Free Amazon
The Free Amazons (sometimes called the "Free Amazons of Darkover") were an all-woman society that pledged to live without men. The group was founded in response to the repressive patrarichy on the planet Darkover, a lost (and found) Earth colony that formed the primary setting for Marion Zimmer Bradley's series of Darkover stories.
Literary history
MZB included a Free Amazon as a secondary character in the first Darkover book she wrote, Planet Savers (1962). Although she wanted to write a novel about them, she wasn't able to get her publisher to try a novel with a female protagonist until 1976 -- that work was The Shattered Chain.[1]
Aspects of the Free Amazons
- The Oath of the Free Amazon
- Name - The organization also included a way for women to renounce patrilineal naming.
Fan response
The Free Amazons inspired a significant fan response, particularly among women. Some women adopted FA-style feminist names -- some even doing a legal name change. Women also started a number of fan-based organizations, "councils" of the Friends of Darkover fanclub. A thriving fan-fiction community developed around the stories, ultimately leading to publication of series-anthologies (e.g., Free Amazons of Darkover). Bradley eventually changed her policy regarding fan fiction in Darkover and other worlds after facing a copyright issue.
Notes
- ↑ Jonquil Wolfson, "MZB: A Feminist by Any Other Name?", 1999 Oct. 22 (Special to Space.com).