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Originally Posted by davem
Apropos of absolutely nothing - I used to work with a man who was obsessed with the movie 'Aliens', to the extent that he had a recurring dream of Ripley 'all tooled up', as he put it.
(Wouldn't want anyone to think I'm suggesting that Fordim has an unhealthy obession with Miranda Otto in chainmail carrying a big sword, or anything )
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Well, there are a fair few Tolkien artists who have depicted Eowyn as a muscled amazonian uber-babe with strategically ripped outfits, so it's not uncommon...
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Originally Posted by Fordim
Eowyn begins by rebelling against her constrained role as a woman by violating the boundaries put up between female and male by going to war; but she ends by announcing that it was wrong of her to go to war because she is a woman, and thus needs to move back into the constrained role that she originally rebelled against. Don't get me wrong, though, her life is immeasurably better being married to Faramir than under the thumb of Grima!! I just wish the transition had been more complex and allowed Eowyn some way to integrate her two identities (female/healer/home and male/warrior/road) rather than reject the latter in favour of a better version of the former.
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This depends on whether you think Eowyn was specifically rebelling against a feminine role laid down for her or not. Remember she was originally supposed to have been left as leader of Rohan while the King was away - a role which might have been expected to have gone to one of the Marshalls. And I also think that in her going to war, it was not necessarily an act of rebellion, but more of desperation. It was also in no small way inspired by Aragorn's leadership; she sought the glory which he represented in her eyes. It makes me think that Aragorn may have represented her animus in some way and have stirred this up.
The other point is that being a healer in Middle-earth is most definitely not a prescribed feminine role. The best healer in Middle-earth seems to be Elrond, and Aragorn himself is extremely skilled in the art.