Goodreads feminist reviews - Gin & Daggers (Murder, She Wrote novels, #1)

 

 Book: Murder, She Wrote. Gin & Daggers (1989), by Donald Bain, the first of a series of Murder, She Wrote novels, based on the TV series of the same name.

2/5. Goodreads review also here. 

 I love Murder, She Wrote and adore Angela Lansbury's Jessica Fletcher, but unfortunately this book's characterization of her was not it. At all. This is my first foray into the Murder, She Wrote books, and I'm honestly quite discouraged to see that the same author wrote most of them, because I'm less than impressed - and more than a bit displeased - with the way he wrote Jessica's characterization. Not to mention the blatant male gaze present throughout the whole book.

I love Jessica Fletcher because she's just so refreshingly unconventional in every way. Firstly, we direly need more protagonists who are badass older women who subvert gender roles every day (Jessica loves both baking apple pies in her seaside town and solving murders everywhere she goes, and it's perfect xD). And I just love how Jessica combines badassery and kindness, doesn't care for money, fame or power in spite of having become a world successful writer of mystery novels, always keeps an open mind and constantly hones her curiosity for learning new things, for example, about other countries and peoples (she's not a typical EEUU citizen in more than one way welp), and she seems to always have a special affinity for the more oppressed minority groups.

Honestly, Jessica Fletcher is the intelligent, badass and supportive friend that we all need in our lives

The Jessica Fletcher of this book is quite dissimilar from this profile, though :S She is written as quite more conventional, displaying a somewhat narrower mind in her inner thoughts, and also displaying less of the badassery and aplomb that so defines her. And it's a shame.

But the main thing that really made me dislike this book more was the way that the male author displayed a blatant male gaze in each and every one of the descriptions involving women, particularly the young female characters in the story. The book is written in first person from Jessica Fletcher's point of view, and can there be anything more incredibly jarring than Jessica Fletcher describing the young women she meets while solving the murders in an incredibly sexist and sexualized manner that reeked of male gaze :S? The book kept describing women's outfits and how tight and revealing they were (sometimes combining this drooling male gaze with the misogyny of how they were sl*ts and dressed inappropiately). The descriptions focused on women's cleavage more than once, just freaking because, and generally made a point of highlighting how beautiful and seductive and sensual the women were (or not, depending on the author's tastes). Wtf. I would be angry about having to read about a man describing all women in this way anyway, but the fact that it's supposedly Jessica goddamm Fletcher describing them like that, in such a disrespectful and sexualizing manner? WTF. I'm personally offended on so many levels.

Jessica Fletcher WOULD NEVER.

The descriptions in the book also engaged in casual fatphobia, body shaming and ageism, there was a completely unnecesary subplot featuring strip clubs because more male gaze, one sole mention of a "*nasty* homosexual relationship" (wtf), and the author also proved that he followed the archetypal way of not bothering to learn geography beyond the United States - This Mediterranean European eyerolled so hard during a description of an Italian female character in which she was described as a 'sensual and exotic beauty' (bonus ethnic fetishism) with "Middle-Eastern features, perhaps from Lebanon, perhaps from Spain or Italy". The word he was looking for, if he wanted to use all three of those countries at the same time, would have been *"Mediterranean"*, and he would have been right, without any need to mix up the continents. Sigh xD.

Jessica Fletcher is way more knowledgeable than that, dude.

The plot was alright, I guess, and it made me want to finish the book to find out if I was right about every whodunnit's main question (who the murderer(s) are xD), but I also found the mystery to have less quality than the standard series plotlines, and it also left me a bit dissatisfied as I felt that the book didn't tie all ends in a satisfactory way.

Did that character really write the fictional murder mystery book the plot revolves around, then? And what happened to that other murder victim who is never mentioned again?

There are also way more male characters than female characters in the story, and the main points about all the female characters' plots revolved very strongly around men. Which is something that we can also see in various episodes of the series, and not every Murder, She Wrote episode includes the healthy dose of social criticism that I tend to enjoy (although more than one does), but the book was overall lacking more in at least the unconventional and subversive element that Jessica Fletcher always adds to every episode no matter what. So meh.

Without divulging any of the whodunnit's twists, I also didn't quite like how Jessica kept either thinking about her late husband, or crushing on a handsome inspector from Scotland Yard. Jessica does indulge in sporadic love interests and casual lunch and dinner dates at the end of various episodes, and that's perfectly fine and more power to her, but the book often had Jessica thinking in a more engaged manner about men instead of you know, solving the murders. In the series, it's pretty much the other way around.

If she's interested, Jessica doesn't say no to a casual dinner date with the episode's random guy of the day, but murders, books and travelling are her main thing, dear author. It's literally because she's widowed that she started writing, travelling and solving murders in the first place, and she's also not about to change that any time soon no matter how much she had loved her late husband, lol.

Finally, I felt that the characters of Doctor Seth Hazlitt and Sheriff Mort Metzger and Jessica's dynamic with them also lacked the characterization of the series in more than one respect, and I actually found it patronizing and intrusive how the plot decided that they would both just travel from Maine to London and stay a few days to help Jessica out - as if she wasn't perfectly capable of solving murders wherever she goes with the help that she already would have found at hand had she needed it, as we have already seen in twelve seasons of the series :S xD. The dynamic is not at all like that in the series most of the time, and what's more, Seth and Mort hardly added anything to the mystery solving per se, choosing instead to indulge in sightseeing and especially in a "boys' night out" drinking and enjoying the attention of lots of young, attractive women (eww). I felt like the author relished every opportunity to add more descriptions of sexualized women and men being icky and nope.

Jessica disagrees with all the unnecessary sexism in this book

I'm not sure that I'll be reading more books from this series any time soon, although knowing my perfectionism, I'll most probably read them all at some time xDD Let us hope that the rest of the books improve at least somewhat on these accounts :S!

Women in Warhammer Fantasy - Depiction of High Elf mages

 

Various depictions and designs of female High Elf mages: Age of Reckoning art concept and playable character, miniature, and an official illustration of mage Aurelion (©Games Workshop)

I'm always ready to rant about how there are so few miniatures of female High Elves in the Warhammer Fantasy range 😕, especially considering the representation got better (if not ideal) with  book characters and the art concepts and playable characters in online games and videogames like Age of Reckoning and Total War. In both of these media we do get more female mages and archmages, Sword Masters of Hoeth (or Mistresses, rather xD), captains and paladins, and so on. In more than one book most of these women are little more than mentions, though, which is still more representation than we get in other media, but still lacking. In other cases, however, we do get primary and secondary characters, as well as playable characters in the games, who are women mages, warriors, loremistresses and artisans 👍. It's not parity in representation by any means, but it's still a way better representation than what we ended up getting in more than one miniature range.

