After talking about heroes last week (a favourite pastime) I thought in the interests of equality this week I should talk about heroines…
While it was easy to come up with great heroes and understand what makes them great – I found it a lot harder with heroines.
The first thing I realised was that there are far few female superheroes – and even then, they are likely to be reflections of a male superhero – Supergirl and Batwoman spring to mind. There’s even a She-Hulk. There are female X-men superheroes – but they all take a back seat to Wolverine (see last week’s blog!)
And they get far fewer films…
My first two characteristics for a heroine were – and this surprised me – negative…
It’s not all about you!
I really dislike egotistical self-obsessed heroines. These are the girls/women whose every thought is about their appearance or how something is going to impact on them. They don’t seem to care about the world around them or anyone else. OK – so they may fall in love, but I am left thinking it’s mostly because of the advantages to themselves.
The two that spring to mind are Scarlett O’Hara and Cathy Earnshaw. Strangely enough, both books are favourites of mine – despite the irritating heroines. Possibly because they deal with much deeper themes.
Don’t be a victim.
I dislike heroines who are victims.
That’s not to say I don’t want them to have a hard time. I do. I want my heroines to face the worst life can throw at them… and then get back on their feet. I don’t like a heroine who allows herself to get pushed around. She may start off being a victim – but I want her to push back.
In this category I put Daphne du Maurier’s young Mrs De Winter. She is such a mouse – pushed around for pretty much the whole book. She’s very passive- yet again Rebecca is one of my favourite books.
I think it’s obvious where this is going.
Be strong girl!
I want a heroine who can save herself, not wait around batting her eyelids prettily until some man comes and does it for her. I don’t want her to swoon at the sight of blood – rather have her willing to spill it if necessary – her own or better still someone else’s. When these heroines fall in love – it’s with a man as strong as or even stronger than them and the partnership is equal.
I will confess to loving Peter O’Donnell’s Modesty Blaise books. They are terribly dated, not very PC and more than a touch sexist – but she’s my kind of heroine. I’d give Buffy some points here too. I can ignore some of her failings – she is a teenager after all.
Be smart.
I like an intelligent heroine as much as an intelligent hero. Elizabeth Bennet is one of the most enduring heroines in English literature. She is the bookish one – the smartest of the sisters.
I don’t want my heroine to watch in awe as some man solves the mystery. I want her to be part of the solution. Hermoine Grainger – you’re my sort of girl.
Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable.
For all the strength in my favourite heroines – there is always some vulnerability too. This makes them human.
This is what makes us want them as our BFF. Because then we can sit around late at night with them, eating icecream and sympathising.
In this category – I put Sister Luke, in the Nun’s Story – a fabulous book and even better film. She has strength and intelligence. But…
Wait. No spoilers here.
If you haven’t read it/seen the film – I recommend it.
It’s all about empowerment.
I want my heroines to feel empowered. Not power over others – although that can be good too – but to have control over their own lives. That control might be lost during the course of the book – but ultimately I want them to get it back as a result of their own efforts.
The ultimate expression of this is found in some of the great historical women – Eleanor of Aquitaine, Elizabeth the first and others written about by the likes of Elizabeth Chadwick and Philippa Gregory. I love these books because I love the powerful women.
And it’s got nothing to do with looks…
I like a handsome hero, but I really don’t care what my heroine looks like. In fact, if she is too gorgeous, as well as having all these other attributes, I might have to hate her.
It’s all about depth and growth. I want my heroine to struggle. She has to deal with things more important than whether her bum looks big in this. I never liked Bridget Jones – give me Daenerys Targaryen any time. Sold by her brother as a powerless child bride – she comes back as a conquering queen.
Can you imagine sharing a late night tub of ice-cream with her?
Comments
20 responses to “How to be a heroine”
Couldn’t agree more with basically all of this. Love a smart strong not too self-involved heroine! At the risk of opening a whole pandora’s box, it pretty much completely dismays me that we’ve gone from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Bella Swann in a single generation.
Oh well, better to focus on the brilliant heroines that are still out there – I adore Hermione. She’s smart and caring, but not too perfect. I love that she can be bossy and a bit know-it-all, rather than perfectly sweet and charming all the time 🙂
You are so right Alison – I love Hermoine for her flaws as much as for her strong points. Smart, strong women rock!
Very interesting and got me thinking!
It was funny Angela that it took me longer to define heroine than it did to define hero. I wonder if a male writer would find the reverse.
Nice blog, Janet. Enjoyed it!
Glad you enjoyed it Beverley. Thanks for dropping by.
