Female Identity - Trent Westwood

“She ran through corridors, around corners, past servants who flattened themselves trembling against walls as she flew by.  Finally she burst into the darkness o the courtyard. 

            She crossed the marble floor, pulling pins from her hair.  She sighed as her curls fell around her shoulders and the tension left her scalp.  It was the hairpins, and the dress, and the shoes that pinched her feet.  It was having to hold her head still and sit straight, it was the infuriating earrings that brushed against her neck.  That was why she couldn’t stand to spend one moment longer at her uncle’s fine dinner.  She took off her earrings and hurled them into her uncle’s fountain.  She didn’t care who found them.” (Cashore, 70)

            The passage above emphasizes a different side of female identity that challenges “traditional” female characteristics many have come to know through past culture (As we are in a ground breaking age for female identity I begin to think, perhaps its hope, that female identity is beginning to be perceived as being equivalent to male identity in complexity and opportunity).  Katsa, the protagonist of Graceling written by Kristen Cashore, is like no other female I’ve read or imagined.  She is strong willed, determined, and does not subscribe to the many discomforts put upon a “proper lady.”  The passage above depicts the uncomfortable nature of accessories forced on females by society.  Katsa would much rather wear sneakers (or the equivalent to within the fantacy world of the middluns) and jeans.  She would not have earrings on or her hair done, in fact later in the novel she cuts all of her hair off.  This presents an opportunity for female readers to know of a reality in which they are not required to subscribe to discomforts on the whims of others.  Although this passage does well to depict Katsa breaking the female mold, there are other instances in which further destroy certain expectations of females; primarily Katsa’s refusal to get married and have children.  Katsa would rather be free from marital obligation and focus on bringing about goodness within the kingdoms than to become a “house wife.”  Some readers may not believe this entire persona at first, as people may assume that deep down Katsa is frail and dependent.  However, there are two instances that emphasize Katsa’s determination in being the woman she is.  The first of which is when she denies Giddon’s, the equivalent to prince charming, marriage proposal.  She is shocked and appalled by the idea even though Giddon is in awe and worships the idea of having her as a wife.  The second instance is when she clarifies with Po the boundaries of their relationship.  She insists that she will never marry him if they are to become otherwise romantically engages.  The morning following their “Romantic engagement” Katsa takes a pill which is equivalent to the Plan B pill.  Katsa puts forth a very different idea of female identity than is portrayed in common culture and it is with protagonists like Katsa that give women the power to be exactly who they truly deem themselves to be by tearing down societal expectation.