Essay: "Heras and Villainesses"

[ysabetwordsmith]

The upcoming fishbowl theme is "heras and villainesses" so I wanted to write a little bit about that tonight.  Female characters often get short shrift when compared to male characters, whether good or evil.  Let's take a closer look.

First, we have the two terms that everyone knows: hero and heroine.  A hero is a male protagonist, the lead

Comments

[kengr]

I'd say Kris Longknife (from the Kris Longknife) books is a hera as well. Though often a *damn* frustrated one as people keep interfering.

[fayanora]

By these definitions, Lyria Spellspinner would be a hera, despite being true neutral and morally ambiguous.

I suppose Nokwahl is also a hera, despite her people being hermaphroditic.

I think Raven of the animated Teen Titans might be a hera. Sure, she works with a team, and in a couple episodes needed some encouragement from Robin to face her father (who is the evil Trigon), but she's largely pretty damn capable and powerful.

Oooh, Tangled! I love that movie!

Yes...

[ysabetwordsmith]

You have great characters!

I love Tangled because it does what Disney does best: it takes a traditional fairytale and retells the familiar story in a cool new way. It has a fun, wild antihero who kind of reminds me of Han Solo and a sheltered yet ferocious princess who ... I suddenly realize reminds me of Leia. Hee! And Mother Gothel is among the most savagely abusive characters I've ever seen; that was brilliantly rendered. Maybe it will help children who are being verbally abused realize what's going on.

Re: Yes...

[fayanora]

Amen!

Have you seen The Princess and the Frog?

Re: Yes...

[ysabetwordsmith]

That's another favorite, yes. I liked the cunning-woman who lived in a boat in a tree.

[riverotter1951]

Thanks for a wonderful essay.

[je_reviens]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one of my favorite Heras. On that note, Glory the God is one of the best villanesses ever.

Yes...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I agree on both counts. Glory was alarming.

[paka]

I guess that fits the big thing I don't like about roles in old gender stereotypes.

I think that the important thing here is that; gender isn't all that crucial to the character. It's a description. The character's female because, well, half of everyone is. For this reason I'm really kind of... mmm... it's really hard to deal with characters heavily defined by motherhood and by relationships because that last comes so close to and then the hot chick falls for the strong/hypercompetent/masculine hero/villainSo I really liked some of your heroine choices (and here we differ about semantics; I would rather use the old word, because I tend to like "big tent" definitions) because these are people whose role within the story doesn't hinge on them being female. