From My Shelves – The Magic of Xanth

From My Shelves is a series of occasional posts that look at items from my personal collection to which I have a special attachment.

I went back and forth on posting this one.  It’s the only one that is a negative review.  But it also speaks to how our understanding of the media can change over time.  

A longtime favorite that comes up short in my latest reading. The writing is fine, the characters retain their charm as does the wordplay that is at the core of the Xanth stories. The problem is that there’s a rather bothersome strain of sexism that runs throughout. There is not a single female character who is capable and independent. The closest is Cherie Centaur, but all of her energy is aimed at her husband and child. Given the tongue-in-cheek nature of the books, it might have been cute for a single character. When every single female character is treated that way, it’s no longer amusing. In the case of Chameleon, wife of the main character Bink, the sexism is shown in her magical ability. Everyone in Xanth is born with some magical ability, profound or trivial. For Chameleon, she changes over the course of a month (!). She goes stunningly gorgeous to hideously ugly. Her intelligence changes in an inverse progression. So beautiful Chameleon is painfully stupid, while ugly Chameleon is brilliant but vicious. Bink comments that he loves her because he doesn’t trust beautiful or smart girls and normal girls are boring. The patter throughout becomes impossible to ignore.

And that’s sad because this is an otherwise charming series. What would be a great teenage fantasy series falls short because of its outdated attitude towards women. Sad, really.


Time for this one to come off my shelves.