Solution to Weak Females in Series (My First Post)
Hi, I'm new here. I guess I should mention that there are potentially some spoilers for Bullet sprinkled throughout what I wrote. That being said, I would argue something the quality of Bullet is really incapable of having 'spoilers' beyond the fact that it was written at all.
I just migrated to this page from the Bullet threads on the Amazon website. It's good to see there are plenty of people of thinking critically of what's going on in this series. I'm currently re-reading Circus of the Damned since its the only one I actually own, and after taking in the rest of the series through Bullet, the differences are staggering. Do I see some seeds for whats to come? A little. But all in all, its like reading two entirely different characters. Anyways, I don't necessarily want to talk about that. One thing that occured to me the other day is the relatively minor role women play in these books.
Aside from Anita, there are maybe two capable women in the entire Anitaverse. Claudia, and then maybe Ronnie (who seems to have disappeared with her wererat boyfriend?). Three, actually, I just remembered Sylvie. I don't know if that's really any better though because since shes a strong woman, clearly LKH had no choice but to go ahead and make her a somewhat mannish lesbian. All other females we meet are incredibly weak and cowed. Wereleopards (which less face it, kind of suck anyway) females are basically just laying around all the time crying for help. Werelion females are apparently kept locked up somewhere. In bullet, we meet a young tiger princess (?) who can't even control her own technicolor dreamcats in front of Anita, and Anita forcibly brings her beast (with no median form? Such weakness!) The (theoretically) powerful Tiger Queen Bibbiana can't keep her cats in tow in front of the world's sexiest lady either.
The vampires? Don't even get me started on the vampires. Every single vampire female that is brought into the series is either insane, jealous of Anita, or insanely jealous of Anita.
Bullet only further reinforces this as the ancient black tiger that Anita meets is even smaller than her and cuddles up against her after their impromptu grind session on the floor (and the aforementioned bringing of the beast of the impotent red queen). If you weren't aware of LKH's gender you could almost accuse the writer of misogyny. The primary protangonist is the only capable female character brought into the narrative, and even she is (somewhat) made to have sex with EVERY STRONG MALE CHARACTER. Now granted, without exception she is the best they've ever had as she has bucking, screaming orgasms one after another, but still. How does no one involved in LKH's writing process think it is unhealthy for her to fantasize about herself to this extent in this type of arena? At this point its not even speculative, it is just truth that LKH sees herself as the girl all the "big boys kiss" and other women pale in comparison.
I do however, come equipped with constructive criticism. The werehyenas. The werehyenas (whom if I'm correct, we have yet to even see in beast form) are a severely underdeveloped animal group in the story for a demographic that is supposedly the third most powerful in the city. They are also dominated typically by an alpha female. How great a story would it be if a powerful werehyena alpha female came in and challenged not only Narcissus but was able to resist Asher's call? We'd get to see what I think would be a really interesting animal group more deeply explored, have a real, tangible (on-screen) conflict, and fighting/killing. Maybe even have some of the old police work too. Maybe some corny jokes. Some story development? What do I know though.
Final note: Does no one else wish there were green tigers? BattleCat anyone?