What is Not Within
If you are looking for stories of warrior women wearing chain-mail bikinis, brass bras, tight leather bodices, “boob-plate” armor, skin-tight spacesuits, or latex bodysuits . . . move along. Warrior Women offers no women battling while showing obvious cleavage, toned midriffs, exposed booty, bare or booted thighs, or even tank tops that showcase nipples. Nor will you find long unbound hair that has never known a split end, flapping fringe, or flowing robes to get in the way while fighting. Three prisoners excluded, there’s no nudity.
As much as I appreciate the fantasy women portrayed by Frank Frazetta, Boris Vallejo, Julie Bell, and others; glorious old pulp pin-ups; the work of many gaming and comic artists; and the astounding engineering (and challenge of wearing) costumes like Seven of Nine’s silver catsuit—the women in these stories have no need of enhanced anatomy or sexy costumes. Like all viable warriors they wear functional clothing and/or protective gear.
The very fact I am addressing physical appearance first says something about the history of female fantasy and science fiction characters. They were once seldom found doing much more than being supportive, sexy, in need of rescue, victims, or an occasionally a sidekick who screamed before she remembered to draw her sword or push the right button on the starship console. She could also be inhumanly evil, overwhelmingly immoral, a man-eating maniac, or turned from her wicked ways by the love of a good man.
To be fair: until recently, many male fantasy and science fiction characters have not been overly realistic either. These guys oozed virility, looked like they were pumped up on steroids, had far more testosterone than any human could manage, displayed manly thews in nothing more than a loincloth, or wore spandex as they held off the invaders with a single ray-gun. Despite being prone to risk-taking, more eager to fight than philosophize, allowed to be roguish yet redeemable, and tending to self-serving ambition but turning out to be unselfishly brave after all—they still got to be the heroic protagonist. (If they served the darkside, they also got to be the most dreaded and brilliant of villains.)
Fiction—especially science fiction and fantasy—certainly does not need to adhere to reality. But science fiction does need to be plausible and at least rational enough to be considered possible. As for fantasy, it follows its own rules; to be effective fiction, those rules should be logical and thus internally cohesive. So, the role of women as warriors must also be credible within the context of the world the writer has built.
In every era of human history (and, no doubt, prehistory), women—as with every other task a human can perform—have fought. This is no longer an arguable point. We may have lost a great deal of the evidence of women in history, but examples still abound. Modern historians are expanding our knowledge of the real women warriors of the past.
Despite women performing in an increasingly wide range of military duties, war—particularly combat—is still perceived as being primarily the prerogative of men. Our culture assumes women are physically weaker and psychologically less aggressive—therefore less likely to kill—than men. Beyond that generalization, the specific pros and cons of women serving in combat positions are currently being, maybe for the first time, seriously debated. Slowly but surely, women are proving—again—they are physically, mentally, and morally capable of being warriors.
There is no theoretical consensus on why we wage war. Some see it as a ubiquitous and even genetic facet of human nature. Others feel warfare is the result of specific circumstances: the interaction of the social and the cultural; battles over ideology, resources, or territory; a response to ecological challenges.
Whatever the reasons, humans fight. Although we supposedly yearn for peace rather than war, I doubt humanity will ever completely abandon warfare. But, perhaps, we eventually will at least realize that war—and the role of the warrior—is equally the province of some men and some women, but that it is the preserve of neither.
Science fiction and fantasy's inclusion of women warriors—and women in general, as both characters and writers—has progressed in some ways in the last forty or fifty years. In other ways, it hasn’t. I have a lot to say about the subject, but that is not a topic that I’m commenting on here
Ursula K. Le Guin wrote: “Science fiction is not prescriptive; it’s descriptive.” It’s a commentary on the present that allows the reader to examine current issues.
Fantasy? Le Guin again: “ . . . fantasy is true, of course. It isn’t factual, but it is true. Children know that. Adults know it too, and that is precisely why many of them are afraid of fantasy. They know that its truth challenges, even threatens, all that is false, all that is phony, unnecessary, and trivial in the life they have let themselves be forced into living. They are afraid of dragons because they are afraid of freedom . . . ”
What (I Hope) Is Within
In gathering stories for this theme, I wanted (of course) top quality and entertainment value, but I also wanted a wide range of styles and subject matter. A “woman warrior” can be many things. As I discovered stories and authors submitted stories or recommended the stories of others, I realized the definition could be even broader than I’d initially envisioned. Not only did I want both science fiction and fantasy, but stories that blurred the lines between (one is neither) . . . stories of adventure as well as deeper contemplation . . . some lightness scattered amongst the inevitable dark . . . new voices and esteemed authors . . . diverse points of view . . . plus, I wanted some surprises.
Although these stories are reprints, the overall tone, if there is just one, was shaped by what the writers had written rather than any editorial agenda. If this anthology had come together when it was first proposed (about ten years ago), I think it would have been a very different book. As far as I know, there has not been an original trade anthology with this theme since 2005 (Women of War, edited by Tanya Huff and Alexander Potter from DAW Books). One wonders what a volume of original stories on this theme would be like now.
Putting pondering aside and returning to the present pages . . . I wound up sorting the stories into five very loose categories so as not to jar the reader too abruptly (if reading in order) as they journey from one story to another. The titles of each section, I hope, provide guidance to . . . or at least enticement to try . . . the content:
I. Swords (& Spears & Arrows & Axes) and Sorcery
II. Just Yesterday & Perhaps Just Beyond Tomorrow
III. Somewhere Between Myth & Possibility
IV. Space Aria
V. Will No War End All War?
Enough preamble. Onward!
Paula Guran
Women’s Equality Day 2015