The Sisters of Avelorn, guards and handmaidens of the Everqueen and basically the only female unit (or unit with women, there are not mixed ones) the High Elf Warhammer Fantasy range offered.

But even the brief book mentions of High Elf women doing stuff á la Tyrion and Teclis series are still better that what we got in the miniature range. All infantry and cavalry are male. All special units except for the Sisters of Avelorn and the Handmaidens of the Everqueen, her personal all-female bodyguard, are male. The Everqueen Alarielle might be the only named female character the range has, in comparison to a handful of named male heroes, captains and paladins woth backstories in the High Elf lore. And then there's a lone female mage in the 2000s range, accompanied by at least six male mages. And I think that might be it for the whole High Elf Warhammer Fantasy range. And you know what's even better? I have two High Elf rulebooks, which include a whole section full of painted miniatures on display for each range. Well, none of them include any of the very few female High Elf miniatures, not even the Everqueen! Not even as illustrations! 😐🤨Which is quite telling, to be honest.

Seeing as the origin of this post came from having just read the short story Dragonmage (review here), which features a female mage, I will be talking about this lone female mage miniature today, and about the general depiction of female mages in the High Elf Warhammer Fantasy media ✨. But never you worry (in case you were xD), I'll also be tackling the representation of women in Warhammer, High Elven or otherwise, in other posts as well!

Back to the general discussion before that, though xD

I remember asking a question at a Q&A with some official Games Workshop (male) folks at a Warhammer convention back in 2011, about the reason why we weren't getting more female miniatures paired with the appearance of more female representation in the videogame media, in ranges such as the High Elves and others. The response I got was quite literally a carelessly dismissive 'We haven't really thought about the interest or need for it, so it's not anything we're planning at the moment' 😑🙃. The only thing they could have added to make it even better is something like 'But you already have like two female miniatures to choose from, I fail to see where the problem is!' Which was sort of inferred anyway, if you ask me 🤪.

 The utter lack of interest Warhammer Fantasy had to translate the (not stellar either) new representation female High Elves were getting in the rest of the Warhammer media to the actual miniature world, which is the backbone of this hobby after all, speaks volumes (but it isn't new to see that we often get more representation in the expanded universe of a fandom rather than the main medium, though). As is often the case in the geeky world, but most especially in the strategy battle games and other gaming hobbies, ➡️the scarcity of playable female miniatures (big bonus if they're designed in a non-sexualized and practical way) and its apparent low demand in the High Elf range and in others (as opposed to the highly sexualized 'warrior women' in the Dark Elf range heh) keeps on normalizing the male-dominated aspect of the Warhammer lore and the Warhammer hobbyists⬅️. 

In many areas of the media and also in the patriarchal discourse of real life, women are already seen as the Special and the Other. To frame women who are intelligent, courageous and capable, warriors, rulers or explorers, as an 'exceptional minority' rather than something all women are capable of depending on their own individual capabilities, aspirations and inclinarions is nothing more than a calculated piece of misinformation in order to maintain the control of the set of gender roles and stereotypes which are the foundations of the patriarchal statu quo. This statu quo must be always upholded and maintained, so apparently it's not that all women have different inclinations and capabilities, or that all women should enjoy the exact same rights as the ones privileged by a patriarchal society (men) to choose whatever they want to do. No, it's that most women are allegedly happy to conform to their set of gender roles in life (biological determinism at work), and then there are some "exceptional women", an exceptional minority that of course has *nothing* to do with men forbidding women to minimally deviate from their set place in the first place. These women are then sometimes 'allowed' by the system to choose a different path, a more proactive ""masculine"" one, and bonus points if their individual emancipation and empowerment suits the goals of the system by making these Exceptional Women work in its benefit, at the service of men and imperialist, monarchical patriarchies (we see this in the figure of Mulan, for example, which is a reason why I don't stan the character so much as I used to do in my childhood and early teens :S - but that is a whole separate post xD). 

Thus, in the militaristic, epic context of the worlds of Warhammer, a male-dominated hobby (with a hell of a lot of incels as its followers and probably creators, by the way, which doesn't help matters), the women that we end up getting are just like that - A lone female ruler or an all-women elite unit who more often than not serve an imperialist, patriarchal system rather than the emancipation of women as a whole or even their own (such as the personal bodyguards and handmaidens of Odin, the Valkyries, or the Greek goddess Athena, who is more often that not and very frustratingly at the service of her misogynistic father Zeus). And so, in the High Elf range we also get the lone magical Queen with her special and exceptional female guard (we will talk about them in another post, they're still pretty awesome), and the lone female mage surrounded by male peers, and why would we need to have any more when we already have a couple of women in the range?? How greedy female Warhammer hobbyists are, wanting more 🙄. 

 These women are still representation, and often awesome in their own right, but apart from the fact that we deserve *more*, they also reinforce this idea that these women are here at all because they're the Exceptional, the Other, or the Afterthought (a couple are more than enough!), and either the Special Unit, and often just one per range if any (mixed units are a rare sight in all Warhammer ranges), or the Token Strong Woman surrounded by male peers and isolated from the rest of her gender. That being said, I do love the concept of a female ruler with an all-female personal bodyguard because that sounds like there's a lot more subversion, sorority and feminism going on compared to a rightfully awesome female unit, but at the service of the patriarchal ruler dude or system of your choice. So yeah, I'm totally dedicating a separate post for the Everqueen and her Guard, like I said.

Alarielle the Everqueen (©Games Workshop)

I remember planning a High Elven army in my mid-to-late teenage years and juggling my rising frustration at this fact - well, I wanted some female foot soldiers in a mixed unit, at least, was that so much to ask? - with the hopeful possibility of converting male units with female torsos and faces from the Dark Elf range. This range mainly offers hypersexualization but also some female foot soldiers as well with actual armour (woah), contrasting with the all-male High Elven units (there's also boob plate going on, of course, but that was a given. Honestly, I was totally happy about that, at least I was getting some women in armour and that was saying something here 😅).   This project, of course, would have meant not only the bonus conversion time - which is a great part of the hobby if you like it, but men generally don't have to actually convert and/or sculpt miniatures themselves to get representation of their gender in vast quantities, you know -, but also double the price (at least) of having to get both an all-male High Elven unit and a mixed Dark Elf unit with more men than women anyway (I also find it pretty interesting that the Dark Elf range include women among the foot soldier miniatures, but all High Elven foot soldiers and cavalry are male. And the High Elves are supposed to be the 'good guys' in contrast to their dark cousins, so). And this was before we actually got the Sisters of Avelorn as female High Elf miniatures who were also not hypersexualized (so now I suppose the conversion would use multiple sets of those to create more women in other units , but the main problem still remains).  

