Women and bodily autonomy in THE WITCHER book series

THE WITCHER is an amazing book series, but maybe not just in the ways you'd expect. The way Sapkowski writes women and women's issues is truly incredible.

[shelfcare]

I think that’s one of the wonderful things about Geralt as a character (and potentially one of the reasons he’s so popular with female readers) - he defends women, rather than rescues them. He’s seems to be on more equal footing with his female counterparts, rather than over them as a protector. I’ll always remember one of the short stories in the Sword of Destiny where Istredd demands that he and Geralt duel for Yennifer’s affection, and Geralt basically says, “that’s not really for us to decide, that’s up to Yennifer”

[jakemarsh]

The author grew up in post-WW2 Poland. And he said he grew up in a community largely devoid of male guidance due to the casualties of the war, and so a lot of the small communities were run by the women, and Andrzej Sapkowski has gone on in great length about he based the sorceresses off of these women who helped raise him and so many others during that time.

[EileenC]

I remember so well the part about Ciri getting her first period while training at Kaer Morhen. He really captured the feeling of "shit how do I deal with this" that you get when you have no female guidance around you. That really struck me as a teenage girl reading The Witcher for the first time, because no other fantasy novel I had read so far had touched on this subject.

[DeadlyInsanaty]

I also appreciate that he doesn't shy aware from female instagated sexual-assault. For example: Fringila Vigo, a mage, enchants Geralt in order to sleep with him andso that he will love her instead of Jennifer. Or Ciri being rescued from a male bandit rapist by the female bandit leader, only to then be sexually assaulted by that same woman, leading to a lesbian relationship forming between the two.

Those moments stuck out to me because of the rawness of those moments. Most authors would depict sexual assault as either violent and brutish or sensual and coercive, and then almost always insitgated by older men towards younger women. Sapkowski instead takes that trope, makes you think he's going to do the same thing, and then turns the trope on it's head. I, as a man, was furious for Ciri, that this woman abused Ciri's distrust of men and her role as a woman in authority "protecting" a fellow woman, to abuse a young girl.

Sapkowski has his flaws as an author, but he doesn't shy away from uncomfortable topics.

[CxJokerDFrei]

My fiancee literally started the last wish today, I asked her what made her start so suddenly and she said she saw a YouTube short "about someone talking how the author of the Witcher, a male, could depict female character so well, all their hardships and etc" and now looks like the algorithm has decided to let me find you as well. So, well, thanks for getting her interested enough to start! I hope she has a good time with it like I did.

[specialnewb]

I always remember he said that often in fantasy, women are written to please the reader/author, so he decided to write Yennifer to please herself.

[michaelwunder]

George RR Martin's quote applies here as well: "You know, I've always considered women to be people."

[Solix_XD]

And now you know why the fanbase is pissed off at the directors and story writers for not appropriately adapting the work

[Blixthand]

In university I had a teacher who was also a published novelist. I’ve never read any of his works, but we were told by another (female) teacher that this man wrote female characters so well and nuanced that the publisher though he must be a woman (as his name was foreign in our country and it wasn’t immediately apparent if he was male or female), that the publisher addressed him as Ms. in their return letter approving him for publication.

[dashingrapscallion]

My take (haven't read the last two books yet - so take it with a grain of salt) - Geralt (and to a lesser extent the rest of the surviving witchers) was taken as a boy and survived the Trial of the Grasses, an incredibly painful transformation that had like a 70% mortality rate and left them mutated and sterile. Maybe that is where the understanding and empathy springs from - even though they were male, they had their bodies drastically and traumatically altered as children. And most witchers were given to the witchers as children for one reason or another, meaning that they had no actual agency or choice in what happened to them until it was already done with (assuming they survived).

[kaworob]

What's even more shocking is, how old this series is! We have authors that can't even start to talk about bodily autonomy, in 2024... I love this series. It does loose a lot in the translation, but it's a book heavely ankered in the Slavic (not even culture) but mentality, with addition of folklore, dialect, and history

[Fablevill]

I noticed this asap when I was reading them. The women are so strong and so well written, they’re powerful without sacrificing their femininity and Geralt is a character who genuinely loves women. Yes, he’s lusty, but he loves talking to women, he loves listening to them. The Netflix series somehow managed to make these strong, independent and powerful women paper thin in an attempt to “empower” women…

[manuelsantiagorenken]

Sapkowski is simply a great writer who not only draws fantastic characters, but can also describe their motivations in a very clear and nuanced way. His characters are first and foremost people, not women or men, and their motivations and actions are always very complex. There is no good and no evil, there is only causality. Action and reaction. Even the "villians" are described in such a way that you can understand their actions.

[Rens]

I'm currently reading the witcher series for the first time, and while Im only in Blood of Elves I can already day that I'm pleasantly surprised by it!
Just today I read the part were Triss chewed out the Witchers about being insensitive to Ciri experiencing her period, I honestly never expected to read something like that written by a man

[patriciaflickner]

Now I want to read this. A friend of mine from Ukraine said he learned Polish so he could read them in the original language so he could get nuances that just don’t translate well. I saw the series, but now I want to read this as well

[VancePetrol]

That's the reason I fell in love with Berserk. The mini arc during the 'Golden Age arc' where Guts learns abouts periods only for it to lead into him and Casca truly opening up to eachother and discovering mutual understanding and recognition through sharing their most vulnerable experiences? Immaculate.

That arc was written in like.. 1997? Still have yet to read a story that so totally 'gets it' in the way it has.

[Jan-ghqi]

I know, I know, Sapkowsky sometimes gets a bad rep because of his Dislike of the games and his overall grumpyness, that sometimes comes of as arrogance. But his personality aside (and I won't deny, tha he is a weirdass guy) he is imho one of the most genius writers of our time. His books are so rich in themes and ideas and they have so many layers. They decibstruct High Fantasy, decobstruct Sword and Sorcery, which is in itself a deconstruction of High Fantasy. They tell thenatory of an monomyth/Heros jurney theough the eyes of what is essentially a side-character, explore themes of Imperialism, Nationalism and Rascism and they show some of the most vulnerable characters without them ever stating their vulnerability openly.
This guy knows tropes, he knows literature, he knows his genre and he knows society. For me its always a bit sad, if they are stamped as "Cool guy with sword books".
For me they are not only good Fantasy-novels but outright high literature and I hope, they will be read in schools some day.

[wardeztorier]

Gotta tell . Sapkowski as a person, not a fan . But as a reader I adore his style . I'm Polish and I greatly appreciate his contribution to share Polish folklore

[Inna-sa]

I always liked how Terry Pratchett wrote about women. Especially in the Wee Free Men books

[LJW]

Probably because he's good writer, writing well-thought out characters that aren't caricatures