The growing popularity of the trope of the female protagonist overthrowing a tyrannical government has made it a fantasy fiction staple. But is there a social commentary hidden not too deep under the layers of magic, dragons and lost princesses?

Considering the whole fiasco that went down in the book community following a tumultous US election that saw demands by readers to keep the bookstagram community free of politics, this opinion piece became all the more relevant, specially with humans rights at stake. It seems that even after reading about resistence and siding with it across book-verses, we don’t see much beyond the dragons, magic and romance. This also begs the question if there should be even more focus on world-building in contemporary fantasy to establish its premise. But then the authors risk to alienate the section of the community that is intimidated by words in a book and only reads dialogues.

In a move away from the lost princesses being rescued by a nearby prince and simply reinstated to power as his consort, the more contemporary stories have made it a point to see to it that the princesses, often queens, rescue themselves and snatch back the power that was taken from them. Be it Celena Sardothien’s “I will not be afraid” in Throne of Glass or Naahri stuck in magical Daevabad with her rediscovered royal heritage, the contemporary fantasy fiction world has taken it upon itself to make obvious what they are saying. With more BIPOC authors finding the opportunity to voice their stories, the stories are becoming more culturally and more importantly, historically relevant. The popularity and sales of books with these tropes declare a resounding “yes” to the levelled playing field question, or so I thought.

But how much of the concept are we really grasping? What are we learning from the books we’re reading? The recent discourse surrounding politics and reading, or rather the effort to separate the two, is screaming that we’re still very blind.

Beyond furthering the sales of the hard cover, paperback, various special editions and associated merch (even special events, costumes and sometime, travel to get to those special events), the impact seems to be at half-glass-full stage. As readers struggle with the concept that the magical books we’re picking up aren’t really about a faraway magical world but our very own under the guise of heavily veiled symbolism, the future of the genre is in tatters. Would this realization drive a chunk of the community away from these books? Or would it broaden the lure of these stories to other sections of the reading community as well?

But why does it even matter?

There’s a larger section of the reading community who were anyway turning their noses up to “faerie p*rn” and now they might have more support. We had feminist literature before this and will continue to have it after (at least, I hope so). But the importance of these stories with watered-down feminist ideology, interspersed with dragons, magic and romance is that they are easily digestable. Not all of us can read and internalize Bouvoir or Marx but we get the basic idea when a nobody from nowhere picks up a sword and refuses to be controlled by stronger, richer people.

Magic, to me, provides a shiny wrapper that might be portalling me away momentarily but nugget of the story comes back when I see the news, when I hear of cities obliterated and the violence against women all across the world. The stories of hope that shine the light even in the darkest part of the plots are inspiring and aspiring. They end up being better than the theories we read against patriarchy and for feminist movements as we learn the story first and then, if we’re not intimidated by words in a book, end up identifying our stories in them.

While there will be arguments that the feminist theory has been diluted to becoming a mere trope in faerie books, my question is why is it a bad thing if it is saying something good in a language more people understand and are willing to consume?