Performing Gender (Alanna: Song of the Lioness)

Alanna: Song of the Lioness by Tamora Pierce presents interesting thoughts on the role of magic and fighting within the context of magical realms. Despite the fantasy setting, the novel holds up particular tropes concerning women’s capabilities comparative to men’s. Alanna, our main character, must mask herself as her brother’s twin in order to become a knight. The irony of this can be seen in the fact that the novel begins when she is ten years old, and the profession she desires to pursue, instead of using her gift for magic, cannot begin until she is eighteen years old. The eight year difference between her training and actual fulfillment of duties as a knight speaks to the deeply ingrained heteronormativity within her realm of Tortall because the determination of a person’s livelihood is made before they themselves are capable of making that decision. Young girls and boys are filtered into their societal roles without their consent. What makes Alanna so special is her recognition of these unchallenged norms, and her desire to challenge them.

The testosterone heavy environment that Alanna lives in becomes a source of curiosity as she learns to navigate interactions with pubescent boys. Facing Ralon, the bully of the King Roald’s palace, Alanna must work twice as hard to defend herself against his aggressive behavior. In order to prove her worthiness, she believes that she must exemplify physical strength alone in order to earn respect from her peers. This also translates to the notion of her display of hyper-masculinity in order to not be questioned by her counterparts. Her inescapable fear of being discovered as a woman inside an all male knight academy permeates into her everyday interactions. Upon meeting George, a mysterious man who shares similar powers to Alanna, known as The Gift, she becomes very wary of the fact that he knows of her secret and is fearful that he might reveal it to authorities that could kick her out of the academy.

The duality Pierce creates between her characters, in the way in which some are privileged in certain aspects of their life and not in others (e.g. a person’s sex determining their profession), can be used to extrapolate ideas attempted to be conveyed to the larger readership of Young Adult literature. The theme of individuality and finding your own path is most apparent and overt but I enjoy Pierce’s subtle, although still in some ways obvious, theme of gender roles, gender conformity, and what that means to perform a gender. These instances are littered throughout the text and I am excited to see where she takes them in the last half of the book.

12 responses to “Performing Gender (Alanna: Song of the Lioness)”

  1. elgriott Avatar
    elgriott

    I am curious, though, about the extent to which Alanna truly resists societal gender roles. At times, she seems to subconsciously gender roles — she doesn’t want to be seen as a ‘girly girl’, or a girl at all; she expresses some level of disdain for other girls she deems too feminine; etc. Almost everyone she admires is male and she skirts the feminine/female aligned.I realize that a lot of these feelings stem from anger, frustration, and fear about her sexual and biological development in a world where biological form defines function, but not perhaps all of them.

    It seems to me that Alanna is not actually rejecting gender roles (at least not in a more complete sense), but external control. Alanna resents anyone who tells her what to do, or who assumes she will simply step into line with them. She fears the Gods because possession is nonconsensual and they are unafraid of commanding the bodies and fates of humans. She likes Jonathon and George because despite their respective statuses they never force her into anything, and instead encourage her to choose for herself. She is afraid of her body because she cannot control when or how it will change. As one character tells her upon noticing Alanna’s frustration, “You aren’t used to your body doing something without you telling it, are you?”

    Additionally, as a highborn girl with an outrageous amount of powers and attributes that potentially land her squarely in the land of the Mary Sue, a lot of her character seems to revolve around reacting to discipline and commands, whether they be issued by an external force or from her body itself.

    Anyway, I am curious to see how your reading of gender roles might shift as Alanna’s dealings with men and the Goddess develop.

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    1. annabilly Avatar
      annabilly

      I really like this idea and hadn’t thought about it in these terms. I completely agree that she is resisting external control and uses gender roles as a mechanism to do so. The quote you bring up about Alanna’s frustration in attempts to control her body makes me think of the second half of the book where she gets her period. What are your thoughts on how getting her period shapes/influences this? Is Mistress Cooper enough to help soothe her anxieties about puberty or does Alanna require more reassurance and/or resources?

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  2. anakaron Avatar
    anakaron

    Both the post and this first comment are really interesting, I think that both points are true in that Alanna wants to take control of her life which was the primary reason for her pretending to be a boy, so she could become a knight. However, she doesn’t really have any female friends (understandable in the setting) but even in her home it seemed like she liked Coram more than Maude which may suggest she doesn’t really want to be a girl at all/ enjoy being “one of the girls” as she does being “one of the boys”, not to mention the fact that she has no mother figure. I think Alanna is really insecure because she is female and doesn’t have that same ego as the boys also she has to worry about being caught, but she is extremely stubborn and has a lot of pride which helps her to fight but also gets her into additional trouble.

    I really like Alanna as a character so far because she was ready to challenge her given position and gender role at such a young age and then just go out and do it despite the risks, and I don’t think she is a Mary Sue at all because she has pretty obvious flaws such as her stubbornness in not accepting her body or gender and additionally her magic. I am wondering what Thom thinks of all this though because he is over there in the city pretending to be a girl?? Maybe that’s something that the author saves for the later books.

