Christine O'Donnell praises Tolkien's women

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian

Christine O'Donnell praises Tolkien's women
Tea Party candidate O'Donnell said modern women should embrace JRR Tolkien's much-maligned female characters as role models
Alison Flood guardian.co.uk, Friday 17 September 2010 09.38 BST

JRR Tolkien might have been described as misogynistic by some critics for creating only a handful of female characters among the hundreds of males in his fantasy epic Lord of the Rings, but if ultra-conservative Tea Party candidate Christine O'Donnell is to be believed, the author actually "offers insight into what it means to be a woman" in the novel.

From "the gentle and hopeful Arwen in whose presence everything becomes peaceful" to Belladonna Baggins, who is "content, even utterly satisfied, in the role of a wife and mother", O'Donnell - who beat the Republican establishment favourite in Delaware in the US primaries yesterday - praised Tolkien's depiction of "the mysterious creature called the woman" in a 2003 essay.

His "portrayal of women in Lord of The Rings is bold and courageous. The bittersweet complexities of true womanhood are daringly depicted in each of the female characters," O'Donnell claimed, pointing to elf princess Arwen, elf queen Galadriel, Eowyn of Rohan and Frodo Baggins's ancestor, Belladonna Took.

"Tolkien critics have accused the creator of Middle Earth of being anti-woman, even archaic, when viewed through today's politically correct lens of gender roles," wrote O'Donnell. "Some critics claim that Tolkien's serene version of femininity is offensive to the modern female viewer. As a modern female viewer, I find the assumption itself offensive. Just because women can be warriors doesn't mean they have to be. Everything about Tolkien's Arwen is tranquil, serene, calming. These qualities are part of the charm of the womanhood she expresses. There are many types of women in the world. Arwen represents one of them. She represents a pillar of calm that is a source of strength for her man. Her great contribution to the war is the strength she provides to the future king."




Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/16/christine-odonnell-tolkien-women

[Norrin Radd]

1. It's okay by Christians to like fantasy, now? Even after

all of the Satanic Panic directed at people in the 80's who played AD&D? Bizarre...

[ejpoeta]

5. i don't know. had an odd discussion with a cousin a couple of years ago at our annual

family reunion/camping trip. they were getting dressed to go to the renaissance fair and the guy's son was dressed up and looked kind of like harry potter and my sister in law told him he looked like harry potter and his dad freaked out. harry potter is evil. but in the course of the discussion he said lord of the rings is ok. i asked him how it could be that harry potter is evil and lord of the rings is ok when they are the same kind of book with wizards and all that stuff.

[stray cat]

10. Ignorant - there was never a bias against all fantasy

[Norrin Radd]

27. Bullshit. I had friends whose religious parents also disallowed

reading Tolkien and Lewis, thank you very much. Also, you severely lack in civility.

[boppers]

30. There's at least one wild fantasy book followed by all Christians.

It has unicorns, dragons, wild battles, magical spells to heal the sick and raise the dead, and all kinds of outlandish, if not impossible, fantasy tales and themes.

[madrchsod]

2. i woke up to read this? oh wait is this a nightmare?

[truthisfreedom]

3. Interesting stuff is available about her online... like this.

"O’Donnell’s CNN interview came right after the Southern Baptists took a hard-line, conservative turn at their conference in Salt Lake City. At the meeting, the group added a resolution to their statement of beliefs that said a wife should ”submit herself graciously” to her husband."

http://washingtonindependent.com/97714/christine-o%E2%80%99donnell-circa-1998-a-wife-should-%E2%80%98graciously-submit%E2%80%99-to-her-husband

[ET Awful]

4. Of course O'Donnell herself would have been one of those greedy self-serving Sackville-Bagginses

:P

[atreides1]

7. Exactly

Only concerned with what she could get, at the expense of others.

[Solly Mack]

6. lololol

[Demeter]

8. all Three of Them

Big deal!

[Lochloosa]

9. Then fucking take your shoes off, get married, get pregnant and fix me something to eat

Oh, and bring me a beer.


Good god almighty, that's one fucked up women.

[Roland99]

13. +1

[tanyev]

11. I can see some Shelob in her.

[sofa king]

12. Apparently it was her daughter who wrote most of this.

But I can't find where I saw that now. The point being that she's mining her daughter's essays for political content. Perhaps the Senate candidate's next observation will be how jocks like totally rule over geeks before average annual income is considered.

[Roland99]

14. Wouldn't surprised me if she plagiarized. She's lied about her education >>>>>>

http://www.aolnews.com/surge-desk/article/christine-odonnells-linkedin-bio-says-she-studied-at-oxford/19634846

[Roland99]

15. oh wait...she has a daughter? I thought she was childless?

[sofa king]

16. Wait a minute... I think you're right.

Man, I should never say something without providing an actual cite. I can't find a citation because there isn't one.

My apologies to you all.

[boppers]

32. You were close...

See #31

[BrklynLiberal]

18. I thought she bragged about being a 41 year old virgin....

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[sofa king]

25. Wha-haaat?

This is the best candidate ever!

[BrklynLiberal]

26. rotflmao.."re-virginized"..I have to remember that one...

I cannot confirm the self-loathing lesbian part...which sounds VERY plausible...but one thing for sure, she is a woman hater..a female misogynist, like most of these rwingut, evangelical, tbagging women. She sure is self-loathing in that respect.

Guess that college sex was not very memorable if she still thought she was a virgin. Is that how it works, if you do not enjoy it, it does not count, and you are still a virgin? Typical repuke lying hypocrisy.

[LibertyLover]

20. Daughter? Ms. Save it Until Marriage

is unmarried and has a daughter? Wow, just wow.

[boppers]

31. Not her daughter, though it was a relative/intern.

Video:

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/179705-1v

[BrklynLiberal]

17. That woman is truly certifiable...She should not be allowed to roam the streets without tcaretakers.

[BrklynLiberal]

19. Guess there is no shortage of misogynistic women on the right...

[Javaman]

21. So in other words, what we have here...

is LOTR geek who prefers to live in a fantasy world rather than deal with life's realities.

I can just see her filled will anquish as she screams, "why can't the world be more like Gondor!!"

Perhaps she keeps elves ears in her pocket in case of emergency?

Will she demand that women wear beaded headdresses? And men, cod pieces?

Will there be jousting?

I think she can be her own court jester.

This woman is a fools fool.

[Arkana]

22. Jesus fucking Christ, she's writing Coons' ads for him. He doesn't even need

to appear in his own ads--just play clips of her greatest crazy hits and at the end "VOTE CHRIS COONS".

[flamingdem]

23. I hope they have someone with a good sense of snark making his commercials! nt

[Lithos]

28. Of course she likes fantasy...

She lives in her own fantasy world.

[dimbear]

29. Allow me to explain the difference. LOTR was written long ago

by a man who was Christian. Harry Potter was written recently by a woman who was hungry.