I’m so fed up with fantasy right now

Alert- I’m complaining. Take all of this with a grain of salt.

I am so unbelievably tired of reading most high fantasy right now- the kind where the author has created a whole new world. It’s one of my favourite genres but I can’t stand some of the authors. They create whole new worlds, societies, religions, political systems and even different species sometimes. Yet somehow, some things almost always stay the same. You’re telling me you’ve made up a whole new world- yet somehow the enslaved people are, surprise, dark skinned from the world’s ”south”. Women are, surprise, not leaders, oppressed and often even raped on a regular basis. The valued culture is, surprise, very western. I could go on.

I understand that there are many (even valid) reasons for including tropes like these. Social commentary, familiarity, what-if scenarios. But I’m so tired. I read as a way to escape. I want to ESCAPE all the horrors of my world, not be slapped in the face by them again and again. Not read about yet another (often shallow) female character dismissed, overshadowed, raped and worse. Invent a NEW horror for god’s sakes. Or take one that’s like a thousand years old. Not one I see when I turn on the news. Sometimes it even feels like the author is writing some of these tropes to live out some kind of sordid sex fantasy on paper. cough Diana Gabaldon cough. Gives me the heebiejeebies.

So if you have any recs, I’d love to get them. I’ve just re-read the Gentlemen Bastards series for the third time and I feel like it’s SUCH a breath of fresh air in this regard. I started reading Mistborn by Sanderson today and before even the first chapter, a girl was kidnapped to be raped. Ugh. A lot of my more liked books have tropes like these in them, I’m not terribly sensitive. But why can’t they change more stuff when they’re already creating new worlds? Why are some things always the same???? Why do I sound like a too-woke whiny teenager????????