We are quite far from March 8 but since I'm slowly slogging through the threads, here go my two sestertii!

I was never bothered by the treatment of women in Tolkien. I can quote many strong women in his saga, as it has already been done here. Certainly I did not find LOTR sexless. I was a girl of fifteen when I read it for the first time, and scenes like Aragorn and Arwen being silently close and exchanging glances and love words in Elvish (I remember pondering about the meaning of "Vanimelda"), Eowyn touching Aragorn's fingers as she gives him the cup and trembling, Eowyn and Faramir's hair mingling in the wind upon the ramparts, and the whole of Aragorn and Arwen's appendix gave me real thrills. They were subtle hints of sensuality that fitted perfectly, or were even revolutionary, for the age Tolkien lived in (the Victorian age, at least in his sensibility) and for the tradition he drew from, the ancient sagas, reportedly devoid of women.

However, this last thought, too, should be taken carefully, because women did have a role even in the ancient sagas. Despite the modernity we still find in such works and which fascinates us so much, we cannot always judge them - and Tolkien - from a modern point of view. I have found a terrific essay in the e-zine "The Heroic Age", "The social centrality of women in Beowulf", which for me can be applied entirely to LOTR:

http://www.mun.ca/mst/heroicage/issues/5/porter1.html

I only quote the final lines: [notes in parentheses are mine]

"Through this short analysis of the roles of the women in Beowulf [think LOTR], I have endeavored to show the centrality of female characters to the poem. In the form of the work, the presentation of these women is purposefully symmetrical, inviting comparisons and contrasts. Those women who act as hostesses and peaceweavers, even while looking out for their own interests [Galadriel], are central to the poem, and an understanding of the functions of the women in Beowulf assists the comprehension of a complex poem. Those women presented as monsters [Shelob], the hostile hostesses and strife-weavers, [Lobelia Sackville-Baggins] are interesting in themselves, and also serve as counter-examples to the other female characters. A thorough investigation of the relationships between the women and their men uncovers possibilities of a matrilineal undercurrent in the culture of Beowulf [Eomer, sister's son], which may indicate a dim memory of a pagan Germanic past for the Anglo-Saxon poet. Though they are all defined by the men that they are close to, either sons, fathers, or brothers, none of the women in Beowulf are marginal or excluded."