*hugs* Urgh. Sorry you’re seeing so much of that crap lately. It’s so draining.
I’m THRILLED that my horde of ladies are helping you! I really am! Thank you Rippy – that’s absolutely so wonderful to hear.
*hugs some more*
Tag: sexism
Hi dets! 1) thanks for killing me with emotions over the latest chapter. Such feeling, so dead, wow. 2) I was wondering if I could ask you a teacher question. I’m going to be teaching my very first class EVER next week, and as someone who clearly gives representation and diversity a lot of thought in your writing, I was wondering if you had any recommendations for sources on inclusive teaching? Am desperate and SO nervous that I’m going to fail epically because of my anxiety :/
Hey Nonnie!
ahhh, thank you – I am sorry about all the emotional stabbity 😀 I hope you enjoyed it nevertheless!
And yeah, holy heck yeah, do I ever. Lots of babbling and examples and links and general thoughts, under the cut:
Can I just point out how amazing one of my all time favorite authors is right now? That she takes such time and care to answer questions from anonymous strangers on the internet. To have that much positive reinforcement from someone whose work has inspired so many other people, to see them take the time to give so much encouragement, offering to talk to them about stuff outside of fandom and tumblr, to be so amazingly positive and supportive. This, this is why I love this tumblr place. Because of people like determamfidd.
(And to the teacher!anon: GOOD LUCK! YOU’RE GOING TO BE FINE! Just caring this much about making your lessons inclusive already shows that you’re going to be awesome in class)
(holy heck I just saw this – and omfg, thank you. That is a completely beautiful and generous thing to say: I dunno where to put my face, I am so very flabbergasted, it just. means so much. So so much. This is my job and my passion, and I am fortunate and lucky to have the opportunity to give something of what I’ve learned to those starting out, at least I hope so… I wouldn’t call myself an expert teacher, nor an authority, but it sure means a lot to me as is probably obvious from the essay I ended up writing, lol. Thank you SO much.
I am thinking of you, Teacher!Nonnie! You can DO IT! You are going to be an amazing teacher.)
Hi dets! 1) thanks for killing me with emotions over the latest chapter. Such feeling, so dead, wow. 2) I was wondering if I could ask you a teacher question. I’m going to be teaching my very first class EVER next week, and as someone who clearly gives representation and diversity a lot of thought in your writing, I was wondering if you had any recommendations for sources on inclusive teaching? Am desperate and SO nervous that I’m going to fail epically because of my anxiety :/
Hey Nonnie!
ahhh, thank you – I am sorry about all the emotional stabbity 😀 I hope you enjoyed it nevertheless!
And yeah, holy heck yeah, do I ever. Lots of babbling and examples and links and general thoughts, under the cut:
FIRST OF ALL: you are going to be nervous, but you are also going to be fine. It’s going to be fine. It really is. Please keep in mind that IT IS OKAY NOT TO KNOW STUFF. IT’S OKAY TO NOT BE A TEACHING PRODIGY STRAIGHT AWAY. IT’S A-OKAY TO BE NERVOUS. IT’S OKAY. IT’S OKAY. IT’S OKAY.
It’s tough to be a beginning teacher, there’s a whole bunch of pressure to know everything and be everything, to have the answers 1000% of the time and to do everything perfectly. Not only that, but you’re expected to do so in front of teenagers AS WELL as experienced teachers, nnngh. But – personal anectdote time – I’ve found that if I tell a class, ‘you know what? I don’t know the answer to that question! Let’s find out – right now, together!’ that it gets better results than trying to bluff my way through it. That always makes me TEN TIMES more nervous. If I don’t know something? I say so. I’m not there to be wikipedia, after all 🙂 The students have a good time, I have a good time, we all learn something.
This is the best thing anybody ever told me, when I began teaching: Be ready to throw out or adapt your lesson plan, if necessary. Sometimes it simply doesn’t work… and that’s fine. Try a couple of approaches, but if it simply isn’t taking hold, MOVE ON and don’t keeping flogging a dead horse. Adapt it. There’ll be something there that the students are responding to: use that. As the old saying goes (ish), we teach people, not lesson plans.
