Is Theodosia a Strong Woman?

I like Theodosia Burr. I would not have chosen her for my heroine, if I didn't. There has been a resurgence of interest in her recently, and some of it has to do with feminism.  But while I do see Theodosia as a strong, intelligent woman,  in my books she does not follow the model of the superhuman, super-aggressive Amazon warrior that we have recently  been inundated with in popular fiction.

In today's fiction, women have been eclipsing their male counterparts in war, sex, business and life. This is meant to be empowering to young women embarking on their lives and careers, but I think it can be damaging to have completely unrealistic expectations. Of course, there always have been women who were better than most men at these physical and aggressive feats, but not every woman is going to be a Martina Navratilova or an Annie Oakley or even a Joan of Arc. There have got to be some role models for women who are intellectual, but not athletic, who are smart but aren't sharp shooters, who can take care of themselves, but who welcome the help of someone even stronger when facing the greatest challenges of their lives and of their nation's life.

That's why I recruited Jean Laffite to play that role alongside Theodosia. Could Theodosia be coupled with a lesser man? Sure -- in reality, she was --  and when that happened she would have been more clearly dominant. But how acceptable would those results have been, both in terms of dramatic tension and in terms of personal  and even sexual satisfaction?

Because we have been led to believe that a woman can be strong only when the man she is with is less strong, there has been a backlash of sorts, especially in the depiction of romantic and sexual encounters. Some reviewers have even likened Theodosia and the Pirates: The Battle Against Britain to Fifty Shades of Grey, conflating dominance with sadism.

I see this as a real problem at present in our society, as well as in our fiction. In order to be dominant, a man need not be a sadist. In order to submissive, a woman need not be a masochist. Dominance is a completely different issue, and if you are confused about this, you should read this article.

http://aya-katz.hubpages.com/hub/What-is-Dominance

Living with a male chimpanzee day in and day out, I have had to confront and face the issue of dominance, and I think I have a pretty good idea of what it is and what it is not.

Dominance  does not imply any kind of superiority, especially not intellectual superiority. It just means that the dominant one has taken charge of the situation, so that the less dominant need not deal with the housekeeping function of policing right-of-way. Dominant individuals often defer to those who are less dominant, if the relationship is a happy one.

Theodosia and the Pirates presents an alternative way of looking at many things: politics, religion, war and even domestic relations. Read the two books with an open mind, ready to be surprised. Because nothing in this story is what you would expect!

http://www.amazon.com/Theodosia-Pirates-Battle-Against-Britain/dp/1618790072/

http://www.amazon.com/Theodosia-Pirates-War-Against-Spain/dp/1618790099/

Traditional Command Structure

Some people believe that anarchy is bad, because it leads to chaos. Those people cling to authoritarian regimes and institutions, because they think that is the only way order can be maintained. In fact, anarchy, if left to take its natural course, leads to traditional command structure in social groups. The problem with authoritarianism isn't the command structure. The problem is that natural selection processes have ceased to function. In an authoritarian regime, the command hierarchy has calcified into something that no longer functions.

http://aya-katz.hubpages.com/hub/What-is-Dominance

In chimpanzee groups, leadership is fluid. In hunter-gatherer societies, people follow leaders only to the extent that they believe a particular individual whom they are following is going the right way. But as civilization becomes more entrenched, people stop judging for themselves what is true and what is false, and they delegate their thinking to institutions, traditions and authorities.

Real dominance is something a leader earns. It is not something inherited by virtue of race, sex, age, or social rank in a highly structured society. Yet when people talk about traditional family roles, they somehow assume that authority is what leads to dominance. Men dominate women, adults dominate children and employers dominate employees as a result of the structure of society, as opposed to the structure building itself out of the function that each person plays in the immediate social circle.

In Theodosia and the Pirates the difference between natural dominance and false authoritarianism is highlighted. The American Navy has the authority, but not the leadership ability to thwart the British in the War of 1812. The privateers under Jean Laffite have no authority, but they have the ability to do so and the true support of the people. Joseph Alston has the authority to command the local militia, by virtue of being the Governor of South Carolina, but not the ability to exercise that command. James Madison has the authority to secure a declaration of war, but not the natural abilities of a true warrior like Aaron Burr to be a good supreme commander.

Even within the sphere of the family, there is a difference between natural marriage and legal marriage. In a legal marriage in the nineteenth century, a man commanded his wife by virtue of her oath of obedience. However, many men were unequal to the task, as being male did not necessarily give them natural dominance over the women they married. Arguably, in many ways Dolley Madison was a better leader than her husband in times of war, even though she was not his intellectual equal as a scholar.

By the same token, though Theodosia was a far better scholar than Jean Laffite, she was not his equal in leadership under fire. It is for this reason, and not because of any authoritarian command issues or sexist preconceptions, that in this novel, Theodosia accepted Jean's leadership.

Excerpt from page 210 of Theodosia and the Pirates

Today, with all the egalitarian changes in the law that we have seen take place, people are still confused about these issues. The majority support authoritarianism in science and in education, because they fear anarchy. They do not seem to realize that if we just allow nature to take its course, the right leader will always arise in a time of crisis. People will follow not because they are compelled to do so by fear of reprisal, but because they want to do the right thing.