    Either way I think Pierce is definitely saying something about gender roles and what it’s like to be a girl and how disadvantageous that can be in our and this fictional society.

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  3. flibbertygibber Avatar
    flibbertygibber

    While Alanna definitely bonded more with Coram than with Maude even before setting off, this seems to be more about their professions than their genders. Alanna likes Coram because he taught her the arts that she wished to learn instead of the arts that she wishes to hide away and ignore.

    That said, I think it is fascinating to look at why she feels this way, and in particular why she seems to fear magic and the fact that she has it. While simple personal preference is a valid reason, she has various personality traits that lead her to her preference. One possible explanation, following the lines of this post, might be that she is rebelling against magic as a feminine art and more specifically the healing magic that she has, which is often seen as feminine. However, I have to disagree with that straw man: magic is done extensively throughout the book by both men and women, including healers. Rather, I’d argue that she fears magic because of her individuality. She fears magic because it is some outside, uncontrolled force that can mess with lives. As elgriott says, Alanna very much rejects any form of external control, and even though magic is conquerable (and Alanna learns to work with it and shape it to her needs), it is almost by definition undefinable and strange.

    While I think that Alanna herself was largely unmotivated by the goal of challenging sexist norms, it’s clear that Pierce is motivated by that goal. In fact, Alanna’s practice of breaking the gender norms solely due to their illogic and them being in the way strengthen’s Pierce’s more explicity goal of gender equality. Because Alanna almost doesn’t care about causing wide-scale change, her adventure makes gender equality seems obvious, as it should be, instead of a cause that requires explanation.

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  4. hwseo1004 Avatar
    hwseo1004

    I do think, though, that there’s more to why exactly Alanna tries to fend against Ralon of Malven so alone, besides having to be hyper-masculine in order to hide her identity and disguise as a male. I thought that Alanna waited all that time not telling anyone explicitly Ralon was bullying her, trained with George all those weeks even though Ralon was constantly beating her and classes were going on because she was personally motivated to defend her own honor, not because she had to look as if she was a “real man” who protected his honor. In this sense flibbertygibber’s idea that Alanna herself seems to be largely unmotivated by the goal of challenging sexist norms, while Pierce certainly is, is a good point. I’ve been wondering why we talk about Alanna’s femininity but not her masculinity outside of her having to disguise, whether those two sides co-exist within any individual or are there just one side to one individual, and whether this tendency to ‘protect honor’ (the code of chivalry) is truly actually characteristic of only masculinity. This would get us into an overlap of GWSS, but what does Pierce think about this and what were her intentions??

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  5. khabte Avatar
    khabte

    I agree that Alanna fends against Ralon of Malven because of her desire to overcompensate for being a girl, and she wants to defend her honor. Similarly to what anakaron pointed out in a previous comment, I believe Alanna’s stubbornness is a major reason why she didn’t tell anyone that she was getting bullied. In many contexts stubbornness can be seen as a negative trait, but for Alanna it’s her stubbornness that helps her throughout the entire story. Another characteristic mentioned is Alanna’s pride, this is another characteristic that helps Alanna succeed. She could’ve left the castle and given up her pursuit of knighthood, but Coram understands Alanna’s pride and uses it against her when she tries to leave. The author uses many characteristics that are looked down especially if it’s displayed in a woman and places it upon Alanna’s personality. By giving these “bad” characteristics to Alanna the author and reveals that these characteristics are often times helpful.

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  6. erinrosenfeld Avatar
    erinrosenfeld

    I was also really intrigued by Pierce’s themes of gender and gender performance. I thought it was interesting that she seemed to encourage staying with your assigned gender and body, but that one could find flexibility in gender aside from these constants. For instance, towards the end of the book, Alanna again hears the “feminine voice” of the goddess, reminding Alanna of her assigned-female body, but the voice says to “place your trust in the sword—and fight” (236). Thus, Alanna is encouraged to break from gender norms by fighting, but this encouragement stems from a feminine goddess. I also think it’s interesting that while Alanna rejects her pre-determined societal role of learning magic at the convent, Pierce uses the other characters in the novel to advance the idea that one’s biological sex characteristics are who they truly are. For instance, Coram tells her, “ye’ve got to accept who ye are…ye can be a woman and still be a warrior” (122). Additionally, Mistress Cooper says, “you’re a female, child, no matter what clothing you wear. You must become accustomed to that,” arguing that “the gods have willed” her to be a woman” (158). As annabilly points out, it’s unfair that children are filtered into social roles at the age of ten—yet, clearly Alanna was filtered into a gender category far before the age of ten. Thus, Pierce does not question our assumptions of a biological gender or a gender binary—her only issue with gender is how it creates toxic masculinity and constrains opportunities for women. I am curious if Pierce’s more recent novels challenge the gender binary at all given political and social changes that have occurred since this book was written!

