Women Characters as Spies

Use this forum to discuss the February 2019 Book of the month, "The Warramunga's War" by Greg Kater.
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Melchi Asuma
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Re: Women Characters as Spies

Post by Melchi Asuma »

Using women as spies is smart. Problem is, there wasn't great character development. It is this that made them uneffective.
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Post by DALINTON »

Though the women may be depicted as smart, there could still be an improvement in regard to their role and their character development. Women deserve more than stereotype roles, even if such roles seem to intend to show their strength or intelligence
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Post by Mouricia Allen »

Spying seemed to be secondary, to feminine wiles. I don't like it.
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Post by Stellae »

The women didn't seem much like spies. The way their looks and bodies were displayed, brushed over any other real commentary I think.
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Post by Salma M »

I personally did not find a problem of how the women were portrayed. I found that it was necessary for the women to be manipulative in order to archive there tasks.
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Post by Roxanne Thomas »

Even though the girls were described as being smart and beautiful and they each had their personal reasons for choosing to be spies, it was clear that because of their line of work, they were able to get close to their targets. I did not like the way they were portrayed. Women can accomplish just about anything a man can do without using her body. At least the girls could of been provided with some self defense classes.
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Post by cpru68 »

For me, I was looking at the time period. I think that women’s roles in books have changed. I didn’t find any of it offensive because my focus was more on Jacko and Jamie as the main characters. The roles of the women had a “classic/ old” feel which lends to the time period of the book.
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Post by Joytoo97 »

Out of all the females, Yasmina stands out the most for me because of her smartness and sharp wit. Despite this, I think the females are quite gullible and disposable as spies.
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Post by Beatus »

BelleReadsNietzsche wrote: 03 Feb 2019, 17:18 This is a theme I notice more and more as I get older, and don't necessarily see improving in many of the newer books released. And my patience with it is a lot thinner than it used to be. Women as "strong" is great but it seems to be a substitute for women as people, especially among male authors. I agree with the comments made here about Yasmina, Fahmy, Fifi, and Yvette.

That being said, I wasn't necessarily expecting much since historical fiction war books written by men tend to be really terrible at this, and I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would. But I think its a weakness in this book and in the genre, and I'm kind of sick of excusing it. (And I'm torn about that because many otherwise good books have that as a flaw, and I'm never sure how harsh its fair to be about it.)

Thank you for this topic, I think it's something we need to talk about more!
I really llike how you have put this and I do agree with you. I also do believe that women themselves need to pave a way on how this is to be addressed by making better stories. I felt like I was missing something but you actiually put a finger on it. Thanks a bunch.
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Post by chiefsimplex »

I feel that the role of the female spies in this book was only subservient to that of the male characters and thus the way they were portrayed was less than complementary to their intelligence.However without doubt they acted out their roles fearlessly considering the risk involved with spying during such a tumultuous period.
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Post by nbel »

This is a very interesting topic. I think that every person interprets it differently. I thought that the role of the female spies in this book was only subservient to the male characters.
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Post by Maggie_brown_0013 »

Charlyt wrote: 03 Feb 2019, 10:36 In your opinion, how were the women portrayed in the story? The German spies used belly dancers like Yasmina and Fahmy, and our main characters used prostitutes like Fifi and Yvette, all to spy for their side's advantage.

Were the women portrayed to be independent and brave to be working as important assets to help win the war? Or were they depicted as easily manipulated and useful for their physical capabilities and characteristics?

Did you find them smart and fearless, or deceitful and manipulative?
I found the women in this book to be smart and fearless. Regardless of whether they were belly dancers or prostitutes, they were spies. They went undercover and gained information from the opposing sides. If men were to do that, then they would be praised, and their bravery would not be questioned. Should it not be the same for Yasmina and Fahmy, or Fifi and Yvette?
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Post by IamShing »

I think that they sound fierce, athough I don't like the portraying of the girls as prostitutes because it doesn't sound so good.
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Post by sri varshini303041 »

Even though the characters are portrayed as strong women, it is evident that their looks are given more importance. but it isn't demeaning. They use their beauty as a distraction. It obviously works. Where men are allowed to gawk at women, I don't think there is anything wrong with women using it to their advantage.
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Post by OskaWrites »

I'm half and half on the matter. Many of the women voiced reasons to want the nazi's out, and were so acting in their own interests when assisting the protagonists in the war. This would have been very risky for them as one slip up could potentially have them killed. I think a lot of the women characters were interesting, brave, and especially in the case of Sarah very independent.
I do however feel that from a writing standpoint, none of the women seemed to have interests outside of what they could do for men nor did we get much insight into the female frienships as we did male friendships. More could have been done to develop them as people.
Good and interesting characters, but a lot of wasted potential.
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