  This is a project that ended up in the backburner because it meant a lot of time I didn't have, it was difficult to keep up with my daily (mostly male) painting as it was, but it's a good way to illustrate an example of what can happen if you wanted to play battles with your favourite Warhammer range as a woman hobbyist with a bit of representation of your actual gender, even if you were also OK (because that's the material you had) with painting and playing with 99.9% of male miniatures. You have to create those female miniatures yourself going to other ranges and another brands, even, and look for the already scarce female representation the Warhammer market offered you. This is still  completely normalized in many geeky areas. And when we asked why things were that way we got the dismissive afterthought of 'well, there's no need or interest for more female miniatures (or women in the hobby, really)'. The usual cycle of 'there's no demand so we don't make it' but when you ask for it and express actual interest for it, you get told they don't make it, so that's it, don't ask for it. And then the end result is the apparent 'there's no demand for it anyway'. Yay 😑.

Then there's another problem that joins and worsens the fact that the female representation in all Warhammer Fantasy miniature ranges is minimal - ➡️The fact that the small handful of existing female miniatures are more often than not riddled with hypersexualization, unrealistic female armour and double standards when it comes to the depiction of the same kind of character depending on whether it's male or female. This, of course, is another sign of the male-dominated aspect of this hobby, where the lone female miniatures are mainly there to appeal to the male gaze and the male fantasies⬅️. Warhammer playable female characters are hardly there to appeal to the female audience to want to see some representation or badass women, after all. That's why the most popular female miniatures and characters in Warhammer Fantasy are arguably the highly sexualized Dark Elves, from the enchantresses in navel-deep decolletages to the voluptuous (and sensually savage *sigh*) bikini-clad Witch-Elves (more about this at some other time as well, because wow am I salty about all the hypersexualization and sexist tropes in Warhammer) 😤.

But the Dark Elf range is not the only one with this kind of pattern. The lone Dwarf Queen with an (old edition) miniature has huge boob plate going on. Bretonnian damsels (enchantresses) go to the battlefield clad in extremely tight gowns with multiple tight belts they don't even need except for cinching their bodies even more, and huge cleavages that are not at all suspicious of male gaze. Female vampires (Lahmians) follow the corseted, thigh-high high-heel booted aesthetic to a T.  There is this Kislevite (basically Russian) ranger who travels through the tundra bare armed and shirt-free, with a corset so tight and a cleavage so large her nipples are practially showing - because that makes all the sense in the world, right, to travel the tundra like that, as a ranger?! 😑😵 Amazonian warriors from the jungle? More loincloths, of course, and this time we can even justify the not-at-all sus choice of attire on the weather! And so on and forth. At this point I think it's understandable to see a reasonably protected and practically non-sexualized Dark Elf foot soldier with a breastplate which also has some boob plate going on and well, be fucking elated. Even if as a rule I would say that boob plate is unnecessary as well, but you know, we get what we can get 😬 xD

Male gaze? WHAT MALE GAZE?? Yup, totally realistic and practical and empowered. THIS is usually what female Warhammer hobbyists have to work with. And we have to like it because that's the sign of the truly empowered geek girl, apparently.

Boob plate is not ideal and stuff, but at least these Dark Elf female soldiers are actually wearing full armour! I mean, YAY, FINALLY!

 And yes, we do have *some* (keyword, not many) female miniatures in realistic attire out there as well (some ranges such as the Wood Elves offer a better gender parity as well, albeit not totally free of sexualization either), but pairing the hypersexualization with the fact that women are hardly to be found in the ranges in the first place, we might quite literally count with the fingers of one hand the number of reasonably portrayed female miniatures we can get in each range. And sometimes that's being optimistic, as some ranges have no female representation *at all*, both in Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000. A lone female character or two, or a special female unit, is often the best the ranges can do 😕.

So, after this (lengthy xD) intro - What happens in the High Elf range with the mage miniatures, and how are women portrayed there? And what about their portrayal in the videogames and online role-playing games, where we do get a bit more representation in that respect?

Several male mages alongside the sole lone female mage in the centre (Source)

Well, even though the minimal amount of women in the High Elf range are far less sexualized than in other ranges (Dark Elves *cough cough*), and that compared to what I've just reviewed we could say they're pretty decent depictions and designs, all in all, there's still ye olde double standards regarding the topic of gender versus clothing designs in some respects ⬇️.

The one and only female mage in the High Elven miniature range, to my knowledge (©Games Workshop)

Starting with the miniature range, Games Workshop has considerately cut my work very short because there's just one (1) miniature of a female mage to review (le sigh 😬). And yes, compared to other female miniatures in the Warhammer Fantasy ranges this mage is kinda great, I mean, in and for itself the miniature isn't super *hyper*sexualized in her attire and her pose is adequately badass (which doesn't mean she is still depicted with gendered differences in her design, as we'll see), and I would definitely have bought her for my High Elven army (not that I had a lot of choice of female representation anyway lol).

However, and especially if we compare her to how the male mages are portrayed in their respective miniature designs, we do see some gendered double standards and sexualization 👎, albeit less blatant than in other cases, of course, but still very much there, a continuation of the same problem. The most evident for me is that this female mage wears her wide belt pretty much as an underbust corset or cincher, accentuating her waist and cleavage, and she's also the only one who wears robes (hers is more of a tunic or dress, really) with a low neckline and bare arms. So even if she's not hypersexualized compared to other female miniatures in the Warhammer Fantasy range (she also wears flat boots, which is a definite yay 👍!), her attire is still pretty form fitting to reflect that well, she's a (sexy) woman, I guess 🤷‍♀️.

These differences look more evident if we compare her design to those of the male mages in the range (see below for some examples). The male High Elf mages and archmages are generally clad in more elaborate layered robes and cloaks compared to the more simple sleeveless dress with an unfastened cloak the female mage is wearing. Apart from the fact that I think this look is way more epic and regal for a fantasy mage, and I'm kinda disappointed they didn't give us female mage miniatures also wearing elaborate layered robes, the male mages' clothes are way less form fitting as well, making it evidently clear that in their case what is important is that they look epic, regal, arcane and magical, not sexy (as in, 'in form fitting clothes that focus on their physical attractiveness'). Compared to them, the lone female mage is wearing quite form-fitting garments which are arguably the less elaborate, adorned, layered and protective of the lot as well. Which kinda sounds like the main focus of her design was deviating slightly from the one of making her appear like a badass mage (surprise) 😬.

