#i am almost positive that I've seen this sentiment expressed around these parts before in similar terms

[queenlucythevaliant]

"Battles are ugly when women fight" =/= "women shouldn't fight ever." Jack never said that. In Narnia, women demonstrably do fight in battles. Case in point: Lucy in HHB, Jill in LB.

You can judge the moral value of any society based on how it treats its most vulnerable members: women, children, minorities. Women are inherently vulnerable in wartime. Any battle in which women must fight is de facto extremely ugly, and it reflects very poorly on the society that placed them in that position.

That said, "Women feel that they must fight in the battle because the situation is so desperate/the culture fails to recognize their vulnerability/the culture actively exploits them" is entirely different than "adult women choose to fight as a matter of calling and do so in culturally appropriate ways." There's a very good reason why most modern democratic nations allow women to enlist, but don't include women in their drafts.

Father Christmas says "battles are ugly when women fight" specifically to clarify that Susan and Lucy don't have to go into battle against the Witch even though he's arming them. He's saying, "That's not your job; Narnia won't put its women in positions where they must fight." This is not a remotely misogynist statement; it's saying that a noble society has a responsibility to care for women during wartime. Which. Yes.

#i am almost positive that I've seen this sentiment expressed around these parts before in similar terms #but i figured I'd take a crack at articulating it anyway #Father Christmas was 100% right to discourage the girls from fighting ar Beruna #but it's also awesome that Lucy does go into battle later on #and I believe with every fiber of me heart that she was knighted at some point #these things! are not mutually exclusive! #reading fairy tales again #narnia #pontifications and creations #i enjoy being a girl