So, differentiation. You’ve probably already learned about the different kinds of learners, and the different kinds of intelligences (Gardner). When I create a lesson, I try to involve every single kind of learner, and at least three kinds of intelligence. The idea here is to create as many pathways to the skill and/or information as possible.
e.g. a music lesson on rhythms: First, we see it written (in DIFFERENT ways, such as notation, or shapes, or symbols), then we arrange or write it out, we hear it tapped on several different instruments, then we try it for ourselves. Sequence: visual, aural, kinaesthetic learning. Intelligences used: Musical, visual-spatial, physical, mathematic.
Check out the 10 signifying practices of middle-years schooling (Pendergast and Bahr, 2005). This is great for students with learning difficulties. When it comes to students with diverse needs, you need their input constantly. You get great results when they share responsibility for their learning with the teacher, when they have a level of ownership and self-direction.
Make sure you have different levels of assessment, and assess understanding constantly! Assessment doesn’t have to be a test. It can be as simple as asking one student, ‘do you need a hand with [thing], or is [part of thing] giving you a bit of trouble?’ and them saying “nah, I got it” or “yeah, I don’t get [part of thing] at all”. Being specific helps. A lot of kids will say they have a concept down when they don’t, because they’re embarrassed to say so in front of the whole class. Asking them individually, as much as you can, and breaking down [thing] into [part of thing] can help you pinpoint the problem area.
Removing pedagogic and environmental barriers to learning is key to differentiation. Some students will pick up the learning quickly. Some won’t. This isn’t a failure on your part, or theirs. Scaffolding is your friend!! I like to use a LOT of student participation and student-led learning, but this isn’t always a good idea for a first lesson… or even the first week.
I know people are probably banging on in your ear about Literacy and Numeracy and embedding it everywhere: yeah, I’m gonna totally join in on that 😀 Hammer it home. It’s hard to find the kids whose literacy and numeracy problems have slipped notice before, and it is SO important to their future.
Oh yeah – be wary of the ‘info-dump’ – many students with different needs and learning abilities (or disabilities) aren’t great at the whole “NEW INFORMATION IN BIG CHUNK” at the beginning of a lesson. (this is the sort of thing I mean by ‘pedagogic barrier’, jsyk). Try breaking up a concept over the course of a lesson, interspersed with exercises/fun things that demonstrate each part.
Group work in a first lesson is always dangerous! But if you decide to go this way, select them carefully. It’s great to allow them to choose a group name and draw a poster with their names on it and hang it up: Green Giants, Rocketbabes, and Warboys were some group names from a class I taught last year, and oh my god you should see the posters! They were fully invested in their groups as a result 🙂
If you have a very pushy, talkative, interrupting student, they may require a different sort of approach from you. I like to make that student in charge of something: opening the windows, getting the instruments out, handing out worksheets, whatever. Give that student a task that you can praise them for, and make sure it’s physical! You’ll be amazed at the rapport you can have with that student: they’re probably not used to being treated like a person, but like a problem.
Raising your voice is NEVER a good idea, even if they’re being nightmares that day. Some kids are sound-sensitive! Set a limit, and follow through every single time. Don’t give a ’just this once’ pass: follow through. You’re NOT a friend: you’re their teacher! You have to set that boundary and STICK BY IT. Tailor your boundaries to the classroom and to the students AS WELL as to you: some children are completely ‘meh’ about being sent away from class, for instance, and for others it is the actual end of the world. Some teachers HATE noise in their classrooms: others are fine with it. Some teachers are fine with kids coming to them for help in their break: others get really shirty. Whatever your limits are, make sure you’re consistent, and that the rules are set out somewhere so the kids are never in any doubt.
Setting boundaries in conjunction with students is even better: they feel like they have an investment in making sure everyone follows the rules if they had a hand in making them. Stillness, and following through, is a better long-term strategy than yelling (which is short-term relief but only demonstrates to students that tantrums are a good way of getting what you want, sadly…!). If you fail and have a good yell, don’t beat yourself up. Goodness knows you won’t be the last teacher to do so!