Male High Elven mages (©Games Workshop)

 

 

 

 

Regarding what I said about the female mage's belt design ressembling an underbust corset more than anything else, we do see some variety with the belt designs the male mages wear as well, and it's true that some of them also wear this kind of wider belt in the same shape. But I stand with what I said because in their case it isn't paired with a more form fitting tunic and/or a lower neckline, and so the effect isn't that of particularly sexualizing the character, nor does it particularly act as a cincher in their case, as it certainly does in more than one of the female designs (more on that below). In the case of the female mage's design for the miniature it has been pretty intentional to emphasize her attractiveness in this way. Like I also said before, her tunic is also the only one to be sleeveless among all the High Elf mage designs (male mages always wear long sleeves, either fitted, long, layered or puffy), and the only one to have a lower neckline, which in an for itself wouldn't be such an issue as it can also easily fit the aesthetic of a fantasy mage, especially (and we'll talk about this more below as well) if it isn't in a battle context. But apart from the fact that it's the only female design we got in the miniature range, there's the fact that the male mages don't wear sleeveless robes or low necklines in any case, so of course, it's a gendered differentiation as well.

More male mages (©Games Workshop)

 

Also, the regalia and decoration the male mages carry are often more elaborate and abundant, as well as their magical artifacts - The woman basically carries a pouch and wields a simple staff, while the male mages carry a variety of more elaborate staffs (the fact that we do have male archmages and not female ones counts as well), books, orbs, and weapons. And of course, the fact that we have way more male mages than female ones means that we get more variety with them as well - We have mounted mages, levitating ones, in battle stances, mages with helmets and crowns, with weapons and without. The pose the female mage got is pretty great as well, standing on an elemental orb and pointing her staff in an spell casting stance, but that's the thing, we only got one design, one pose, because there's only one miniature. If we got more female miniatures wearing more elaborate robes and regalia as well as this one, the differences of course would have been way less blatant. I mean, there's some irony in making a post about the designs of female miniatures and then showing more examples of male portrayals than female ones 🙄 xD

Art concept for the female mage miniature (©Games Workshop)

And finally, the way the female mage carries her cloak unfastened over her arm, paired with the lighter tunic, also makes her whole design not only less elaborate and regal, but flimsier and less protective as well, way less battle ready than many of her male counterparts. Because let's also remember that High Elf mages may dwell and lounge in their Saphery tower being loremasters and loremistresses in their lavishy decorated chambers, but they are often battle mages as well, certainly in the specific setting of the miniature battle games. All the male mages are portrayed in a way that they look like fantasy mages in all their elaborate magical regalia (which granted, wearing encumbering layered robes and cloaks isn't the most realistically practical thing ever, but that's the thing with mages xD), but way more battle ready as well. Many of them wear helmets and/or weapons, and they wear vambraces and more armour elements as well, while the female attire in the miniature version is more centred on her attractiveness and so much less battle ready. Which is another blatantly gendered thing just because 😕.

 I mean, like I said I don't completely hate the design they went with in and for itself, but especially setting her side to side with the rest of her male counterparts and taking the battle context into account, I'd much rather see her with vambraces, a more layered robe, a fastened cloak and maybe a sword or dagger at her belt (enchanted weapons or normal weapons aren't necessary, though, as many mages only use magic and artifacts such as staffs to wield it in battle). But it seems that isn't 'feminine' or 'sexy' enough for the Warhammer hobbyists and designers, apparently 🙄.

Art concepts for male mages for miniature designs (left and right), and the Age of Reckoning game (center) (©Games Workshop)

 And what about the official art and the design art concepts for videogames and online games? In these cases the scenario improves somewhat, as we finally get more layering and more elaborate outfits for the female designs, and also a bit more variety of designs for female mages. However, the same problem remains in that male designs, characters and art are still prevalent, and also in the fact that sexualization and gendered design choices is still present in some of the designs in the same ways discussed with the miniature range.

Games Workshop is also letting me end the official art section quickly because to my knowledge there's not a single piece of art depicting female High Elf mages in the official miniature rulebooks (like I said at the beginning of this post, the scarce number of female miniatures don't even feature either). There's one piece of, to my knowledge, official art of a female mage in the Warhammer Fantasy Wiki, though, a depiction of Aurelion, a named High Elf mage princess of Saphery. Her design is  more elaborate than that of the miniature we discussed above, and she's also depicted more like a battle mage, with what looks like a ceremonial magical battle crown, some vambraces, a pauldron (just the one xD), and a sword at her belt. Similarly to the miniature, she wears flat boots (yay), and a simpler tunic rather than more layered robes, but with longer sleeves and her cloak fastened (yay, lol). However, she also follows some of the same gendered design choices already discussed, as her attire also focuses on the wide underbust belt, the lighter tunic, the bare arms (uncommon or nonexistent with male designs), and so on. And that wide metallic underbust cincher/breastplate? Looks pretty uncomfortable, not to mention that the design leaves her chest fully unprotected, which sounds pretty stupid in a battle setting (something that also happened to the baffling design of Sif's 'breastplate' in MCU's Thor I). If you're wearing a more encumbering piece of metal around your midsection and not just a belt, at least make sure it protects everything, but not, men said emphasize the (unprotected) chest and cinch the waist, I guess 🙄. At least it's segmentated? Sigh.

Aurelion, a high mage (©Games Workshop)

 Then we have some art concepts and designs for female mages in Age of Reckoning (a multiplayer online role-playing game) and the videogame Total War. The main art concept of a female mage for Age of Reckoning is one of my favourite portrayals, aesthetically, and maybe also specifically because we finally don't have an underbust cincher or metallic breastplate thingie going on 😅. I like how they went for a more layered look with the underdress and the overrobe (finally also a design which doesn't leave the arms bare and doesn't have a low boat neckline, good to have some variety xD), paired with vambraces, pauldrons and, again (yay), flat heeled boots. I'm missing some more regalia action, but all in all it's a design I quite like, and so far it's the least sexualized of them all as well.

Concept art of a High Elven female mage (©Games Workshop, Age of Reckoning)

 Of course, while I love this design, once again, if we look at some Age of Reckoning designs for male mages we see that they continue to be clad in more elaborate robes and are more bedecked in epic regalia (Teclis the archmage and high loremaster of Hoeth is the prime example of this, pairing elaborate robes with full-on ceremonial battle armour). Also, of course, they're completely devoid of any sexualization once again.

Concept art for male High Elven mages (©Games Workshop, Age of Reckoning)

 

  And for those who may think that the reason why female mages wear less elaborate robes and armour is because they're less strong or whatever, let's remember that 1) High Elves as a whole species can look misleadingly 'frail and slender' to other races but are actually really strong, and 2) Teclis the archmage, who wears ceremonial armour into battle and a very heavy battle crown and staff, was born with a lot of health problems which made him particularly frail among his Elven kind, and he has to drink potions daily and use magic to maintain his health and mobility (which in my opinion is also rather good representation on how disabled people can be incredibly badass and have agency 👍, but that's also a whole separate post). So if Teclis happens to be one of the mages to wear one of the heaviest armour looks in all the High Elf mage designs, female mages certanly can as well.

