{"id":3664,"date":"2013-08-04T07:55:46","date_gmt":"2013-08-04T06:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=3664"},"modified":"2013-08-04T07:55:46","modified_gmt":"2013-08-04T06:55:46","slug":"how-to-be-a-heroine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=3664","title":{"rendered":"How to be a heroine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Wonder Woman has a pretty silly costume - but she is a proper superheroine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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After talking about heroes last week (a favourite pastime) I thought in the interests of equality this week I should talk about heroines\u2026<\/p>\n

While it was easy to come up with great heroes and understand what makes them great \u2013 I found it a lot harder with heroines.<\/p>\n

The first thing I realised was that there are far few female superheroes \u00a0– \u00a0and even then, they are likely to be reflections of a male superhero \u2013 Supergirl and Batwoman spring to mind. There’s even a She-Hulk. There are female X-men superheroes \u2013 but they all take a back seat to Wolverine (see last week’s blog!)<\/p>\n

And they get far fewer films\u2026<\/p>\n

My first two characteristics for a heroine were \u2013 and this surprised me \u2013 negative\u2026<\/p>\n

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It’s not all about you!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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 \u2013 so they may fall in love, but I am left thinking it’s mostly because of the advantages to themselves.<\/p>\n

The two that spring to mind are Scarlett O’Hara and Cathy Earnshaw. Strangely enough, both books are favourites of mine \u2013 despite the irritating heroines. Possibly because they deal with much deeper themes.<\/p>\n

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Contestants for the title of heroine I would most like to slap<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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A favourite book - but not a favourite heroine. Don't like him much either.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Don’t be a victim.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I dislike heroines who are victims.<\/p>\n

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\u2026 and then get back on their feet. I don’t\u00a0 like a heroine who allows herself to get pushed around. She may start off being a victim \u2013 but I want her to push back.<\/p>\n

In this category I put Daphne du Maurier’s young Mrs De Winter. She is such a mouse \u2013 pushed around for pretty much the whole book. She’s very passive- yet again Rebecca is one of my favourite books.<\/p>\n

I think it’s obvious where this is going.<\/p>\n

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Be strong girl!<\/strong><\/p>\n

I want a heroine who can save herself, not wait around batting her eyelids prettily until some man comes and does it for her. \u00a0I don’t want her to swoon at the sight of blood \u2013 rather have her willing to spill it if necessary \u2013 her own or better still someone else’s. When these heroines fall in love \u2013 it’s with a man as strong as or even stronger than them and the partnership is equal.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

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Generations apart - but both kick serious...err... butt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Be smart.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I like an intelligent heroine as much as an intelligent hero.\u00a0 Elizabeth Bennet is one of the most enduring heroines in English literature. She is the bookish one \u2013 the smartest of the sisters.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 you’re my sort of girl.<\/p>\n

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The popularity of female detectives shows I'm not alone in liking a smart heroine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Just read it - or watch it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For all the strength in my favourite heroines \u2013 there is always some vulnerability too. This makes them human.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In this category \u2013 I put Sister Luke, in the Nun’s Story \u2013 a fabulous book and even better film. She has strength and intelligence. But\u2026<\/p>\n

Wait. No spoilers here.<\/p>\n

If you haven’t read it\/seen the film \u2013 I recommend it.<\/p>\n

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It’s all about empowerment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I want my heroines to feel empowered. Not power over others \u2013 although that can be good too \u2013 but to have control over their own lives. That control might be lost during the course of the book \u2013 but ultimately I want them to get it back as a result of their own efforts.<\/p>\n

The ultimate expression of this is found in some of the great historical women \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

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I prefer these historical heroines to the Regency belles who seem only to care about marrying well.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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And it’s got nothing to do with looks\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 give me Daenerys Targaryen any time. Sold by her brother as a powerless child bride \u2013 she comes back as a conquering queen.<\/p>\n

Can you imagine sharing a late night tub of ice-cream with her?<\/p>\n

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When it comes to empowerment - dragons do help.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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  After talking about heroes last week (a favourite pastime) I thought in the interests of equality this week I should talk about heroines\u2026 While it was easy to come up with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading","category-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7g6jm-X6","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3664\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}