Abusive Tropes are not Romantic

Though each book is supposed to be new and unique, invariably paranormal romance, like it’s bigger cousin conventional romance often ends up following the same patterns. Obviously all fiction has its tropes and there are certain patterns which, while they may be overdone, are not necessarily damaging. For example, there is the obvious boy meets girl, girl hates boy, problem arises, they overcome the misunderstanding and live happily every after screwing their brains out for eternity

These books are meant to sell us on the idea of romance and the inevitability of true love. However, some of these tropes are less benign and that path to true love can often be highly misogynist which is either expressed through characterisation or placing the female protagonist in untenable situations, even outright abusive situations - where she should be calling the police while running away screaming. Yes, these are not meant to be more than fantasy but this does not excuse the horrible messages that are repeatedly sent.

While we have addressed many individual elements that uphold abusive relationships, it is when we see several of these troublesome elements come together that the full scale of the problem becomes clear.

1) The Inexperienced/virginal woman is an absolute favourite. This places the man in dominant position because he is more sexually experienced and inevitably suggests that the perfect woman, is the woman who is pure. Let’s have a look at a few characters which we were introduced to as virgins: Sookie Stackhouse (Charlaine Harris) Bella Swan (Stephanie Meyer) Cassandra Palmer (Karen Chance) Clary Fray (Cassandra Clare) Chrysabelle (Kristen Painter) Cindy Spencer Pape - 4 out of 5 of the female protagonists, Damali (L.A. Banks), many of the female love interests in Lyndsay Sands Argeneu series. This long list of doesn’t even include the penchant for the gently used protagonist, who has had few experiences and is, of course, tortured to some degree over it (see Anita Blake before Laurell K Hamilton discovered that porn sells). The woman must always explain why she has not saved her virginity whereas this is an acceptable status quo for the man and any sexual experience she has had will have been deeply inferior and unsatisfactory (as if bad sex gives one honourable virginity). Virginity or little experience is always stressed and yet these women moan and carry on (supposedly in pleasure and not pain) about being penetrated with 12 inch penises as round as tree stumps.  

2) Centuries Old, Powerful Love interest: To contrast with the virginal purity of the protagonist, her love interest will have been around for years, sometimes centuries, boffing away at anything that moved. He will be experienced, he will be skilled, sometimes supernaturally skilled, he will teach her and show her and open her eyes (and other places). Yes, this fits the usual fantasy elements of the romance story - shouldn’t the love interest be the epitome of excellent sexual prowess? But it’s a power imbalance - his experience, his skills contrast sharply with her complete “innocence”. Her ignorance and sheltered life leaves her prey to being coaxed into “expanding her horizons” whatever reservations she may have and inevitably puts him in the driving seat of their love life.

And he will often be more powerful than her as well, especially if he is a supernatural creature. The power imbalance is pushed wide open by centuries old, supernatural monsters seducing inexperienced teenagers in school, women - or girls - who are utterly helpless and dramatically fragile in contrast.

3) The Woman is Isolated: This common trope in a lot of Paranormal Romance (or Urban Fantasy with strong romance elements) repeatedly brings us women who have few people in their lives. It’s a running joke that parents are an endangered species in the genre - given the number of orphans running around (Sookie in the Sookie Stackhouse Series, Elena in The Vampire Diaries, Nikki in the Nikki and Michael series, Elena - in fact, a number of female protagonists, in Kelley Armstrong’s Women of the Otherworld series, Tessa in The Infernal Devices, Gaby in Hopeless - the list goes on) and an equal number of characters who have either absent or inadequate parents (Bella Swan’s absent mother and out of depth father in Twilight, Clary’s comatose mother in The Mortal Instruments).

Similarly, many of these women do not have friends or many friends (many of the female characters in the Black Dagger Brotherhood, and many of the female characters in Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunter Series) - they are often considered outcasts or freaks (like Sookie) or don’t fit in to their respected worlds (Sookie, Elena from Women of the Otherworld).

These isolated women are inherently vulnerable - they lack protectors and advocates, they lack people who are ready and able to warn of dubious behaviour, they lack second opinions and they lack safety nets.

Cold Steel (Spiritwalker #3) by Kate Elliott

Cold Steel is the last book in the Spiritwalker trilogy. Those who have read Cold Magic and Cold Fire are by now well acquainted with the alternate earth imagined by Kate Elliot. In her world, the Roman Empire is still in existence and people live in a feudal state with Princes and Mage houses controlling them.  People are extremely aware of the spirit world, which once a year unleashes the wild hunt to gather the souls of those who are going to die in the following year.  Nothing is stable in this world, as the people are trying to overthrow the regimes which rule them. Cat, the protagonist, must not only deal with the political upheaval and war but the legacy of her heritage as the daughter of the Master of the Hunt.