Concept art for Archmage Teclis (©Games Workshop)

 When talking about the miniature designs especially I was saying that I wish we saw more female mages and archmages dressed like the male mages in more elaborate get-ups with layered robes and regalia and son on, and it seems like Age of Reckoning does deliver more in that respect when it comes to the playable characters. In the player guide we see the standard design for the female archmage in her simplest version of an undertunic and overrobe, and, in the background, bedecked in full battle regalia in a way that's pretty similar to the male designs (including layered robes with a high neckline and long sleeves, pauldrons, vambraces, a helmet, and flat boots). Similarly to the art concept, this version also ditches the underbust cincher in favour of a regular belt (yay 👏). 

And even though the proportions are still a bit exaggerated to follow the canonical thin but curvy hourglass body type videogame female characters (and all High Elves) are more often than not limited to, the playable models don't look oversexualized to the extent many female videogame characters do either, so overall I'm pretty happy with these designs, and I really wish we could have gotten them in the miniature range as well.

Player Guide showing the High Elf female options for Age of Reckoning  (©Games Workshop) (Source)

Now, this is a look I would have loved to see in a miniature 👏

We get more battle mages in regalia looks going on more with the art designs and final videogame playable characters from the videogame Total War. First we have the main design for the female mages, which is more similar to the depiction of Aurelion, and here we also get more layering (and the quintessential fantasy high collars finally make an appearance for the female mages!), more ornamentation, more armour elements, and also (yay) underpants and flat boots once again (I'm so happy they went with flat boots for each and every design, kudos for that). But once again they go back to the underbust cincher which, paired with the already pretty sexualized videogame body proportions (way more blatant and hypersexualized than in the case of Age of Reckoning, unfortunately)...well, it isn't my fave concept 😕. 

Because it really makes no sense, apart from the sexualization aspect of it, to have a warrior or battle mage wear an underbust cincher or corset. It isn't a functional breastplate and it isn't just a belt to hang stuff from. It may provide with more protection than wearing nothing, true, but it can also restrict the wearer's mobility just because, and all in all, well, it's just there for the sake of making her body look nice and hourglassy, let's be real. It's just a design geared for the male gaze, and it gets repeated again and again in the designs for fantasy warrior women, and ugh, pet peeve 😩.

Concept of a female mage (©Games Workshop, Total War)

The underbust belt-corset is even more glaring if we compare her design to Teclis at the front sigh. We do have more layering in these designs, though, that's nice (©Games Workshop, Total War)

It's a truth unversally acknowledged that you can't cast spells if you're a woman unless you go to the battle looking snatched in a very cinched underbust corset 🙄 (©Games Workshop, Total War)

And finally, Total War 2 has a design for female archmages as well, and freaking finally, we get another design (after the archmage design of Age of Reckoning) in full armour and an elaborate get-up more similar to Teclis and other male archmages, which additionally doesn't include boob plate (yay) 🙌! The underbust element isn't quite gone, though, but in this case, paired with the non-sexualized chest armour, it's easier to see it more like a wide belt, like some of the male mages also wear, and less as an underbust cincher for the sake of making her waist look super snatched (a priority, as we know, for the battlefield). The fact that the final rendering of the character for at least some screenshots I've come across doesn't hypersexualize her body and over-emphasize her waist so much 👍 - like the main mage designs did - also helps a lot to see it that way. Alongside the Age of Reckoning art concept and final archmage design, this archmage design from Total War 2 is definitely my favourite (and objectively the least sexualized, which for me goes side by side).

Concept of a female archmage (©Games Workshop, Total War)

 

This is the other design closest to the ones male (arch)mages are allowed to have, and what a missed chance not to have designed miniatures like that, tbh (screenshot from Total War 2)

So, in conclusion, I'd say that the designs and poses of female mages and archmages in the High Elf range are generally fairly decent and sometimes pretty cool, and especially in comparison to the hypersexualized designs Warhammer Fantasy often creates for its female characters. Some designs, such as the archmage concepts from Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and Warhammer Total War 2 scream fantasy battle mage, and are virtually non-sexualized and very similar to the male mage designs 👌. In other cases, however, such as in the actual miniature range, there are some gendered choices going on compared to the design of male mages: Female designs include bare arms, low necklines and more figure hugging clothing paired with underbust cinchers, and/or less armour and a less battle-ready portrayal. Meanwhile, male designs in the miniature media (and all media, really) are always non-sexualized and more elaborate, with less form-fitting layered robes, covered arms with various sleeve designs, high necklines, no cinchers (even when wearing wide belts the result is never sexualized), more regalia, and a more battle-ready attire with vambraces, pauldrons and/or weapons.  ➡️These gendered differences are clearly there to prioritize the woman's attractiveness over protection and practicality from a male gaze point of view, and while in this case the end result isn't as offensive or blatant as in other ranges, the intention and mindset behind those design choices are still very much there⬅️.

The additional representation and sometimes pretty great designs the videogames and online games offered are a positive addition for sure, and online games such as Age of Reckoning are still active at the moment, but like I started this post ranting about, regarding the miniature range I would have definitely loved to see 1) more than one female mage miniature, because we got just one woman vs a lot of men, and 2) Women dressed exactly like the male mages, because it looks epic and we deserve nice things too. And now that the Warhammer Fantasy miniature range is a thing of the past (it has been discontinued from some time and rebooted into Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, which I'm not very much into and don't know much about anyway, but in my quick searches I haven't found practically any 'Aelf' female characters either), I guess that we shall see if the new range will change this issue at some point in any of its ranges.

Goodreads reviews - Doctor Who: The Monsters Inside (New Series Adventures, #2)

Book: Doctor Who: The Monsters Inside, by Stephen Cole.

2.5/5 Goodreads review also here.

 This is the fourth DW book with Rose and the Ninth Doctor that I've read, and while I quite enjoyed the rest of them, this one didn't quite hook me :S The narration style and quality wasn't my favourite, and even though I think the premise was really promising, I also think the social criticism got derailed quite a lot by the alien menace of the story, which is a shame :S Some spoilers in the points below!

+1 The initial premise of a human-made planetary system serving as a series of concentration/labour camps and prisons for the criminals of the Galaxy, both human and alien, was very promising, and there was some social criticism related to that in the story. The system is corrupted, primarily based on money and people in high ranks gaining power (no surprises there). People are mistreated, tortured and exploited in the labour camps, which also include several science experiment projects using the detainees as test subjects and problem-solvers. Those deemed criminals (it seems that often unjustly or for minor offenses) are sent to long prison terms, with abusive wardens and minimally decent living conditions. There is also some criticism of speciesism and racism/xenophobia in the way the system segregates humans and aliens in different complexes, and seems to mainly exploit the latter for their science projects.

