I think his portrayal is much more a caricature (sp.?) of "medieval sexism" than a real deconstruction, imo. I know that pre-modern society in Europe was pretty babaric, but even then women were able to play different roles than just having to chose between whore or nothing, even if they were mostly excluded from real power and there was no notion of belonging to oneself. This is the same thing that bothers me a little bit in his conception of the Nansur Empire and the Ikurei family; they are the incarnation of Western anti-byzantine prejudices. And even though, Conphas is an interesting character, the whole culture feels somewhat tacked on, not real.
But maybe, that's Bakker's intention writing a story that is constructed of our "cultural" biases and not the portrayal of any real culture.
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I think his portrayal is much more a caricature (sp.?) of "medieval sexism" than a real deconstruction, imo. I know that pre-modern society in Europe was pretty babaric, but even then women were able to play different roles than just having to chose between whore or nothing, even if they were mostly excluded from real power and there was no notion of belonging to oneself. This is the same thing that bothers me a little bit in his conception of the Nansur Empire and the Ikurei family; they are the incarnation of Western anti-byzantine prejudices. And even though, Conphas is an interesting character, the whole culture feels somewhat tacked on, not real.
But maybe, that's Bakker's intention writing a story that is constructed of our "cultural" biases and not the portrayal of any real culture.