Always a Love Interest

            Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed is extremely progressive in terms of the representation of people of color which is absolutely due to the fact that it is written by a person of color. While it is progressive in this way, in terms of the representation of women it’s slightly lacking. Zamia Banu Laith Badawi is introduced as the 15-year-old former protector of the Band of Nadir Banu Laith Badawi and is what is called Angel-chosen: she is a girl lion.  Although her entire band had just recently been killed for which she feels personally responsible—she is also extremely concerned with the prospect of repopulating her tribe and mating when she meets Raseed bas Raseed, an extremely pious Dervish. Under these extreme circumstances there is not a reason for her to start thinking about repopulating her tribe particularly as they were very, very recently murdered and the killer is still out there. While this could be written off as just poorly written as it is written by a male, it’s certainly not an isolated incident and it’s common even with female writers especially in the young adult genre.

 If there is a younger girl, she is either in a relationship or is even partially looking for one and often her journey finishes when she finally gets with her love interest.  There are plenty of examples in which males go on heroes’ journeys and maybe they fall in love along the way maybe not, but if there is a woman present they often help the male finish their journey in some way. For girls and women, their journey is often revolved around a male even when they are in the main role. For example, Isabella Swan of Twilight is a young, plain, high-school girl whose whole world changes when she meets her love interest Edward Cullen. She goes through a whole four book series which ends when she can finally just be married with him and it’s written by Stephenie Meyer. The entire Hunger Games trinity, Katniss is trying to fight a system of government as the face of an uprising, yet she cannot do it without Peeta and even briefly goes through a love triangle choosing between Peeta and Gale. The series is also written by Suzanne Collins. Divergent is one of the newer franchises where the main character is a young, special teenager who is also, like Katniss, trying to lead a rebellion against the government, but she also has time to focus on her relationship with Four (and written originally by Veronica Roth).

All of these major franchises are written by women and feature young women in different positions and they all focus largely on relationships with men who help them have adventures which they might not otherwise have and who they rely on in order to finish their journeys. Why is it that they cannot be presented without a love interest period? It’s not truly necessary, but often they are portrayed as needing this love interest for some reason or another. The men often help them fix their problems. Zamia did not need to show any interest in Raseed in any way, yet she is portrayed as being interested in him almost immediately and sadly it is not just an issue that lies solely with male authors either.

-Zoe Lugo