The Dragon Age Series

For a long time, Bioware have been my go-to for games. While I could write quite a lot about the Mass Effect series, which will forever be the pinnacle for me in terms of my favourite game series ever, I’m going to be talking about Bioware’s other series: Dragon Age. Spoiler warning for the games (only marginally for the latest release of Dragon Age: Inquisition as I have not yet completed the game). So this is a brief rundown of the games and some thoughts I had about them. I'll probably write an additional commentary on Inquisition once I've completed the game.

A Century of Women Combatants in Russia

I took a class on warfare throughout the 20th Century this semester just gone, and my professor let me choose my own question for the assigned research essay. I chose to look at women combatants, because I and Bene have both been on a bit of a spree getting excited about various excellent ladies involved in wars a lot lately. I ended up becoming most interested by the roles of women in Russia's military, and decided to focus on that in my research. My topic, when I eventually realised what it was, was on the promises of equality made to Russian women by the Bolsheviks early in the 20th Century and how well that promise was kept. As it was a class on warfare, I was examining it through the lens of women's involvement in Russia's military action. 

Anyway, before I start rehashing the whole thing, here's the real thing!

Female soviet pilots relax between missions during World War II

The Second World War of 1939-1945 saw a dramatic increase in female combatants on the Soviet Union’s frontline from Russia’s involvement in World War I, 1914-17. This increase in the number of women and variety of roles was largely caused by a progression in the attitudes toward women, brought about not only through feminist activism but the adoption of Communist ideology shortly after the end of WWI. Focusing on the women combatants of Imperial and Soviet Russia in the First and Second World Wars, I will examine the changes that occurred in the attitudes to and roles of women in Russia throughout the 20th Century. I will use this to make a comparison to women’s roles in the armed forces of contemporary Russia and show that, though Russia’s women gained “unprecedented rights to equal jobs, pay, [and] education,” the promises made by Socialism of gender equality failed to be fully realised (Schwartz, 1979, p. 67). 

The Top 5: Female Protagonists from -

A Book Series:

1. 

Violet Baudelaire from A Series of Unfortunate Events       

All of the Baudelaire children have special talents to help them get themselves out of a jam, but Violet’s skill is inventing, and sometimes she makes some downright mechanical things.  If Violet ever made it to university, I’d think she’d go into mechanical engineering.  Seriously, remember the grappling hook in book one???  She does all of her best thinking on her feet, at the same time as keeping her younger siblings safe from evil relatives who want their money, and ingeniously foiled an attempt at robbery by marriage by signing the contract in her NON PREFERRED HAND.  Moral of the story, dear readers?  No one can make you do anything you don’t want to.  And adorable hair ribbons make you smart.

2.       

Ellie Linton from John Marsden’s Tomorrow Series

Despite being played by the whiny girl from Home and Away/ The Sleepover Club in the (frankly abysmal) movie adaptation of this book, I am pretty sure that Ellie’s voice will always be somewhere in my head.  She was tough and street smart, rather than book smart, but she also had the emotional intelligence to see different strengths in all of her friends.  As a leader of the group, alongside her neighbour Homer, Ellie holds the band of teenagers together and her quick thinking ensures their survival through seven books and a sequel series.  It isn’t always a smooth getaway, and Ellie handles grief honestly and plans her revenge accordingly.  I want her on my side in the apocalypse.

3.

Jo March from Little Women

Jo is not sentimental.  She does what it takes, even when that means cutting off her beautiful hair.  While she doesn’t get the passionate love we all hope for her, she still achieves a happy life, and best of all, educates others.  Jo works hard on what matters, has a vivid imagination, and cares about her family… she’d be just fine, husband or none.

4.

Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind

Okay okay, so this isn’t a book series, but it takes you about the same amount of time to read it.  Are you surprised by my inclusion of backstabbing, preening, self-absorbed Scarlett?  This novel shows the most complex and realistic portrayal of disappointment I have ever seen.  The humbling of pretty, bubbly, manipulative Scarlett as she comes to a head against the realities of her life would rival any great Bildungsroman; and the idea that marriage does not lead to happily ever after is greatly under-misrepresented in classic literature.  Indeed, as Colleen McCullough posits in her Pride and Prejudice para-fiction, perhaps Darcy and Elizabeth’s opposing personalities might have turned out like Scarlett’s and Rhett’s had this been given time on the page.

5.

Alanna from The Song of the Lioness Quartet

Tamora Pierce, I miss you.  I miss reading you.  I miss your heroines who disguise themselves as
pages and go off to learn to be knights, all the while bed-hopping with princes!  Alanna or Alan may have had more love interests than a girl of her age or a girl of mine could fully understand, but the insertion of a girl acting against convention in a medieval fantasy series was pure genious.  Way to introduce girl power from an early age!  These novels gave girls like me adventures to play out in my head, ones in which I could be the champion and not the damsel.  Sometimes, I look at the books about fairies and princesses available for young readers and I want to weep. 

_________________________

(photo credit: Mark McGovern)

Emily Paull is a bookseller by day and a writer by night. She has a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in English, Creative Writing and History. Emily blogs at The Incredible Rambling Elimy.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Marvel released its latest blockbuster last week as Guardians of the Galaxy hit the theatres in Australia. Follow me under the cut as I discuss the movie (hark! there are spoilers ahead).

Blogger Opening

NYAD is currently on the search for someone to join our team! We are looking for a woman (born as or identifying as) who can commit to writing one blog post a month.

Please contact us on notyouraveragedamsels@gmail(dot)com if you're interested.

EDIT 7/8/2014: Just want to let y'all know that this call is still open! And the regularity of posting is negotiable if anyone is interested but concerned that a monthly schedule is too high a time commitment.

Let's Represent!

Recently I took the kids I nanny to a local amusement park for the day because the Avengers were going to be making an appearance. My 5 year-old boy is super hero obsessed so of course this was a mandatory stop. When 2PM finally rolled around and we’d waited in line to see them you could see tiny little pieces of all the little girls around me die. Even my 9 year-old who couldn’t possibly care less about the Avengers shrank back. Three well costumed men walked up onto the stage. Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man were all properly represented and the crowd cheered, cameras flashed. I was tugged down to Tyler’s height. 
“Sarah, where’s Black Widow?” he asked frantically.

“She couldn't make it today. She and Hawkeye had important work to do. Its not easy to protect the whole world all the time. And Hulk doesn't like crowds and roller coasters.” I lied. 
I heard my words repeated by other parents around me at a greater loss for words than I was. One little girl broke down in tears and despite having already waited a hour to see the Avengers refused to go in and meet them. She wanted to meet Black Widow.  Tyler stepped up to her and patted her back telling the girl that their beloved Nat was off being a better hero. She’s one of his favourites, and despite some judging of adults we've spent many a day with him adamantly telling everyone he meets that today he’s Black Widow.

NerdHQ Panel: A Conversation with Badass Women

Nerd HQ did a Badass Women panel with mystery guests: Yvonne Strahovski (Chuck), Retta (Parks and Recreation), Missy Peregrym (Heroes), Jennifer Morrison (Once Upon A Time), Ming-Na Wen (Agents of SHIELD) and Sophie Turner (Game of Thrones), and where better to link it to you than Not Your Average Damsels?