' expectations to double the effects of her one-upmanship, and for the sheer utter awesome of the scene. (How many books do you see where a man promises his wife that he'll change the world for her and, in the next book, 17 years later, has succeeded to the point where the entire tone of the book is different because Miles doesn't have to face the same corruption and civil war his parents had to? This is why Cordelia/Aral is my most romantic couple ever.) She's helped by this in the fact that she's the former Regent/Prime Minister's wife, the Emperor's foster mother, a Countess, and the Vicereigne of Barrayar's 3rd planet, and thus outranks pretty much anyone short of the Emperor, the Empress, and her husband (I couldn't say whether she outranks Counts, really. Does the Emperor's foster mother > Count?). But frankly, anyone who thinks that she couldn't do that without her titles obviously read different books than I did. Or I've been playing her wrong. D:
What gets a little more complicated is dealing with Aral. As a Barrayaran male, you'd think that he'd tend to fall into his societies' opinions on women. Part of the reason he does, in my opinion at least, comes from his sexual preferences. To paraphrase Cordelia "He's bisexual, with a rather strong leaning towards men. Or rather, soldiers." The first time he met Cordelia, they were in the middle of a battle. "He thought it was love at first sight. I never felt any particular need to explain to him that it was him compulsions leaping up." Cordelia, again. The way she analyzes people is something I wish I could get a better grip on. But basically, from the first, Aral regarded her as a soldier first. I wish I could get a better grip on how he dealt with other women, who aren't soldiers, especially in their early days together, but basically any inclination he might have felt to treat her as a woman was short-circuited by the fact that she was a soldier. What effect this has on her gender opinion of herself? Not much. She thinks of herself as a woman, and not even Aral's opinion could change that about her. Sure as hell his opinion of her didn't make her opinion of the military any less acidic.
Holy shit that was long. And rambly. The scary part is its still shorter than the essay on her sanity, so whatever.
Sexuality: The only two people she's mentioned having a relationship with are men. I tend to figure Cordelia's mostly attracted to men (and probably men at least a little older than her, if only because Bujold tends to write women who fall in love and marry older guys. The only exception I can think of offhand is Iselle. P.S. read Curse of Chalion), but she wouldn't have any issues with being attracted to women, and probably has been a few times. In my head, Cordelia has also had sex with a hermaphrodite. Just because. Also she had a tiny crush on Kareen that wouldn't have gone anywhere unless Aral had died, but in my head there is an epic AU where Aral dies in the Vordarian Pretendership (sob) and Cordelia and Kareen (with Alys' help) take over Barrayar in order to protect their sons. Yes.
She's probably heterosexual, but don't deny a sick girl's dreams~
*For those of you not familiar with my canon (FOR SHAME): To know how to describe Beta: think California, amped up to the nth level without any federal restrictions on its crazier impulses.
**Survey is basically an organization that combines the most difficult aspects of explorer and scientist, with a tinge of military. To be in it, you have to have a astronomical grades (a scientific genius in A Civil Campaign mentioned that he couldn't have hoped to get in, if it weren't for the fact that Betans let some non-Betans in with lower standards), a high degree of sanity, and presumably, a certain degree of athleticism.