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Nov. 16th, 2021 11:03 pmXiran Jay Zhao's Iron Widow provided an amicably divisive topic of discussion in the book group for which I read it. Approximately 50% of the group found it a really vividly satisfying and empowering read! I, personally, was in the other 50%. But you might not be!
The premise: it's an AU wherein Wu Zetian is a hot murderous teen who pilots a Gundam and is going to destroy the future patriarchy!
[A short pause here to represent the moment when![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
genarti reminds me that not all mechs are Gundams. Beth, I hear you, and I acknowledge you.]
In the future patriarchy, humanity is under attack by aliens from beyond a Great Wall, and protected by psychically mind-melded teens in giant robots, traditionally a mixed-gender team in which a boy does the active piloting and the girl provides psychic support; unfortunately providing psychic support is very dangerous and the girls often don't survive the experience. Too bad, so sad, but women's lives in this society are so little valued that nobody actually sees this as a problem to be solved.
When Wu Zetian's elder sister is killed by a boy-hero pilot, she decides to sign up for the giant robot army in a suicidal attempt to get Revenge on behalf of her sister and also women generally, much to the dismay of the polite rich boy who loves her! When she then turns out to be a phenomenally powerful pilot, the military promptly pairs her up with their worst best fighter, a convict who murdered his family for Reasons but is too valuable to the military to be executed. This is less to the dismay of the polite rich boy who loves her as it turns out they both find the convict kind of hot. (For those following along with the historical AU, the convict is Li Shimin aka Emperor Taizong and the polite rich boy is a composite of Wu Zetian's various historical extramarital boyfriends.)
All this is well and good so far as it goes; certainly the book leans gleefully into its premise, and certainly I have no objection to an idtastic giant robot rage-and-revenge threesome. However, I could not help noticing that for a book that is so dedicated to protesting the abuse and exploitation of women, it contains remarkably few actual women. Wherever Wu Zetian got her furious feminism from, it's not her mother or grandmother, whom she despises as weak and complicit in their and her own abuse; it's probably not her tragically dead sister, but it's impossible to tell, because Wu Zetian never thinks about her except as an abstract motivating corpse; it's not any other women because Wu Zetian doesn't seem to know any. The first time she has a non-antagonistic conversation with another woman is more than halfway through the book. It happens twice, and doesn't end well.
And, like, aside from a curiosity about what radicalized Wu Zetian not just to her own self-defense but to the defense of Women In The Abstract, it's not that I find this implausible! There is very much a form of feminism that looks like this, in which women in the abstract are worthy of respect, and women in the individual are a disappointment. And I would find that really interesting as the start of a character arc, which perhaps it will be in future books -- but in this particular book, Wu Zetian doesn't really have a character arc so much as a march of destruction. She starts at 100% rage but zero power, and ends at 100% rage and 100% power (plus one cliffhanger moral dilemma.)
For the people I know who loved this book, the spectacle of Wu Zetian demolishing her way through her enemies and wreaking revenge on anyone who ever wronged her and also the patriarchy struck a deep and satisfying chord. For me, it was and remained a challenge to buy in.
I did enjoy the lovingly described celebrity giant robot wedding, though.
The premise: it's an AU wherein Wu Zetian is a hot murderous teen who pilots a Gundam and is going to destroy the future patriarchy!
[A short pause here to represent the moment when
genarti reminds me that not all mechs are Gundams. Beth, I hear you, and I acknowledge you.]In the future patriarchy, humanity is under attack by aliens from beyond a Great Wall, and protected by psychically mind-melded teens in giant robots, traditionally a mixed-gender team in which a boy does the active piloting and the girl provides psychic support; unfortunately providing psychic support is very dangerous and the girls often don't survive the experience. Too bad, so sad, but women's lives in this society are so little valued that nobody actually sees this as a problem to be solved.
When Wu Zetian's elder sister is killed by a boy-hero pilot, she decides to sign up for the giant robot army in a suicidal attempt to get Revenge on behalf of her sister and also women generally, much to the dismay of the polite rich boy who loves her! When she then turns out to be a phenomenally powerful pilot, the military promptly pairs her up with their worst best fighter, a convict who murdered his family for Reasons but is too valuable to the military to be executed. This is less to the dismay of the polite rich boy who loves her as it turns out they both find the convict kind of hot. (For those following along with the historical AU, the convict is Li Shimin aka Emperor Taizong and the polite rich boy is a composite of Wu Zetian's various historical extramarital boyfriends.)
All this is well and good so far as it goes; certainly the book leans gleefully into its premise, and certainly I have no objection to an idtastic giant robot rage-and-revenge threesome. However, I could not help noticing that for a book that is so dedicated to protesting the abuse and exploitation of women, it contains remarkably few actual women. Wherever Wu Zetian got her furious feminism from, it's not her mother or grandmother, whom she despises as weak and complicit in their and her own abuse; it's probably not her tragically dead sister, but it's impossible to tell, because Wu Zetian never thinks about her except as an abstract motivating corpse; it's not any other women because Wu Zetian doesn't seem to know any. The first time she has a non-antagonistic conversation with another woman is more than halfway through the book. It happens twice, and doesn't end well.
And, like, aside from a curiosity about what radicalized Wu Zetian not just to her own self-defense but to the defense of Women In The Abstract, it's not that I find this implausible! There is very much a form of feminism that looks like this, in which women in the abstract are worthy of respect, and women in the individual are a disappointment. And I would find that really interesting as the start of a character arc, which perhaps it will be in future books -- but in this particular book, Wu Zetian doesn't really have a character arc so much as a march of destruction. She starts at 100% rage but zero power, and ends at 100% rage and 100% power (plus one cliffhanger moral dilemma.)
For the people I know who loved this book, the spectacle of Wu Zetian demolishing her way through her enemies and wreaking revenge on anyone who ever wronged her and also the patriarchy struck a deep and satisfying chord. For me, it was and remained a challenge to buy in.
I did enjoy the lovingly described celebrity giant robot wedding, though.
