[The Pelagic Argosy]

I think it's a little surreal that feminists, such as ourselves, can get so worked up about fictionalized sexism when there is plenty of the real stuff to worry about. Certainly, the world Jordan created for this series has sexist elements. However, as has been pointed out, he set this story in a faux-medieval milieu, with a few tweaks. You can argue that the world is inconsistent, in that so many women in this story hold political power, while there is subservience of women on the domestic front. On the other hand, as dustinzgirl pointed out, that isn't necessarily an unrealistic approach.

I haven't read very far into this series myself. In fact, I just finished the bit in The Great Hunt over the hullabaloo about the women's apartments in Fal Dara. Women make the rules, men can't enter without an escort, but the men would die defending them, etc. That's all very chivalrous - in both the positive and negative sense of the word. Tension between the sexes is obviously a major theme running throughout this series. There is the saidar vs. saidin stuff. And then there's the silly stuff: men wearing swords and armor and women fussing with their hair. Whatever. It can certainly get annoying, but it's meaningless to the real world.

I don't think I could read and enjoy many books if I wasn't able to put aside my personal values, even my deeply held ones - especially my deeply held ones - to see things from other points of view.

That's kind of a grandiose statement to make in regards to this series, which, though I admit it's entertaining, isn't really that good. It's just a patchwork of stereotypical fantasy themes and characters. It's beautifully detailed, but not very deep. Both the female and male characters are two dimensional. Maybe if Jordan had spent more time exploring characterization, rather than going into such minutiae over stonework and junk like that, it would be a little more satisfying.

I also don't think it's fair to make judgments about Jordan himself over this. I don't know anything about the man; for all I know, he was a raving misogynist. But I don't think you can accuse him of being a sexist based on his novels any more than you can accuse Agatha Christie of being a murderess.