Don't do me like that

[davem]

Originally Posted by Lush

Perhaps if I wasn't born in a violently shovenist society, I'd find the above wickedly funny. As things stand, however, I simply find it in extreme poor taste.

I think this is perhaps imposing a meaning on the author's words that was not necessarily intended. How can we know the author's mind & intent? Clearly any 'meaning' you find in the statement is something you have imposed on it. Any 'offence' found in any text is down to the reader, not the author, as meaning only resides in the text itself - or rather in what the reader finds in/imposes on the text.

And, even though I am a white Englishman, & therefore in Hollywood shorthand personally responsible for all the badness & villainy in the whole world ever, I don't see that I can be blamed for where you were born & what the blokes over there are like.

Unlike TH White, Tolkien does not make in his text any statement about whether women are forbidden from acting in the way that Eowyn and Galadriel do, nor even does he say that their behaviour is in any way unusual for women. The fact that they are remarked upon where other women are not does not automatically mean that there were not other women who fought or who exercised leadership. The portrayals of Eowyn and Galdriel may be distinguished by the context within which each acted.

I suppose that women in M-e don't take part in front line combat for one of two reasons - either because it is 'against the rules' either legal or social, or because they think that sort of thing is 'men's work'. The fact remains that women who take an active role in combat are the exception rather than the rule, as they are worthy of mention by the author.