i have been fighting the good fight
I read this fanficrants entry about the inclusion of a female in the cast of 'Lord of the Flies', and was annoyed to see that the general consensus was that the girl, if one was included, would either be dead victim meat, or would become the loving mother of the group, like Wendy was for the Lost Boys. In this case, I think 'victim meat' is the preferable fate, and not only because a couple boys in the book meet their fate. I am so damn tired of the idea that a female's role is to nurture and soothe the aggressive male ego.
For those who have not had the pleasure of reading Lord of the Flies, it's about a plane full of boys who crash land somewhere off the coast of a deserted island, spend some time alone without any adult supervision, and eventually regress to a primitive, warrior culture that loves killing pigs and spilling their blood. It's one of those books set out to display the darkness in the human heart, given that extra disturbing twist because these are children.
Now, I ask you, how would a little girl change the dynamics that much? I'm not about to say that gender wouldn't be a factor, but setting the girl up as some living maternal saint completely denies her humanity. A little girl is female, but still a kid in a terrifying situation, stranded on an island with no adults. It also entirely depends on the personality of the kid in question. I mean, look at the characters: all of the main cast are very separate people. We have geeky kids, angry kids, natural-born leader kids...a lot of different boys. It just follows that the hypothetical girl would have her own personality beyond Maternal Womb, right? She could adapt easily to island living, she could become violent just as easily, or she could separate herself entirely.
Also, some girls do not fall for mindless gender role brainwashing, and do not fall easily into the role of 'mother'. I can say that no child falls easily into the role of 'parent', because at that age group, they are still mainly self-focused and immature. The idea that a girl would magically just fall into the role of homemaker seems to imply that they have no other purpose and no other facets to their personality. I can more easily see a girl attempting to instill a familial sense of order because that's what gender conditioning tells her, (and only with the little ones,) be unsuccessful at it because she's still a kid surrounded by kids, and be stressed and angry and eventually rebel.
To the people who think she will be total victim bait: girls can and will fight back, especially when they are desperate. They're also taller than the boys at this age, giving them a physical advantage. She's about as likely to be victim bait as the rest of them. The idea that an island of girls would be less physically violent was also repellant to me, because it stands on the thought that girls are not physically aggressive. Girls are PLENTY physically aggressive. Yes, using our words is drilled into us at an early age, and we might fall back on verbal aggression more easily because of this, but girls do punch, slap, hit, kick, and bite, and if there was no food aside from pigs, you bet they'd be out there spilling blood just as readily.
For those who have not had the pleasure of reading Lord of the Flies, it's about a plane full of boys who crash land somewhere off the coast of a deserted island, spend some time alone without any adult supervision, and eventually regress to a primitive, warrior culture that loves killing pigs and spilling their blood. It's one of those books set out to display the darkness in the human heart, given that extra disturbing twist because these are children.
Now, I ask you, how would a little girl change the dynamics that much? I'm not about to say that gender wouldn't be a factor, but setting the girl up as some living maternal saint completely denies her humanity. A little girl is female, but still a kid in a terrifying situation, stranded on an island with no adults. It also entirely depends on the personality of the kid in question. I mean, look at the characters: all of the main cast are very separate people. We have geeky kids, angry kids, natural-born leader kids...a lot of different boys. It just follows that the hypothetical girl would have her own personality beyond Maternal Womb, right? She could adapt easily to island living, she could become violent just as easily, or she could separate herself entirely.
Also, some girls do not fall for mindless gender role brainwashing, and do not fall easily into the role of 'mother'. I can say that no child falls easily into the role of 'parent', because at that age group, they are still mainly self-focused and immature. The idea that a girl would magically just fall into the role of homemaker seems to imply that they have no other purpose and no other facets to their personality. I can more easily see a girl attempting to instill a familial sense of order because that's what gender conditioning tells her, (and only with the little ones,) be unsuccessful at it because she's still a kid surrounded by kids, and be stressed and angry and eventually rebel.
To the people who think she will be total victim bait: girls can and will fight back, especially when they are desperate. They're also taller than the boys at this age, giving them a physical advantage. She's about as likely to be victim bait as the rest of them. The idea that an island of girls would be less physically violent was also repellant to me, because it stands on the thought that girls are not physically aggressive. Girls are PLENTY physically aggressive. Yes, using our words is drilled into us at an early age, and we might fall back on verbal aggression more easily because of this, but girls do punch, slap, hit, kick, and bite, and if there was no food aside from pigs, you bet they'd be out there spilling blood just as readily.