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  7. zaffiroe Avatar
    zaffiroe

    I agree that the eight-year difference between the start of Alanna’s training and the actual fulfillment of duties as a knight is problematic as children are forced to make decisions about their future before they learn who they are. But the same can be said of the schooling environment today, specifically through tracking. Children, as early as 8, get placed into high-track or low-track classes, and those labels follow them around throughout their schooling experience and depict whether they will go to college, or what type of school they will attend.
    I agree with your sentiment that Alanna must use displays of hypermasculinity as a coping mechanism for feeling like she does not belong with the boys. If she were to let others fight her battles for her, someone might realize that Alanna is not who she says she is. Though, I do believe that Alanna knows that George will keep her secret safe. He is the one, after all, she trusted enough to find when she first began her period.
    The theme of individuality, apparent in all of the books we have read thus far, is an important one as you mention. I think it would be wonderful if we could see what this book looked like if written within the past five years as there has been more research done on gender identification and queer studies.

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  8. storylesher Avatar
    storylesher

    I think the whole idea of how gender is performed in the story is interesting as well. Alanna definitely feels the need to display hyper-masculinity to maintain her disguise as well as earn respect from the other knights in training. Although some of it is her personality, she feels the need to continue to display traits that are traditionally considered “male”, such as strength and stubbornness. It is interesting to compare how Alanna acts in comparison to Viola from Twelfth Night. Whenever there is gender confusion/display in a story, I automatically think of this Shakespeare play. Viola too dresses up as a man and maintains that identity throughout the story (along with the help of a male assistant, like Alanna). While Alanna must display masculinity in personality in addition to appearance, Viola relies mainly on appearance. She doesn’t feel the need to act particularly “manly”, and honestly spends most of the story doing what people tell her to. Although the concept of gender swapping was forward thinking for Shakespeare’s time, Viola spends much of the story still fulfilling what is considered a “woman’s role” in that time period. Obviously, the conditions they are in are different, but maybe their differing actions/personalities have something to do with the time the stories were written. I wonder what you think of the idea that maybe Pierce made her female protagonist more outgoing and stubborn than Shakespeare because the ways women are currently viewed in modern society have changed.

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  9. helenakg Avatar
    helenakg

    I think Zaffiroe makes an important point about the representation of the education system in the novel: having to decide one’s future at an incredibly young age. I believe this representation can be seen as mirroring the American education system in a multitude of ways. Like Zaffiroe pointed out, children are categorized in first and second grade as being either high- or low-track students. And, like in Pierce’s novel where children typically cannot change which profession they would like to pursue (because of their gender), these students cannot typically change their “tracks” (because of their predetermined intelligence level). Additionally, it seems as though it is becoming more and more common for students to be expected to know (or at least have an idea about) what career field they are going to enter as adults. My 12-year-old sister has been convinced that she is going to be a vet since she was 7. It may sound unbelievable, but adults have already begun suggesting colleges (casually and jokingly usually but still…). Despite all of these similarities, however, I highly doubt Pierce was critiquing the education system when she wrote the novel.

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  10. mayosueta Avatar
    mayosueta

    I was thinking something along the same lines as @erinrosenfeld, and how Pierce may have changed the way she addresses gender if she had written this in the last few years. While Pierce challenges gender norms and the things that are labelled “masculine” and “feminine,” she does not touch upon the idea of being transgender. In fact, she suggests through the book that being transgender is not possible, as Alanna can pretend to be a boy but she can never actually be one. If this book was written now, it would probably have been seen as close-minded rather than progressive. After reading Alanna, I was struck by how fast the idea of being “progressive” can change, and how we can address that through writing that lasts for decades.

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  11. edwardslo Avatar
    edwardslo

    This discussion into gender performance in Alanna is very interesting. I agree with @hwseo1004 that we often just discuss chivalry with masculinity. I believe this is due to the fact chivalry has always been portrayed as a masculine code of honor for knights and vassals in history and media. However, I think that individuals growing up around this culture would pick up similar values, even if these morals (code of chivalry) were often taught to the other gender. While I believe some morals are directed to specific genders (typically in regards to the other gender), I also believe that innately morals are not gendered.

    I read these books when I was really young (middle school) and am now interested to re-read these novels with a more mature lens. I know that as the series progresses and we see even more of the feminine side of Alanna as she grows older and deals with different issues such as gender roles and relationships with male characters. At this point, almost no one has seen through her disguise, and I am interested to see the reactions of individuals and society to her lie. Also, I agree @hwseo1004 that it’s interesting that Pierce never addresses Alanna identifying with her masculinity, even though she spends most of her life in this disguise. I wonder if the reason is similar to Pierce’s reasoning for the romance plot in her novels (mentioned in class). Pierce’s reasoning for including romance in all of her novels was this idea that she wanted her female characters to be strong but also feminine. This was apparently a response to the increase in lesbian warriors in fantasy novels at the time. I’m curious whether Pierce doesn’t write Alanna identifying with her masculinity because she didn’t think she could accurate portray it, didn’t think of including this quality in Alanna’s characterization, or if she only wanted to focus on Alanna’s femininity in regards to gender.

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