-1 All this background called for way more social criticism than we finally ended up getting, though. Mid-story, the social criticism content that was coming via the Doctor and Rose against this human-made penitentiary system is suddenly basically put on hold indefinitely as the alien antagonists - Slitheen and other Raxacoricofallapatorian families - turn out to be impersonating more than one high rank officer in the complex. From this point, I felt like the Slitheen aliens (the main antagonists are actually not from the Slitheen family, but I'm going to use it this way to avoid saying 'Raxacoricofallapatorians' xD) became the only antagonists in the tale, effectively seeming to shift the blame to them and pretty much forgetting about the *human*-made complex full of freaking labour camps and prison mistreatment :S

The fact that most of the human workers and leaders mentioned are either Slitheen posing as them (these are also the most evil and morally wrong), or described as more greymoral and/or becoming allies of the Doctor and Rose (even though more than one continues to be complicit in the system) doesn't really help matters in this case. The end also reminded me of Kerblam! in this way - The aliens are fully defeated and these greymoral humans who became allies of the Doctor suddenly find themselves in charge of matters and decide to make the system better. Which could sound good and like a very Whovian ending, but it's not fully clear which subjective criteria they are going to implement and if they're actually making the complex less of an authoritarian, capitalist, exploitative torture detainment site and more of a humane set of prisons for those who do deserve a prison sentence. The freaking existence of labour camps are also not really addressed at this point, and the Doctor and Rose seem to only insist on them freeing those detained aliens and human inmates who have helped in the cause against the Slitheen :S.

The fact that the social critique was so suddenly shifted to the bad alien menace of the Slitheen against the not-so-bad-after-all humans does whitewash and diminish the actual problematic issues the story was dealing with in the first place, I think. 

Nine was in this mode until...he just wasn't because the plot decided the sole baddies were the aliens :S

+1 I quite liked how Rose was depicted in the tale. She is well characterized and very proactive, as usual. She spends most of the book on her own and becomes a Doctor-figure at one point with a companion of her own, a low-rank male warden from the prison they sent her to. There is also some female bonding and Bechdel going on, with Rose making friends with her fellow cell inmate, Riz, and also developing alliances and tenous friendly dynamics with scientist warden Flowers and other fellow female inmates.

+-1 However, I felt like the Doctor was more 2D and less interesting to read about in this tale. I quite like the Ninth Doctor, but I don't think he was as fleshed out in this tale as he could have been, even though he has his fair share of social criticism (while it lasts, at least :S), techno babble and action.

-1 Even though I think Rose is well depicted and there are a fair number of female characters in this book, the treatment of the rest of the female characters is sorely lacking in some respects. The descriptions of each and every one of the women in this book scream of 'male writer syndrome' and are full of problematic and pretty sexist clichés - The narrator keeps evaluating their physical appearance in a way that's unsolicited, cringy and a double standard compared to most male characters, and more than one woman, be she a high-ranking officer, a scientist, an inmate or a warden, or even an alien, are helpfully described as being 'fat', 'plain', 'old', 'short', 'jealous of prettier women', or 'with more testosterone than the thin male warden they're comparing her to'. This soured my experience of the book quite a lot.

Me every time yet another female character got described in this way

-1 There are also some problematic jokes having to do with implementing 'mixed-sex cells' with male and female inmates in the teenager prison Rose is sent to, clearly drawing on the sexual assault possibilities :S However, most inmates also choose to behave like prom is coming and making lists of which inmates are hot?? Female inmates also seem to prefer to obsess over handsome male wardens rather than feel miffed about their generally horrible treatment - coincidentally, these are the most humane and sympathetic of the complex, compared to the b*tchy female wardens :S . It's worth mentioning that the evil Slitheen were actually hoping that the 'mixed-sex cells' would lead to the inmates reproducing and giving them more labourers for their exploitative purposes (aka sexual assault in more than one case, and women as incubators, yay :S).

-1 In the same line of thought, scientist warden Flowers, who works in the alien labour camp the Doctor is trapped in and who becomes her companion of sorts in this tale, is depicted as 'plain', nearing early middle age and 'overweight', and thus, horribly insecure, forever jealous of prettier women and desperately 'needing some exercise', and the Doctor himself puts it because she can't keep up with him when running (wow). She's also pragmatic in the moral sense and doesn't really care about exploiting other people if that means her career is going well, but even so all that is brushed aside pretty quickly, and she ends the story with even more control in the complex (after all, the baddie was her female superior who was actually an Slitheen in disguise, not the complicit underlings). But instead of actually making the system better like they claim they want to do, she starts making a list of 'hot male inmates sentenced for minor offenses' so that they can be their personal assistants. WTF. Feminism this is not.

When a female character is butchered with sexist tropes but ends up redeemed for being complicit in the system and not for any correction of said sexist tropes :S

-1 There are also some unfortunate racist touches here and there - The sole female character described as Asian is said to be stereotipically 'petite and delicate, but with a comically low voice' (wat), and the few black and dark-skinned characters are described as 'swarthy', and who even uses that anymore to describe poc, it sounds so cringy??

+-1 There is some greymorality going on, both among the humans in charge of the penitentiary complex and among the Slitheen, which I do appreciate, even though that also becomes a bit problematic when complicit underlings in the system are not really held accountable in the story :S Or that the most sympathetic and humane wardens in the story turn out to be male, which kinda promotes more the archetype of the b*tchy (they're called this in the book more than once) woman in charge :S The actual Slitheen in this book are more greymoral and become tenous allies of the Doctor in most of the story, as they are also against the other Raxacoricofallapatorian family who serves as the main antagonists of the tale. There are also two female Slitheen in the tale with proactive roles.

Rose is also initially bullied and attacked by a pack of female inmates (fully stereotyped as big, burly and rough) who give her a very hard time, but in the end they kind of apologize for it when Rose becomes a hero figure of the prison with her uncovering the Slitheen. She shouldn't have to prove herself in this way to be respected, though - although I kind of loved the idea of Badass Boss Rose Tyler becoming famous in the teenage prison and getting a reputation as the ultimate rebel disruptor xD, and also the fact that Nine tried to get her out of the prison by claiming she was a genious astrophysicist who was needed for the science project the Doctor was made to work on, and Rose actually using her wits to trick the wardens into that assumption in spite of her zero science skills!

I am always here for Baddass Rose Tyler

-1 And to conclude this, the Slitheen are not my fave Whovian alien at all, I actually quite dislike them. Apart from the juvenile 'farts and belches' shenanigans (which I'm not a fan of) and the horrible prosthetics, the rampant fatphobia in their characterization is the main reason for this. The book ends up basically demonizing all fat people because they might be monsters in disguise, and I find that deeply disturbing :S Rose and other characters have to be careful of any fat person in power they encounter because an Slitheen might be lurking inside, ready to chase and kill them, and it's actually a huge plot twist when one of them turns out to be in the body of a *gasp* slim woman.