Giving choice, in a limited and safe capacity, is a brilliant way of allowing students ownership of their learning as well. Give em a selection of 3 things/options for a project. e.g. I had a class musical assessment, in which the whole class had to perform a song together. I gave three possible songs for us to perform, and we had an anonymous vote (votes were placed in my hat!).
Be aware of gendered language, of cisnormativity, or a ‘boys vs girls’ thing in classrooms. It’s pernicious, and it’s even more pernicious in high schools. Also, it’s well-documented that boys are more likely to hog your attention: be aware of this in yourself. Make sure you make the boys aware that they are being unfair towards the girls in the class. Saying ‘wait your turn’ doesn’t help much, but saying something like, “did you notice that you just interrupted [girl] here? Are you aware that you are speaking over the girls in your class and forcing them out of the conversation? Do you think this is fair or appropriate behaviour? How do you think [girl] feels about it?” might just plant a seed or two.
Likewise, if you hear gendered, racist, ableist or homophobic slurs, etc (DEPRESSINGLY common in high schools, unfortunately), stamp down hard and stamp down STRAIGHT AWAY. You don’t even need reasons. The slur itself is enough. Remove that student so that they cannot continue to cause harm to others. Ask that student to report to whatever behaviour unit/resource you have available. Talk to them afterwards and in private – and be armed with as much information as possible. (I once gave one student the potted history of the word ‘f*ggot’ after I heard her using it to mock another student. She was a bit poleaxed and quiet as she left, and the next week on playground duty I heard a friend of hers telling yet another group of kids not to use it. That seems pat and trite, but it goes around. It REALLY goes around.)
Talk about bias in your classroom texts. Ask for and use your students’ own experiences: I promise you, so many of them have amazing cultural backgrounds, and they don’t see them reflected in their own learning. Encourage them to bring their cultures into their work: music is a great one for this 🙂
Some schools have very rigid ideas on assessment practices. I have taught in a school where one of my Year 10 assessments had to be a spoken presentation. Giving alternatives is a really essential part of differentiation: it doesn’t have to be a big change, but to a student with anxiety, giving that presentation outside of class (in break time, or as a video, or as a recording) it can be a real life saver. You will have insights here that many teachers simply do not have: you can use all of that, all of your own experiences and knowledge will help, even your understanding of what it means to have anxiety.
Similarly, if a student seems incredibly uncomfortable when asked to answer a question? Don’t ask them again, but talk to them privately and find out why. They may simply not understand the work – easily fixed – or it may be something more. This can be difficult if your class has a Participation Grade, but together you may be able to find a way for them to participate without having to be called upon. Being the one to collect papers, or to be in charge of the ICTs or the like: this is a good way.
Talk to other teachers. Sit in on as many classes of experienced teachers as possible (ESPECIALLY integrated/inclusive/Spec. Needs classes). Talk to Teachers’ Aides – these people have seen it all.
Some resources and articles (v brief, but I’m a bit pressed and I don’t have free university access to educational journals any more!)
Combating Racism and Prejudice in Schools: Keynotes
Anti-Racism: What schools can do
Eliminating Racism in the Classroom
Best Practices: Creating an LGBT-inclusive School Climate
Student Mental Health and Wellbeing – Education Queensland
Education World: Strategies that Work: Inclusive Classrooms
18 Inclusion Strategies for Student Success
Exceptional Children (William L Heward) – I own this book, and it is REALLY REALLY GOOD.
I really hope all this blabbing and rambling helps, Nonnie. You’re going to be great. You care about this stuff, and people – especially kids – respond to that.
