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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mmm17
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Re: Women Characters as Spies

Post by mmm17 »

I'm not sure I liked the way the women were portrayed in the book, especially the belly dancers and prostitutes. I feel they were objectified and used as mere tools. Comments like "Nice bit of flesh that" were somewhat offensive and made me a little uncomfortable, although I totally understand it as a characterisation of that particular place and time.
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Post by Gurpreet Arora »

I think here women were primarily seen as objects used to manipulate and win war.
They were not looking brave in this context.
They were used for gathering information
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Post by Smondz »

My opinion about these women is that when there's a war anything and everything that can be used as a weapon to defeat the enemy, yes it does sound like these women were abused but they were also playing their part to save their country so I think they made their country proud in their way. :techie-studyinggray:
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Post by zjacks »

I think, while the female characters were definitely portrayed as strong, they failed depth-wise, and could have stronger development.
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Post by Kibet Hillary »

It is true that the women could have been developed more indeed. Most of them were almost like shadows of the two main characters. I guess it is a portrayal of what used to happen.
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Post by Melissa Breen »

I liked that it showed women's involvement in the war and they were portrayed as brave and smart but I felt the male characters were quite condescending to them and didn't appreciate the work they were doing. They were under rewarded and didn't get the credit that they deserved.
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Post by ma_mon28 »

saimi_v wrote: 22 Feb 2019, 13:04 I think that the woman characters in spies books are very attach to a male character. They don't make sense without be supported by a man. I believe is very problematic to the authors make a female character so strong that doesn't need anyone to lead the book trama, because the book wouldn't be a best-seller.
Sincerely, the books more sold are they which the romance between both main characters is important part of the plot, and the female character is weak at the beginning but always win at the end supported by a group or a man that is her "loving interest"
Exactly! I'm thinking the same thing for the sake of profitable book. So, it means that the author really did a great job of writing this book.
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Post by ma_mon28 »

Kibetious wrote: 25 Feb 2019, 12:45 It is true that the women could have been developed more indeed. Most of them were almost like shadows of the two main characters. I guess it is a portrayal of what used to happen.
Right! Since women were just a supporting character to the protagonist's story. The book seems boring without the help of the girls.
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Post by ma_mon28 »

Smondz wrote: 25 Feb 2019, 08:55 My opinion about these women is that when there's a war anything and everything that can be used as a weapon to defeat the enemy, yes it does sound like these women were abused but they were also playing their part to save their country so I think they made their country proud in their way. :techie-studyinggray:
Yes! In war perspective, strategies were developed even how risky it must be like women's role. Their beauty were their secret weapon in luring their prey for the sake of winning the war.
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Post by ma_mon28 »

Gurpreet Arora wrote: 24 Feb 2019, 19:48 I think here women were primarily seen as objects used to manipulate and win war.
They were not looking brave in this context.
They were used for gathering information
Sometimes strategies were like that. We need to use things that are useful which ends up to an excellent result like them. As a team, roles are different, but everybody contributed to winning the war.
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Post by Miranda Anderson »

I think women in the story are portrayed as strong and independent then just something to get the upper hand on a situation.
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Post by briellejee »

Gurpreet Arora wrote: 24 Feb 2019, 19:48 I think here women were primarily seen as objects used to manipulate and win war.
They were not looking brave in this context.
They were used for gathering information
I disagree though that they do not seem to be brave in the context. They were indeed used for gathering information which was a dangerous job, to begin with. Being a spy requires courage and intellect. I doubt any of those men could pull out a job as the women did. They were brave enough to do the spying for those men. I don't think "manipulated" is the word. And even though they were, those women may actually have been the secret to win the war, and the men were just taking it for themselves, as usual. :techie-studyingbrown:
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Post by briellejee »

Kibetious wrote: 25 Feb 2019, 12:45 It is true that the women could have been developed more indeed. Most of them were almost like shadows of the two main characters. I guess it is a portrayal of what used to happen.
I don't think it is merely a portrayal. Other than that, I think it is the author's flaw of not developing most of his characters and just focused on the two. The reason why this is an issue is that we center on the characters as women. If they were men, I don't think people would make such a fuss. :techie-studyingbrown:
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Post by briellejee »

Smondz wrote: 25 Feb 2019, 08:55 My opinion about these women is that when there's a war anything and everything that can be used as a weapon to defeat the enemy, yes it does sound like these women were abused but they were also playing their part to save their country so I think they made their country proud in their way. :techie-studyinggray:
I don't think "abuse" is the right word to use. There is nothing in the book that signified they were abused by men. :techie-studyingbrown:
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Post by CinWin »

I personally took offense to the fact that they were portrayed as belly-dancers and prostitutes. Is that all women spies are good for - just to use their bodies? Why can't we have a female spy that uses her brains as the men do? But on the otherhand the men spies use their brawn and are constantly fighting and using violence. Perhaps both sexes are being stereotyped?
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