When I started reading this book, I linked the title, The Monsters Inside to another Whovian critique of how humans can often be the actual monsters rather than the monstrous aliens we're supposed to be thinking about. Especially with the background of a dystopian human complex full of concentration camps and prison mistreatment. But we actually got a very literal meaning of the title, with the murderous, power-hungry Slitheen hiding inside the humans in power and becoming the actual baddies of the tale. Which was pretty disappointing, but ah well. 

 

✨If you want to read more reviews of the Doctor Who New Series Adventures:

-The Clockwise Man (New Series Adventures, #1)

-Winner Takes All (New Series Adventures, #3)

MCU warrior-women outfit analysis - Iron Man I (2008)

✨⚔️This series is about⚔️✨: Warrior women and realistic female armour has always been one of my favourite topics to discuss, so this is what this series is about, focused on the women of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). We'll be analysing and commenting on the outfits and armour warrior women and action women wear and the way they are depicted in each of the MCU movies. I will also be commenting on unrealistic outfits for female characters who are not warrior or action women, but who find themselves in the midst of action scenes which involve running, for example (and you can't do that very easily in heels or tube skirts, now can you). 

 

A more in-depth description about this series in my first post about it, here. 

Well, this one will be quick (by my standards xD) because there's practically no warrior or action women around, apart from a female soldier extra at the start of the movie and a brief foray of Pepper Potts into the final action scenes (not part of the action per se, but the 'women running in thin stiletto heels' must be always criticized 🙄😬 xD). In fact, this being one of the most infamously sexist moviesin the MCU, most women are there to provide ample examples of casual gratuitous sexism - To be harassed, used, exploited and ogled at, as well as to fulfil the roles of the (future) love interest, personal assistant and emotional support who caters to every of our entitled male hero's wishes (hello, Pepper, you deserve so much better in this movie).

I'm going to focus on our small number of action women and how they are portrayed, but regarding general feminist criticism, I agree 100% with this post's discussion of Iron Man's sexism and racism/colonialism. I'd especially like to highlight this quote:

"Had the intent truly been to show Stark to be an ass, and not to use his mistreatment of women as proof of his success and charm, then some of the women would have registered disgust or discomfort in his company. By portraying women as being universally susceptible to the 'seductiveness' of Stark's misogyny, the film implies that all women either like being belittled, don't have the dignity to stand up for themselves, or are too empty-headed to notice a pig when he stares them in the face chest."

Peggy for sure doesn't agree with that kind of bullshit

 

Yep. My main issue with the casual sexism as portrayed in the movie was that the women didn't seem to mind being harassed, belittled, sexualized and used - they reacted favourably because it was the 'desirable' Tony Stark doing it (for example, this idea is handled better with Jim Kirk from Star Trek AOS - He begins as a cocky playboy wannabe but not all women he hits on are cool with his behaviour - nor is he into the Stark level of casual sexism or lacks so many morals at the start of his story, but that's another topic and another fandom xD). And of course, even though there are more than a handful of problematic aspects in Pepper and Tony's interactions, of course it's romantic story material from the start (I also 100% agree with the paragraph on Pepper in the above linked post).

Anyway, let's move on to the actual focus of this post xD:

• Number of warrior/action women: 1 - A female soldier extra. Pepper Potts gets involved a bit in the action, but barely.

 1. The lone female soldier

 

• Context: The movie starts with Tony Stark being driven in a military humvee in Afghanistan. A female soldier is the driver of the transport he's in. She's the only female soldier in the car and practically the only female soldier to appear in the whole movie (if we're not counting a couple bringing a stretcher at the airport - it's also pretty sad that it's all full of men no problem, but I have to be squinting at all the extras while pausing the film in order to find someone who's a woman). And she's basically there to be workplace harassed by Stark so that the audience knows that 'wow, he's an incorrigible - but still adorkable - playboy who hits on all the women'.  

The only other women in the military in the whole movie are army medics

 

"A female soldier giggles coquettishly when he throws some low-grade harassment her way, because what soldier wouldn't love to hear words like 'Now that I know you're a woman, I can't take my eyes off you. Does that make you feel uncomfortable?' drifting her way over the romantic rumbling of the humvee she's driving" Source

• Armour/outfit analysis: The only positive thing about how this character is treated is that she's actually wearing a realistic military uniform, same as the rest of the men. According to the context, she's wearing practical clothing that don't sexualize her or impede her mobility. And because she's non-sexualized, Stark obviously mistakes her for a man at first because it's so hard to recognize that someone is a woman when she's wearing practical outfits that actually give her protection and mobility, right? I guess that's just why they need to sexualize action women so much everywhere, it's actually about not mistaking them for men! 🙄

Not impressed.

Her response to Stark formerly mistaking her for a man is also problematic - 'I'm an airman', she says, having to prove her validity, worth and professionalism by using the masculine (faux) generic. Yes, the military already usually uses masculine generics for everything 😕. But another interesting point is that apparently the only way to be seen as an equal by her all-male entourage is to define herself according to male terms and using male language. Being a woman means being sexualized and reduced to her 'bone structure' (something which the filmmakers have also made her react happily to, yay). Being an 'airman' is her proactive job. And this is a thing, unfortunately - many women actually prefer to use masculine generics for their jobs - even if the feminine version of the word is ridiculously straightforward - because they think they will be taken more seriously that way. And hey, using masculine non-inclusive faux generics actually doesn't help society to see women as equals, or even neutral language more common. At least, that's my standpoint.

 

-About the character as a warrior/action woman:

• Representation: Female soldier. I'm anti-militaristic, but always nice to see parity (if you can call ONE female soldier parity, which you really can't either *eyeroll*).
• Female bonding/Bechdel with other (warrior) women: Nope. Surrounded by men.
• Token warrior woman? Yep, practically the only female soldier in the movie.
• Love interest/catering to men as main plot function? Harassed by Tony Stark while doing her job, laughs it off and is actually portrayed as being flattered by it because every woman wants to be talked in a condescending, sexualized manner by Tony Stark, of course they do. 

So -
+1 Non-sexualized, realistic outfit.
-1 Her minimal role is full of sexism and normalizes workplace harassment in a positive light.
-1 No female bonding or positive interactions with other women.

 2. Pepper Potts and her stiletto heels

Running in heels. That infamous sexist trope.

-Context: Pepper becomes embroiled in the movie's final showdown and turns up to investigate the antagonist's doings alongside Coulson and Co. from SHIELD. The antagonist ends up attacking them. She has to run from explosions and from the suited-up 'baddie'. In heels.