You are MORE than welcome to come talk to me some more. Hit me up for my skype, if you’d like. I’m in your corner. You can totally do this! A good lesson is one in which everybody gets through to the end, something was worked on, and people learned a thing or two. (and it doesn’t even need to be the lesson objective, either! If they learned something? HIGH FIVE ON YOUR SUCCESSFUL LESSON)
Dear Sexist Asshole from Work
If I get ever get called ‘honey’ in your grating, insulting little voice again I’m gonna shove my foot so far up your ass your breath will smell like socks for the rest of your…
Whaaaaa.
Okay, what. First off, for an adult woman to be called ‘honey’ by some twerp, be they older than her or in a position of authority over her, is INCREDIBLY infantilising and condescending. Being older than her means nothing. “Positional power” (you mean male privilege, possibly) does not give him some magic pass to be so incredibly patronising. Being someone’s boss does not give someone “the okay” to speak so familiarly and condescendingly to someone else.
Miss Pop is completely justified to find it grating. The word itself is a way of demeaning and dismissing her. That’s a word that people you love call you. To be called it by someone who has no right is a microaggression, is belittling and insulting, and absolutely completely out of line.
There is this cis, straight, white man from an upper middle class background who I work with, and every time someone says something he doesn’t like or doesn’t agree with, he says they’re ridiculous, or silly, or stupid, or emotional, or his favorite, irrational. Incidentally, the only other cis, straight, white man in our workplace is the boss, who never tells him to stop, or that he’s being inappropriate. When he acts up at work, if I can get away with it, I read your blog for comfort.
*hugs and hugs and hugs* Ahhhh, Nonnie – I feel for you so much right now!! People like that are just SO draining to be around, *hugs you some more*. I wish I could sit down with you with a glass of wine and you could just let it all out at me. It’s so tiring to fight constantly to be heard, and even more tiring to be angry and frustrated constantly – and then told you’re being irrational for being angry and frustrated.
God, that’s the most dismissive and infuriating term: ‘irrational’. Because if he can dismiss what you are saying as ‘irrational’ just because he doesn’t like it, it means he is never forced to think about it. And so his bubble of hubris, ignorance and privilege remains unpopped.
I am really, really glad that my blog can provide you an escape from that. I hope things improve for you at work. *more hugs* May he sit on a tack. And may your hard work be recognised by your boss, and you get an unexpected raise. *even more hugs*
but for real tho I get very “:T” when people pull the ‘authorial intent’ card with Tolkien all the time, like. The man hated allegory, he intimately understood how ‘myth’ works and wanted to leave his work open for other people to come throw their own paint on the canvas. And you’re STILL going to clutch your pearls over a black elf or intersex dwarves? …Why?
the man is dead! you aren’t going to hurt his feelings! YOU ARE FREE
(and yes a lot of it will veer wildly away from canon info we have about certain things and some folks like to stick closer to the lines AND THAT’S FINE. But if you ever find yourself at the point of writing an op-ed about how Galadriel couldn’t possibly be dark-skinned because Reasons and that TRUE FANS would never portray her that way, then please 1. go boil your head and 2. remove yourself from my vicinity because I need more dark-skinned dwarves and hobbit lesbians and I’ve heard plenty of bleating about ‘authorial intent’ and ‘anglo-saxon myyyyth’ to last me until I die)
Thoughts on representation and children’s television
Something that always bothered me so much when I was a little girl was the comparative rarity of and screentime given to the female characters in the cartoons I watched. Bananaman, Dangermouse, Rocky and Bullwinkle, even Captain Planet (which had female characters! But they were 2/5ths of the five, and got less to say overall). It pissed me off SO MUCh that these cartoons were meant to be ‘boys AND girls!’ cartoons, but why did boys always get to be the title character? Be the hero? And hog all the speaking lines? Any cartoon that had a female title character, or dared to reverse that ratio of male-to-female screentime & cast, was suddenly ‘only for girls.’ I was expected to identify with boys over my own gender, but boys weren’t expected to identify with mine.
Now that I am an adult, of course I know why. And now that I have a kid of my own, it’s disheartening to discover how little has changed. I want better for my child than that. With all my recent thoughts about representation swirling in my mind, it’s been depressing as hell to see that even media for toddlers doesn’t promote equality.
