Valeria (Conan the Barbarian)
Valeria is a pirate and adventuress (a member of "The Red Brotherhood" of pirates) in the fictional universe of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian stories. She appears in Robert E. Howard's Conan novella "Red Nails", serialized in "Weird Tales" 28 1-3 (July, August/September & October 1936). This was the last Conan story written by Howard, and published posthumously. The name was also used for Conan's love interest in the 1982 film "Conan the Barbarian". Description. Robert E. Howard described Valeria in "Red Nails" as follows: She is also described as a  superior swordswoman. Valeria is faster and more agile than Conan. Reception. The character is a powerful, active figure, but is also sometimes rendered helpless for the titillation of the reader. As Winter Elliott writes, Valeria "represents a mediation between the possibilities of female agency and her own gendered identity. As Conan points out, Valeria can't escape the simple fact of her femininity. As such, her identity is structured by her society. Like Conan, Valeria's pursuit of freedom against her society's wishes marginalizes her, making her other, but it also forces Howard to go to extravagant lengths to  substantiate her femininity, which he does by including not one, but two female bondage scenes. If she can be subjected to such sexual humiliation, Howard implies, she must be female... What happens to Valeria is more about the needs of the reading/viewing audience than her own action or inaction. Valeria in those sexually debased moments isn't a character in and of herself, but rather a narrative tool designed to provoke a response from the readers."