# Lord of the Rings is for boys? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 7, 2004, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-rings-is-for-boys/223150 "2004-01-07T04:19:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2004, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-rings-is-for-boys/223150/41 "2004-01-07T23:25:09Z")
i work in a women’s clothing shop. All my co-workers (except my manager) have seen all the movies at least once, and either liked them or are drooling Tolkien geeks anyway. Me especially. I may be a woman, but that certainly doesn’t mean that I’m only interested in women- I happen to think that men are fascinating. 😃 And I like war epics and battle stories and battle scenes in movies. There’s certainly a (maybe small) but loud contingent of women who love Tolkien, even though his books are mostly about boys. ---
**Author:** ![Daikona](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8baadc/32.png) [@Daikona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daikona)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2004, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-rings-is-for-boys/223150/42 "2004-01-08T00:37:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hamadryad \* > \*\*The books seem aimed at the 12+ market. A LOT of girls at that point are being pointed toward Judy Blume, or Sweet Valley High, or The Babysitter’s Club. I think the reason girls may not be as attuned to LOTR is that they have not been raised to enjoy the kind of rich, slow storytelling Tolkein presents. > > I read LOTR when I was nine. It’s not a bragging point - I was snowed in at my mom’s (then-) boyfriend’s house, and there was quite literally nothing else in the house to read except for textbooks, and no television. I’m really glad it happened, since I started a long and happy relationship with fantasy (and, through association, sci-fi) that weekend. BUT…up until that point, I’d been your usual Judy Blume/Beverly Cleary kind of girl. > > Perhaps as a result of the movies, we’ll see an upsurge in fantasy/sci-fi chicks. Wouldn’t that be lovely? Unfortunately, I have enough experience with others of my gender to predict that a lot of them are only going to gawk at Legolas, and that if they attempted the books they’d be overwhelmed before Frodo ever left the Shire. > > I _really_ hope I’m wrong on that last bit. \*\* You know what? I’m female. I read the Hobbit when I was about 7, I’ve been heavily into fantasy and sci-fi since I was old enough to read books without pictures. The only reason I ever read the girlyfluff is because I was too young to be able to take adult books out of the library and I’d read everything else there was there. And I really hate Tolkien’s writing style. It’s not because I’ve been trained not to tolerate anything but meaningless fluff. I take a certain amount of offense at the number of people who like to insult the intelligence of anyone who doesn’t think that man is god. It’s because what you call ‘slow, rich storytelling’, I call “tedious and overdone”. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2004, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-rings-is-for-boys/223150/43 "2004-01-08T01:58:20Z")
Was that that stupid article that said women only liked it because of Viggo and Orlando? While the hunk factor is way high, I loved LOTR, and now I’m reading the book. (I do think it’s good that I saw the movie because now I can keep the characters straight-I KNOW I’d be confused if I hadn’t-does that mean I’m stupid? I hope not!) The battle scenes were amazing! And yes, I loved the costumes (Arwen’s Requiem gown was to DIE for!), and yes, I wouldn’t mind me a little Aragorn on the side. But c’mon, the story was just…great! When Gandolf comes back and the group thought it was Saruman-that was great! Ian should win an Oscar for his role! When you think Merry and Pippin are dead, or when Sam’s little girl comes running up to meet him-_sniff sniff_ Boys, shmoys! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-rings-is-for-boys/223150.md?page=2)