So I thought I’d write up a few of my observations so far.
Bright Spots
Sesame Street. Diverse cast of mostly POC, characters of differing genders, same-sex relationship (Bert and Ernie!). Thank heavens.
Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom: Equal representation between male and female characters! POC fairies and Elves! Possible aro-ace Nanny Plum! Female characters with differing designs and personalities, huzzah! Even an equal footing in the title between the little boy and little girl characters. The boy is not dumb and bumbling. The mum is not a stick-in-the-mud. The King’s shortcomings are actually of benefit in his job as King!
Peppa Pig: YES. THANK THE PIGGY GODS FOR PEPPA PIG. Lots of characters, some obviously POC, all very different, the women characters are not killjoys, the girl characters actually make action happen rather than support and comment upon the boy’s action. Hallelujah.
Playschool: YOU GO PLAYSCHOOL. So much representation. POC presenters more often than not. Lots of inclusiveness. Regular deaf presenter using Australian sign language! WOOP.
Dinosaur Train: Awesome stuff. Seriously, love it. Ladies and girls everywhere, the boys are not dumb (one is obsessed with discovering more information), the girls have distinct personalities and designs, the mum is not a killjoy or boring, the dad is not thick and bumbling. Also, I like learning about the dinosaurs!
Peg + Cat: YES YES GOOD GIRLS DOING MATHS RECURRING POC CHARACTERS YES MORE PLS
Fireman Sam: Although there is only one member of the rescue services that is female (and they’re all as white as A4 paper), there is a big supporting cast of diverse POC and female characters. I’m not sure how Sam hasn’t strangled Norman yet, though
Chuggington: Asian female genius inventor-mechanic!! Female train is the FASTEST AND MOST IMPRESSIVE! YES. They both do not get nearly the screentime of the boys, once again, but gosh that’s some shiny shiny positives.
Disappointing
Octonauts: Two female characters, neither of which are one of the ‘main three’. One is indeed a technician/mechanic, and it’s nice to see a female character in a STEM field, but neither may appear at all in half the episodes! In fact they may only get a single line per episode. Very disheartening, particularly because the messages about conservation and marine life are so good. Such a disappointment in an otherwise fun show.
(also – how is a polar bear the same size as a tabby cat, please and thank)
Shaun the Sheep: ONE FEMALE SHEEP, are you actually kidding me. The only ONLY female character. Only one. ONE. Such a funny, great and detailled show failing in such a rubbish way, urgh. The only way we know, also, is because she has curlers in her hair and a child. I shit thee not. Some nasty fat-shaming stuff for the big sheep too.
Tree Fu Tom: Really. Really. Two female characters. One is indeed a POC, but again – only shows up in perhaps every fourth episode. The other one is in maybe every second episode. She is indeed one of the ‘Big Five’… but once again, only one of five characters a girl? Give me a break, it’s the Avengers all over again. Plus there’s the uncomfortableness of a generic personality-free white boy using something called ‘Tree Fu’ which seems to be a pastiche of kung fu and calisthenics.
Giggle and Hoot: It’s all about the boys. This is meant to be the ABC’s flagship children’s entertainment? Anyone who has accused the ABC of pushing a feminist agenda of equality should watch this for an hour and they will leave feeling reassured, urgh. Male presenter (who is excellent, sure) – no female presenter at all. Both male characters are title characters (Jimmy Giggle & Hoot the Owl); the girl Owl’s name is a derivative of the boy’s (Hootabelle). The girl owl has to sing the boy owl’s praises every time they show off children’s artwork. (It’s so heartbreaking to see that all the little girls draw Hootabelle over and over again, because they have a choice of One.) It’s constantly reiterated that the boy owl and the presenter are best friends, and that the two owls are “Owl Pals” – whatever that is, but tell me that doesn’t feel second-tier. Where’s Hootabelle’s best friend? The songs (which are beautifully animated and performed, tbh) are skewed towards focusing on the boys and their adventures. Even the boys’ toys (which are also – surprise surprise – male) get more songs and screentime than the female owl. She turns up for two seconds in the title sequence. They even show mostly male characters in their sleep-time sequence. Still waiting on a song about the cat toy. How the hell has that not happened?
