I love reading fantasy but I have become more and more annoyed that so many stories have to include patriarchy/misogyny as a conflict when there’s a female protagonist. I understand wanting to be realistic to how women were treated throughout time and show an example of one triumphing above it, but why does it need to be in SO MANY BOOKS?! Like we have dragons and magic and demons and fae but society is still poised in a patriarchal way that suppresses women and expects them to just get married, be sweet and produce “heirs” except for our ~special~ main character who rises above it all. I love to read as an escape from the world but am instead met with the same misogynistic rhetoric I’ve learned/heard my entire life. It just feels like a lazy way to add adversity to the main character sometimes. Anyone else notice this? Any good recommendations where equality between sexes is just normalized in the story?
by howbouthailey