Brilliant post, and I couldn’t agree more. No one likes a victim. The heroine may be someone’s chattel but has to have the inner strength to ultimately overcome her situation. And so forth. I feel very inspired now!
I’m with you on that Henri. Ever since I was small, I’ve admired strong women. When I grow up, I want to be Granny Weatherwax (which will mean nothing to people who don’t read Terry Pratchett – and to them I say – it’s time to start.)
Fascinating – and accurate. Even from a male perspective 🙂
Thanks John. It’s always good to hear the male perspective – great to think you agree.
Very thought provoking blog post. I can’t stand Scarlett O’Hara and Cathy Earnshaw. I’d disagree slightly about the second Mrs De Winter though. Yes, she’s a bit wet at first, and there were times I wanted to slap her, but she does find hidden strengths towards the end of the story and (I think) eventually ends up with the upper hand in the relationship so there’s a real character development there.
You’re right Sally. the second Mrs De Winter does grow during the book, and is a much stronger person by the end of it. It remains one of my favourite books. I haven’t read I for a while. Now there’s an thought… (gets and up and heads for the bookshelf).
Hmm, I think I prefer the flawed heroines. Scarlett O’Hara and Cathy Earnshaw might be pretty selfish, but this makes them far more relatable than the goody-two-shoes-heroines. Don’t we all have bad-tempered, unreasonable, downright self-obsessed days – even if we try to hide it? (Please tell me that’s not just me!) I like the idea that we can be loved in spite of all those human flaws. Rhett and Heathcliff aren’t perfect themselves – and it’s no coincidence that the books with all the bad girls and bad boys are by far the most passionate.
Helen, I like a flawed heroine too, and we all do have our bad days. But both Cathy and Scarlett were too selfish for my tastes. I want to like or at least admire my heroines, and I didn’t with them.
Great post, Janet, I agree with a lot of it. GWTW is one of my favourite books, and I think one of the reasons I like it is because Scarlett is such a self-obsessed character. It’s kind of…freeing to read her! She does grow, too, and I think she’s one of the strongest heroines I’ve ever read. Her single-mindedness might not make her very likeable, but it does make her successful. Had the book been about Melanie, it’d have been thrown across the room years ago.
As for looks, I do disagree. It’s more about attitude to looks than the looks themselves. Bridget Jones was so popular because millions of women felt the same way as her about their appearance (and, it’s worth noting, we don’t actually know what Bridget looks like, except that she’s often unhappy about it). Daenerys, however, is beautiful and does know it, and she uses that to her advantage. It’s one of the few weapons she has (well, at least until the dragons get a bit more useful). I quite like a beautiful heroine, as long as she’s aware of her looks and the advantage and disadvantages of them. Scarlett uses her looks and charm against men in much the same way as Daenerys: as a weapon, and also as a distraction, so that they won’t know she has a brain too.
Okay, getting off soapbox now…
Kate, your soap box is always welcome. I almost did throw GWTW across the room. I just wanted Scarlett for once in her life to do something not out of vanity or self absorbtion. But despite that , did love the book. Love GOT too. And Dany is wonderful the way she uses her beauty, and is strong and vulnerable at the same time.
Really entertaining blog Janet – and like you I find heroines harder to define than heroes (though you’ve done a great job!). Tough, but not so they become hard, attractive but not so you start to hate them, funny yet not cocky and know it all. I think being a heroine is a more difficult job in life!
Agreed.. heroine is a tough job. Glad I only have to write them, not be one.
I understand what you mean about Scarlett and Catherine, but stripping them down to one characteristic is misleading, especially in Scarlett’s case. Scarlett’s biggest flaw wasn’t her “me” mentality, but her lack of self-awareness. Melanie was no fool. She understood Scarlett, her drive and passion, even her infatuation with Ashley that clouded her feelings for Rhett. Scarlett defended herself, and her sisters and Melanie and the baby, against a deserter; delivered a baby and brought everyone through the war-ravaged south; saved the family’s land and kept them from starving. I won’t say she made the best choices, but she never backed down from a challenge. The tragedy for Scarlett wasn’t the fall of the South, but the realization of how much she loved Melanie and Rhett until it was too late. As for Catherine, she was also shaped by her environment, and she really only had two romantic choices, and Heathcliff left. Did she ever stop loving him? No. She waits for him and they are reunited upon his death. WH seems less about a love story than it is a debate on nature versus nurture. And I agree with Sally about Mrs. De Winter. She definitely arrives on the scene as the underdog, but she persists on meeting each challenge and saves the day.
You make some good points Debbie. But I am never going to like Scarlett…too many of the good things she did were for the wrong reason. Still, that one of the great things about strong well written books, they inspire such different reactions. Am loving this debate.