Editing The Chronicles of Narnia (section)

===Accusations of gender stereotyping===
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In later years, both Lewis and the ''Chronicles'' have been criticised (often by other authors of fantasy fiction) for [[gender role]] stereotyping, though other authors have defended Lewis in this area. Most allegations of [[sexism]] centre on the description of Susan Pevensie in ''The Last Battle'' when Lewis writes that Susan is "no longer a friend of Narnia" and interested "in nothing nowadays except nylons and lipstick and invitations".

[[Philip Pullman]], inimical to Lewis on many fronts, calls the ''Narnia'' stories "monumentally disparaging of women".<ref name="Ezard">{{cite news|last1=Ezard|first1=John|title=Narnia books attacked as racist and sexist|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/jun/03/gender.hayfestival2002|access-date=26 March 2015|newspaper=The Guardian|date=3 June 2002|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150208163207/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/jun/03/gender.hayfestival2002|archive-date=8 February 2015}}</ref> His interpretation of the Susan passages reflects this view:
{{blockquote|Susan, like [[Cinderella]], is undergoing a transition from one phase of her life to another. Lewis didn't approve of that. He didn't like women in general, or [[human sexuality|sexuality]] at all, at least at the stage in his life when he wrote the Narnia books. He was frightened and appalled at the notion of wanting to grow up.<ref name="Pullman">{{cite web|last=Pullman|first=Philip|author-link=Philip Pullman|url=http://www.crlamppost.org/darkside.htm|title=The Dark Side of Narnia|work=The Cumberland River Lamppost|date=2 September 2001|access-date=10 December 2005|archive-date=16 November 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101116162137/http://www.crlamppost.org/darkside.htm|url-status=usurped}}</ref>}}

In fantasy author [[Neil Gaiman]]'s short story "The Problem of Susan" (2004),<ref>{{cite book|last=Gaiman|first=Neil|author-link=Neil Gaiman|chapter=The Problem of Susan|title=Flights: Extreme Visions of Fantasy Volume II|editor-last=Sarrantonio|editor-first=Al|publisher=New American Library|location=New York|year=2004|isbn=978-0-451-46099-8|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/flightsextremevi0000unse}}</ref><ref name="WagnerGolden2008">{{cite book|first1=Hank|last1=Wagner|first2=Christopher|last2=Golden|first3=Stephen R.|last3=Bissette|title=Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman|url=https://archive.org/details/princeofstoriesm0000wagn/page/395|url-access=registration|date=28 October 2008|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=978-1-4299-6178-3|pages=395–}}</ref><ref name="Gaiman2010FragileThings">{{cite book|author=Neil Gaiman|title=Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NoFHsQiguDIC|date=9 February 2010|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-0-06-051523-2}}</ref> an elderly woman, Professor Hastings, deals with the grief and trauma of her entire family's death in a train crash.  Although the woman's maiden name is not revealed, details throughout the story strongly imply that this character is the elderly Susan Pevensie. The story is written for an adult audience and deals with issues of sexuality and violence and through it Gaiman presents a critique of Lewis's treatment of Susan, as well as the [[problem of evil]] as it relates to punishment and salvation.<ref name="WagnerGolden2008"/>

Lewis supporters cite the positive roles of women in the series, including Jill Pole in ''The Silver Chair'', Aravis Tarkheena in ''The Horse and His Boy'', Polly Plummer in ''The Magician's Nephew,'' and particularly Lucy Pevensie in ''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe''. [[Alan Jacobs (academic)|Alan Jacobs]], an English professor at [[Wheaton College (Illinois)|Wheaton College]], asserts that Lucy is the most admirable of the human characters and that generally the girls come off better than the boys throughout the series (Jacobs, 2008: 259){{cnf|date=February 2020}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.livejournal.com/users/synaesthete7/176635.html|title=The Problem of Susan|first=RJ|last=Anderson|date=30 August 2005}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=February 2020}}<ref name="RilstoneLipstick">{{cite web|url=http://andrewrilstone.blogspot.com/2005/11/lipstick-on-my-scholar.html|title=Lipstick on My Scholar|first=Andrew|last=Rilstone|date=30 November 2005}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=February 2020}} In her contribution to ''The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy'', Karin Fry, an assistant professor of philosophy at the [[University of Wisconsin]], Stevens Point, notes that "the most sympathetic female characters in ''The Chronicles'' are consistently the ones who question the traditional roles of women and prove their worth to Aslan through actively engaging in the adventures just like the boys."<ref name="Bassham">{{cite book|last=Fry|first=Karin|editor1-last=Bassham|editor1-first=Gregory|editor2-last=Walls|editor2-first=Jerry L.|chapter=13: No Longer a Friend of Narnia: Gender in Narnia|title=The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy: The Lion, the Witch and the Worldview|publisher=Open Court|location=Chicago and La Salle, Illinois|year=2005}}</ref> Fry goes on to say:
{{blockquote|The characters have positive and negative things to say about both male and female characters, suggesting an equality between sexes. However, the problem is that many of the positive qualities of the female characters seem to be those by which they can rise above their femininity{{nbsp}}... The superficial nature of stereotypical female interests is condemned.<ref name="Bassham"/>}}

Nathan Ross notes that "Much of the plot of 'Wardrobe' is told exclusively from the point of view of Susan and Lucy. It is the girls who witness Aslan being killed and coming back to life – a unique experience from which the boys are excluded. Throughout, going through many highly frightening and shocking moments, Susan and Lucy behave with grown up courage and responsibility. Their experiences are told in full, over several chapters, while what the boys do at the same time – preparing an army and going into battle – is relegated to the background. This arrangement of material clearly implies that what girls saw and did was the more important. Given the commonly held interpretation – that Aslan is Jesus Christ and that what the girls saw was a no less than a reenacting of the Crucifixion – this order of priorities makes perfect sense".<ref>Nathan Vernon Ross, "Narnia Revisited" in "Is Children's Literature Intended Only For Children?", 2002 essay collection edited by Cynthia McDowel, p. 185-197</ref>

Taking a different stance altogether, Monika B. Hilder provides a thorough examination of the feminine ethos apparent in each book of the series, and proposes that critics tend to misread Lewis's representation of gender. As she puts it "...we assume that Lewis is sexist when he is in fact applauding the 'feminine' heroic. To the extent that we have not examined our own chauvinism, we demean the 'feminine' qualities and extol the 'masculine' – not noticing that Lewis does the opposite."<ref name="Hilder, 2012">{{cite book |last1=Hilder |first1=Monika B. |title=The Feminine Ethos in C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia |date=2012 |publisher=Peter Lang |location=New York |isbn=978-1-4331-1817-3 |page=160}}</ref>