Like all novels in this trilogy, I firmly believe that Elliot could easily have dropped 100-150 pages and not lost a thing in terms of the story.  I often found myself wishing that she would just get to the point.  It also felt very disconnected, as the characters were repeatedly presented with problems to over come and then quickly did so, only to then be thrown into yet another issue.  These problems didn't really seem to connect and it felt like we moved from one action scene to another.

One of the things I love about this series is the fact that nearly all of the character are multi-racial in some form.  As a person of colour, I am used to seeing myself erased in science fiction and to see Elliot's passion for including us really did present me with some hope. This inclusion however did not extend to GLBT people, which while normal, is never acceptable.  We were introduced to a disabled character but because of her relative youth, she was never actively a part of the major plot and instead served to bind Vai to the Mansa. It was however encouraging to see Cat advocate that she should get a proper cane as befitting her size, as well as an education. 

Review of Cold Fire by Kate Elliot Book Two of the Spiritwalker Trilogy

 

Cold Fire continues the story of  Catherine Bell Barahal, right where Cold Magic ended. One would assume that because Cold Magic included such massive amounts of world building that Cold Fire would delve right into the story, but that is not the case.  For a good 130 pages, the book just droned on.  I am starting to wonder what Elliott has against the beginning of her novels. I once again considered giving the novel a DNF, and it is only because I remembered that Cold Fire was extremely slow to start that I continued on. Once again, Elliot ignored the adage of show, not tell. 

Cat is taken the spirit world and emerges in the Antilles. This shifts the story from Europa to the West Indies.  I really liked that Elliot went out of her way to be authentic in both speech patterns and the food that they consumed, but I will say the amount of rum did seem excessive at times.  This was a wonderful shift because far too often, these stories are set in Europe and have a very Eurocentric perspective or the cultures of colour are thin and show an obvious lack of resource. 

As with Cold Magic, there is a class struggle going on.  The poor want the right to have a say in their government and as to be expected, the ruling classes wish to continue to have their rule unchallenged.  The rule of law is not evenly applied, and those with power are able to avoid things like imprisonment on salt island. In the north, cold mages who work in houses control the government, but in the south, fire mages are the main elemental power.  It is illegal to be an unregistered mage and because they have been so restricted, many are unaware of their capabilities. Into this word enters Andevai a cold mage from the north and Cats husband through an arranged marriage.  There is also the issue of general Camjiata who is attempting to rebuild his army to invade Europa.  Unfortunately for Cat and Bee, they play a large roll in his plans.

Review of Cold Magic by Kate Elliot Book One of the Spiritwalker Trilogy

Cold Magic is the first book in the Spiritwalker trilogy.  As with all new books in a series, it is necessary to do some world building to properly set the story for a reader.  Unfortunately, Elliott's approach was heavy handed and boring, because she ignored the adage of show and not tell.  At times it felt like being immersed in a history lesson about people, wars, and countries that as a reader, I could care less about.  Approximately, the first 100 pages is dedicated to world building and this makes the story exceedingly boring to read. At one point, I was tempted to put the book down, and simply give it a DNF.  It should not take 100 pages to begin telling a story.

Cold Magic is a steampunk novel in which magic and technology are clearly at war with each other.  The cold mages demand patronage of the people for protection and in return, the people are virtually enslaved and must exchange their labour.  Technology holds the promise of freedom from the oppressors.  The people seek voting rights as they were formed in ancient Rome as well as the ability to profit from their own labour.  There are far too many clans to list in this review and they are often difficult to remember as one reads the story.

For all of their belief in technology, the people are very spiritual.  Beneath the world that is readily visible is another realm of magic.  In this realm a dragon dreams and these dreams effect the faith of the waking world.  Fantastical creatures exist there whose purpose is as of yet unexplained.

In this world lives Catherine Bell Barahal and her beloved cousin Bee. They are both believe that that they are the descendants of the Hassi Barahal clan.  The Hassi Barahal's began as messengers but quickly became spies.  When the populace attempted to over throw the cruel rule of the cold mages led by Camjiata the rebellion was crushed placing the Hassi Barahal family in grave danger because of the potential of their activities becoming public knowledge and so a deal was struck whereby the eldest daughter of the Hassi Barahal clan would be forced to marry a cold mage of the four moon house before the age of majority.  Days before reaching the age of majority,  Andevai, an incredibly strong cold mage arrives to claim her.  Catherine is whisked from the home of the only family she has ever known and married off in a ceremony that binds her to Andevai using unbreakable magic.

Fangs for the Fantasy podcast, episode 43

This week we examined the lastest episodes of The Walking Dead, Once Upon a Time, Lost Girl and American Horror Story

We examined our book of the week: Cold Fire by Kate Elliott, as well as the books we're reading including JR Ward, DB Reynolds. We also mentioned Charlaine Harris and infamous Teagarden series. Next week we will be reading My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland