Trickster and gender

I started reading Hyde today, in search of the trickster connection to some of my interests. I started out reading appendix II, "Trickster and Gender." As I read, I tried not to get discouraged. Basically, Hyde makes the case that tricksers and male, save a few (FEW) female examples. The best-known female trickster is the American Southwest female Coyote trickster. But don't get your hopes up; in the hundreds of Native American trickster stories, there are only about 20 featuring the female Coyote (339). The female Coyote shares some traits with her male counterpart, but lacks his sexual drive. Also, she has children, which sometimes appear in the tales. Also differentiating her from the male Coyote, she is not know as a "culture hero" (339). How sad. She never brings a gift to the people.

As I said, I tried not to get discouraged. No female tricksters? This is so disheartening to me. But as I read and thought about it more, I started to still see gender issues within trickster tales. There are at least (I'll probably discover more as I read more) a few trickster which have important relationships with their mothers. Hermes' mother argues with him upon his return the his cradle, but even though they disagree about his actions, Hermes insists that he is doing whatever it takes to ensure both of them live the lives they deserve (322).Similarly, there is a strong mother-son relationship beween Krishna and his mother, Yasoda. Hyde points out that Yasoda wants Krishna to remain her child, and he battles with wanting to fulfill her desire and be independant. This "[enacts] the doubleness, the ambiguity, of ...simultaneous dependance-independance" (341). I'm interpreting the mothers' role as offering another outlet for an important trickster trait: ambiguity.

Also, Hyde points out that the case has been made for Rachel, of the Hebrew Bible, being a trickster. He tells hows she tricked Laban when she and Jacob left, unannounced, and while they left, Rachel stole Laban's teraphim. When Laban comes after them to collect his idols, Rachel tells him "the way of women is upon me" (338). But Hyde fails to make the connection that in doing this, Rachel is combining the sacred and taboo: she does not give up the teraphim because she claims to be menstrating, and is sitting on the idols. But Hyde writes Rachel is an example of "female trickery, not of [a] female trickster" (338). I understand that trickster is a tradition, but how many acts, or characteristics, does it take to make a trickster?

I scholar.googled female tricksters, and found a book, "Madcaps, Screwballs, and Con Women: The Female Trickster in American Culture" (1998). Here is a passage from the book's synopsis: "She considers texts of the 1920s such as the silent film It and Anita Loos's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; pre- and post-Production Code Mae West films, Depression-era screwball comedy, and wartime comedy; the postwar television series I Love Lucy; and such contemporary texts as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Ellen, Batman Returns, and Sister Act. In addition, Landay explores the connections between these texts and advertisements selling products that encourage female deception and trickery." See for yourself :http://print.google.com/print?id=n5BpcSboBEEC&lpg=PA32&sig=9-yEbKwvntplAEa-JOmExruJG1s

This is the only text I have found on my initial search for female trickster texts. I am sure, SURE, I can find more...