Reading Tamora Pierce in the #MeToo Era
Tamora Pierce is one of my all-time favorite authors. Her books are total comfort reading. The heroines are relatable but heroic, the bad guys are always unambiguously bad (or the enemies are natural disasters), and there are loads of clever scrappy girls and women to warm your heart.
Pierce has written so many novels – she’s been writing about scrappy women in fantasy books since the early ‘80s – that I’ve just now finished the only series I hadn’t hit yet – The Protector of the Small. And the second novel of the series has a subplot that is the most perfect encapsulation of the #MeToo movement I have ever read.
Page (which was published in 2000) has a major subplot about the heroine’s maid, Lalasa. Lalasa’s uncle asked the heroine – Kel – to take her on because she was being harassed and physically abused by men in the palace and “nobles don’t mess with another noble’s servant.”
Lalasa’s story hit every single aspect of what the #MeToo movement has discussed. Powerful men preying on less powerful women. Fear of retaliation if you report that abuse. Inability to leave your job or just quit. Having men say the woman “wanted it” and they were justified. And, finally, the man getting off with a slap on the wrist because he was far more important than the woman he hurt.
Initially, Kel’s annoyance that Lalasa was too “timid” grated on me - I felt she lacked compassion for how hard things were for another woman, especially one who had been abused. But this is YA and of course everything worked out in the end with Kel shining her halo and Lalasa opening her own seamstress shop. No one was raped although there was one attempt against Lalasa that both she and Kel managed to stop.
The entire thing made me think through how Tamora Pierce has portrayed sexual violence and coercion in her other books. The Will of the Empress, my absolute favorite book she wrote – spends a lot of time with abduction and rape within marriage, fortunately not graphically. Positive depictions of female sexuality and desire are key from the very beginning (and there is birth control in all her books). Again, these are all YA novels, aimed at middle school and high school students.
Out of almost 30 books, there is only one scene that is questionable and bugs the crud out of me. In Trickster’s Queen (published 2004 and admittedly the finale of one of my favorite series by Pierce), the heroine, Aly, reunites with her love interest. He begins to undress her, and when she says “Wait,” he responds, “no. No more waiting.” Which is really rape-y. The scene does continue with Aly commenting she just needed the magic birth control charm which promptly appeared and then all was well. It wasn't a real "no," just a "we need a magic condom to continue" comment.
But still, the scene disturbs me. Being in a committed relationship does not equal giving your partner sex regardless of your comfort level. And saying "no" to stopping when your partner is uncomfortable is sexual assault.
None of us are “perfect” on any issue. Women are humans, and we are therefore complicated, fallible, and full of differing opinions like all humans. The vast majority of Tamora Pierce’s work is nothing but empowering and positive for women of all ages. But that one scene, while effectively a blip in her overall work, is still very upsetting. But I don't hold it against her, nor does it negate all of her positive sexual depictions in all her other books.
Conclusions for pieces like this are awkward and supposed to be either insightful or prescriptive so here goes. If you meet anyone, especially male, over 10, who doesn’t understand the #MeToo movement, have them read Page. It breaks it all down in an easily digestible, and fictional explanation of what the problems are. It’s straight-forward. If they don’t understand marital rape, have them read Will of the Empress. And if they just need a comfort novel where the awesome women win and the bad guys (mostly, but not always, male) lose then have them read any of her works. Cause Tamora Pierce, and her endless lineup of badass heroines, are always worth a read.
