She’s out there hunting, she’s out there fucking: Feyre’s survival as a symbol for the deconstructed feminine
- jamiebuchkremer
- Nov 18, 2025
- 3 min read
Before we see Feyre Archeron becoming the High Lady of the Night Court in A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas, she is an underfed young woman hunting in the woods for her family’s survival. Because she can’t thrive, only survive, she is forced into the role of the family’s only provider and head of the household, leaving no room for the traditionally feminine behaviour her sisters get to display. As long as Feyre has to fight for survival, she cannot embrace the feminine.
Please note that I am not saying that Feyre is not a ‘real woman’ because she has to hunt and wear pants – femininity serves here as a theme, made of several aspects stereotypically assigned to the female gender and reflecting Feyre’s emotional and physical security throughout the book.
Feyre as a provider
When we first meet Feyre, she is a hunter, a role traditionally assigned to men. But we learn later that hunting and killing does not come natural to her: The unfeminine is a result of her trying to survive. She is not rejecting the feminine of her own free will, but out of necessity. She can’t both embrace it and survive. This sets her into stark contrast with her sisters, who are able to express their femininity because Feyre provides for them. We see this in Elain’s flowers and Nesta’s reluctance to chop wood because Feyre’s hands are “suited for it – they’re already so rough” (p. 14).
Feyre not only brings food to the table, she also acts as head of the house. With her father present but passive, she makes the rules for her older sisters. Even though Nesta verbally abuses her, Feyre has the final say when she forbids her sister to marry Tomas Mandray, a man from their village. When Feyre orders her to chop wood in the morning, Nesta replies that she “will do no such thing” (p. 14), but ends up bending to Feyre’s will anyway.
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Sex as Hunger
Feyre equates her stereotypically masculine habit of casual sex to hunger, too, making it another aspect of her life where she can only fulfill a physical need instead of an emotional one. Sex for her is not passion or lovemaking, but “hungry and empty and sometimes cruel, but never lovely” (p. 3) – with ‘hungry’ and ‘empty’ signifying her survival, ‘cruel’ a masculine brutality and the negation of ‘lovely’ the deconstruction of femininity.
What, then, does it mean for Nesta to degrade her for this behaviour? When she calls it “rutting in the hay with Isaac Hale like an animal” (p. 18), Nesta uses the language of patriarchal judgement to reassert her own moral superiority. Her insult becomes a tool to reject Feyre’s authority as the one who provides and decides, nominally about Nesta’s own marriage, allowing Nesta to reclaim dominance when she can’t do so with her actions.
Embracing the Feminine?
Feyre’s arrival on Tamlin’s estate proves that survival means more to her than the fulfillment of the barest physical needs. His attendants force the feminine on her when they pluck her body hair and make her wear a dress in order to make her desirable for him. But she can’t embrace it at first because she does not feel safe: “I hadn’t worn a dress in years. I wasn’t about to start, not when escape was my main priority. I wouldn’t be able to move freely in a gown” (p. 55). Without the feeling of safety and comfort, Feyre can’t embrace the feminine, so she falls back to wearing pants.
Feyre’s journey shows that survival and femininity can’t coexist until safety and autonomy are secured. Only once Feyre’s survival is no longer at stake can she reclaim softness, desire and agency on her own terms.
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