I don't get the hate. Why do people say that the Dresden Files is some sort of sexist book, and why do they say that Jim Butcher is some sort of asshole for writing them?

For the first couple books, they had a fair point. Dresden was a white knight who openly called his views chauvinistic, there was Bob, and the only characters introduced at first who could stand against the monsters were all men (Michael, Thomas) while the women either needed protecting despite their strengths (susan, even Murphy at first) or were monsters. Charity scared him, but it isn't until she suits up to go after Molly that we see she's an equal of Michael (and hell, her back story is literally the "damsel in distress" troupe. With a dragon and everything). Molly was just a kid at first; Justine was a bipolar love slave of a male vampire, Bob was Bob...yeah.

All that made sense though, as Harry himself was little more than a kid in those first few books. Yeah, he'd done some stuff, but world-view wise? He went from being an orphan, to being raised by an abuser who sought to isolate him from society, to living on Ebenezer's farm. He's not going to be a modern man of society after all that.

I highly disagree that Dresden Files is misogynistic because, quite frankly, things change. Harry doesn't shout about his "inner neanderthal " nearly as much, Justine (spoilers for those who haven't read the side stories) is apparently a super-spy, Molly has in many ways surpassed Harry (not so much brute force, but her mind magic/illusion powers are easily past his), Charity is, well, Charity, and Murphy? Even going through all that shit, even breaking a sword, she is still one of the best defenders of humanity in the story. And not because of her gifts, not because of vampire strength or holy magic, but because she's her.

Harry's views, as noble as he thought they were, we're discarded because he realized they weren't right.

/r/dresdenfiles Thread