Mike the Knight: Again, far more boys than girls. A POC as the narrator/bard, but that’s about it. Why couldn’t one of the dragons be a girl? Also, Mike’s constantly-sidelined sister is about three times more interesting than he is. The King barely turns up at all, but when he does he is immediately the hero (it appears that the Queen actually runs the Kingdom single-handedly in his absence: now there’s a show I’d like to watch!)
The Hive: Gender-coloured wings, you must be joking. Intense colour-coding and gendered activities everywhere you look, tbh. Dad works, mum looks after baby. I saw an episode where the boys shunned the girls, and so the girls did so in return – and the girls were expected to apologise, not the boys. Also I am still vaguely weirded out about bees having nuclear families. (WTF??)
The Wotwots: The girl never initiates any action, and appears to be merely a reaction-machine for her far more interesting and dynamic brother to bounce off.
Thomas and Friends: ONE female train. One, in a cast of dozens. Chuff off.
Lazytown: Six male recurring characters. Three female. (Only one of which can be guaranteed to be in every episode.) Ha. Ha ha. Ha.
So, there we have it. There’s more, of course. A LOT more. But this has been eating away at me for a few weeks now, and so I wanted to have a small grumble about it. Aaaaand so a small grumble turned into a bit of an essay, because I am Wordy As Heck.
I am horrified but not surprised that this prioritisation begins so young. We should really be doing better. All kids deserve better. Girls should be allowed to take up more than 1/5th of space and time. Boys should be able to identify with non-boy characters. There should be more POC in title positions, rather than generic white boy.
Though something that really stands out to me? Is that the majority of those in my ‘Bright Spots’ list are TREMENDOUSLY successful.
Wow. It’s almost like all kids want to see themselves on telly or something.
Do you know why Dis didn’t become Queen after Thorin, Fili, and Kili died? I love King Dain, don’t get me wrong, but it’s something that always bugged me. Thorin was the heir, because he was oldest, and he named Fili and Kili as his heirs. But wouldn’t Dis have been able to take the throne once the King and Princes died, as she was most closely related to all three?
I think it didn’t happen in the books for two reasons, myself: One: Sexism. i.e. “Dwarf-women in ME can’t inherit a crown!!!” Two: We don’t know when she died.
It pisses me off, also. That’s why I have her abdicate her place in the succession: I’d much prefer to think that she had been counted in the succession from the very beginning, but went her own way.
[image descriptions: seven colour gif set of Michael Kimmel speaking in front of a chalkboard.
gif 1 says IN TEXT: Each Week, eleven women and me got together, we would read some text in feminist theory and talk about it. And during one of our meetings I witnessed a conversation between two women that changed everything for me. END TEXT.
gif 2 says IN TEXT: One of the women was white and one was black. The white woman said …, ‘All women have the same experience as women. All women face the same oppression as women and therefore all women have a kind of intuitive solidarity or sisterhood.’ END TEXT.
gif 3 says IN TEXT: And the black woman said, ‘I’m not so sure. Let me ask you a question-’ So the black woman says to the white woman, ‘When you wake up in the morning and you look in the mirror, what do you see?’ And the white woman said, ‘I see a woman.’ And the black woman said, ‘You see, that’s the problem for me, because when I wake up in the morning and when I look in the mirror,’ she said, ‘I see a black woman. To me race is visible, but to you race is invisible. You don’t see it.’ END TEXT.
gif 4 says IN TEXT: And then she said something really startling, she said, ‘That’s how privilege works. Privilege is invisible to those who have it.’ END TEXT.
gif 5 says IN TEXT: …Now remember, I was the only man in this room. So I heard this and I kind of just spontaneously groaned and put my head in my hand and someone said, ‘Well, what was THAT reaction??’ And I said, ‘Well when I wake up in the morning and I look in the mirror I see a human being.’ END TEXT.
gif 6 says IN TEXT: I’m kind of a generic person y’know, I’m a middle class, white, man. I have no [visible] class, no race, no gender. I’m universally generalizable. END TEXT.
gif 7 says IN TEXT: So I like to think that that was the moment that I became a[n aware] middle class, white, man. That class and race and gender weren’t about other people but they were about me and I had to start thinking about them and it had been privilege that head kept it invisible to me for so long. END TEXT. END DESCRIPTION.]