And not just any heels. THESE heels o_O

-Outfit analysis: As is unfortunately usual for many office and business jobs, pencil skirts (sometimes also pant suits) and stiletto heels are part of the daily 'uniform' of Pepper as a rich and important man's personal assistant. This is an example of the glaring double standard sexist-fest that is compulsory stiletto heels and skirts as part of many women's jobs - imagine having to wear uncomfortable and mobility-impairing contraptions just because of your gender, because if you're a woman, no matter if your job involves standing up of walking a lot (servers, assistants, secretaries, flight stewardesses, you name it), it's apparently super important to enhance your sexiness first and foremost. This has become so warped in our society that stiletto heels and pencil skirts have also come to mean 'professionalism' and 'smartness' as well as 'sexiness' and 'femininity', and are basically the 'female uniform' for many other occupations (from lawyers to businesswomen to politicians) where the woman in question wants to look adequately 'competent' and 'to be taken seriously'.  

 

And it's worth mentioning that in this movie we also get the delightful example of Stark's private plane's stewardesses, who sport high thin stilettos (and whose job apparently also includes pole dancing for the boss 😣).

So comfortable

But Pepper doesn't only have to brave through wearing stilettos and mobility-impairing skirts through her daily job, no. She also has to dive into - and run from - the action scenes of the last part of the movie in a tube-skirted dress and thin high heels. Because it's a cliché in this kind of man-made movies - as well as practical af, huh?! - to see women running from the danger and the baddies in stilettos.

"And as the tension mounts towards the film’s climax, watching her totter in heels to help save the day is unnerving–at least they could have given her some boots."  Source. 

(sarcasm all around once more)

(and again xD)

It was definitely ridiculous to have to see yet another woman run around in ridiculous thin heels without anyone questioning the absurdness of it all (couldn't Coulson or any of the agents give her another pair of shoes? Especially knowing they were going to face danger?? I guess maintaining her sexiness was the priority there :/). She is 100% ill-equipped for these action scenes - Even though she's not an 'action woman' per se, but she's very much in the *midst* of a pretty intense action area. And she is also very ill-equipped for an ardous daily job that requires moving and standing around a lot, just saying. 

Spot the differences between Coulson and Pepper

-About the character:

• Representation: She's competent in everything that she does, does have a role in thwarting the antagonist in the final showdown, and will become CEO of Stark Industries, but we cannot forget that her role as Stark's personal assistant and love interest means that most if not all of her actions revolve around the male hero's plot and decisions.  Pepper has the wit and cool-headedness to evade the antagonist in a scene prior to the final showdown, and the agency to go arrest him with SHIELD, so yay for Pepper there (and in heels no less), but she also kinda fulfills the 'damsel in distress' trope for a good chunk of said action scenes, surrounded by male agents with guns and hunted by the weaponized baddie.
• Female bonding/Bechdel with other women: Talks briefly with a journalist seduced by Stark (which shows us that Pepper knows exactly what kind of playboy life Stark has going on - one aspect of her job is to usher all his one-night stands out - and still finds his male entitlement, ego remotely attractive. And not only that, but the only scene where women talk is full of female competition, hell yeah! 😬). 

Pepper having a go at Stark's one-night conquests because hell yeah let's be jealous that your entitled womanizer boss sleeps with other women! "Why is she not referring to Stark as the trash in this situation? He's the one that continues to treat women as throwaway objects he's entitled to" Indeed (Source)

• Love interest/catering to men as main plot function? Yep. Her job is literally that. She doesn't really have a life of her own portrayed, and repeatedly has to put up with all the problematic stuff Stark comes up with because her job as his personal assistant is to attend to his every whim with a competent air, a ready smile, and a pair of stiletto heels always at the ready. Also a model of the female character who helps 'make the man better' with her emotional support and her putting up with too much of his shit (she does challenge some of his decisions, but yeah).  
  
• Additional notes (you know I had to xD): 
•  To those usually saying Stark appreciates and respects her competence, and that he gets more character development in that direction - that may be so, and I don't deny that Iron Man gets some character development going on in this MCU arch (without really making him accountable for his former higher levels of obnoxious sexism, if I may add, tho). But Pepper's still fulfilling the traditional role of the woman who does all the men's work while not being the actual boss, CEO or not. Not her actual company, but her boss-boyfriend's company. Yes, she wields power, as so many female PA's, consorts and the like do - But not her actual power, at the end of the day. Women with actual power are actually often portrayed as 'evil', 'bossy' and 'controlling', but because Pepper has Stark as her superior, that's all right if she displays her competence and skills. And it's also all right that she shows a lot of competence while catering to each and every one of the male protagonist's needs, paperwork and wishes, of course ("I don't think you could tie your shoes without me" and such are shown as proof of Pepper's competence, not Stark's utter incompetence when it comes to boring bureocratic matters other women handle for him).
• She's also treated in a pretty controlling and manipulative way by Stark in more than one occasion in this movie ("I don't like it when you have plans" and several other quotes come to mind). Yes, Stark gets character development, especially regarding his moral compass, and that's great, but his entitlement and flyboy attitude are still there in more than one way, and he is never held accountable for his casual sexism and use of women in the same way he is for his prior pro-weapons stance (if at all). They want to sell us Pepper's constant calm competence and apparent no-nonsense attitude as proof of her empowerment, maybe also to show us that everything's super normal and healthy where Stark is involved, a good foundation for a relationship (especially now that he's becoming the better hero!). But with that kind of discourse they're also hiding under the rug all of Stark's bullshit behaviour (for ex., the rather creepy scene where he pressures Pepper to fix his heart reactor or else he will go into cardiac arrest; the party scene where Pepper is uncomfortable to dance publicly in a backless dress with her boss, while privileged manly womanizer Stark is not only unaffected by sexist double standards of what people may think, but also suggests that maybe if he fired her she would feel better about the flirty scenario; or the cringeworthy entitlement in the very last scene where he very unsubtly asks Pepper to be his girlfriend), as well as promoting the idea that PA's are super happy to have demanding narcissistic womanizer bosses, so much they end up hardcore crushing on them! Yes, Pepper refuses Stark's offer at the end of the movie ("No matter how proud she might be of the ‘man he’s become’ Pepper’s not about to get into a relationship with a man who treats her like shit (hurrah), even if she might still work for him." Source). But as we know, that won't last long 😬

So - 

+1 Capable and competent. She's also pretty cool-headed in a crisis, even though -
-1 SHE HAS TO RUN IN HEELS EVERYWHERE. Also, job, plot and love story revolve around narcissistic womanizer dude who's never really accountable for his sexist behaviour.
-1 No female bonding or positive interactions with other women in this movie.