#so tired of the sexist lewis bullshit y'all get some reading comprehension i beg

[westernwoods]

slamming my fist on the table and yelling until y'all get it that when lewis says “battles are ugly when women fight” it does not mean that women aren't brave enough or smart enough or skilled enough to fight. lucy and susan are written throughout the series as being armed, skilled, and joining their people in battle. father christmas gives them weapons. they don't have to sneak around and steal weapons to defy some patriarchal mandate. the point is, when gentleness and valiance and beauty are needed to fight, required by circumstance to give themselves to the bloody mess of war, there is no chivalry or code of honor any more. war is a human inevitably, but when it devolves to the point of the enemy snatching the crown jewel of creation from its throne and putting her on the battlefield to fight, it is not longer a matter of honor or bravery but destructive, vile, gratuitous violence and ruin. in christian mythos, women do fight. women saints are armed, skilled, and standing side by side with their male companions in battle. mary steps on the neck of satan and crushes him. it highlights how evil the enemy is, because a woman in her beauty and glory must fight him. the flower grows teeth and thorns and claws, and she knows how to use them. it's not sexist to say that battles are ugly when women fight — when battles require even the most precious gem of peace, the highest glory and honor of all creation, to get blood on her hands, creation is at the mercy of something terrible and ugly. it does not mean that she doesn't know how to fight. it means she is symbolic of everything that is best and most wonderful and most cherished being called upon because the enemy is so great.