Deconstructing Masculinity & Manhood with Michael Kimmel @ Dartmouth College
Boom.
— From NYC.
Why Is There Not More of This? Part 3
FEMALE CHILD CHARACTERS.
Why aren’t there more adorable little Dwarfling girls? Or Dwarflings that identify as girls? (because dain-mothafocka has written splendiferous Dwarf headcanons about gender and I just…
ARE YOU GONNA BE ON EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE tolkienfish ?
I dunno how exactly Smaug being the “last dragon” (what about the Withered Hearth?) has to do with this conversation at all, but oooookay.
And ‘super AU’? For wanting Hobbit girls that daydream about adventure? About Hobbits in general thinking of leaving the Shire?
So that makes the Hobbit and LotR super AUs, then? Huh.
This just in: Tooks are not Hobbits.
*raises eyebrows* Huh.
okay, I dislike getting into these sorts of arguments. But I would like to ask this person politely to stop pestering people for wanting to see themselves in Middle Earth, rather than yet another Standard Grim White Male Protagonist (tm – with optional manpain!!). The made-up fictional people in the made-up fictional world can be any colour. Yes, the dear professor likely didn’t intend for that, but unless you can ask him directly, please stop.
Yep, the vast vast majority of Hobbits stay at home, and frown on going out of the Shire. Guess what? It doesn’t stop their kids from listening avidly to Bilbo’s stories. Imagination is not limited by location, and that applies to little girl Hobbits too. Or perhaps they are not permitted to be imaginative and adventurous, bc reasons canon reasons blah?
(also, apparently the ‘remarkable’ Belladonna Took and her referenced but not detailed adventures are outliers and should not have been counted.)
Aaaaand you may wish to investigate this. And this. Smaug was not intended to be the last dragon. Only the last dragon with ‘fire hot enough’ (whatever that means). Finding both of those took ten seconds of googling, btw.
I have to mention as well – the Professor contradicted his own creation all the freakin’ time. Anyone who clings to the sword of ‘canon’ in Middle-Earth is gonna eventually come across a discrepancy. Beliiiiiieve me. (just look up Celeborn for a good example.)
Another person’s interpretation takes nothing from you. It is important to them. Don’t shoot it down. It appears uninformed at best; bigoted, racist and sexist at worst.
In the meanwhile, enjoy these canon descriptions of Aragorn (all from the chapter “From the Sign of the Prancing Pony”):
In those days no other Men had settled dwellings so far west, or within a hundred leagues of the Shire. But in the wild lands beyond Bree there were mysterious wanderers. The Bree-folk called them Rangers, and knew nothing of their origin. They were taller and darker than the Men of Bree and were believed to have strange powers of sight and hearing, and to understand the languages of beasts and birds.
(Gandalf’s letter delivered by Butterbur)
Dear Frodo,
Bad news has reached me here. I must go off at once. You had better leave Bag End soon, and get out of the Shire before the end of July at latest. I will return as soon as I can; and I will follow you, if I find that you are gone. Leave a message for me here, if you pass through Bree. You can trust the landlord (Butterbur). You may meet a friend of mine on the Road: a Man, lean, dark, tall, by some called Strider. He knows our business and will help you. Make for Rivendell. There I hope we may meet again. If I do not come, Elrond will advise you.
Yours in haste
GANDALF.
Frodo lay down again, but for a long while he could still see the white flashes, and against them the tall dark figure of Strider, standing silent and watchful. At last he passed into uneasy sleep.
Aw Yiss 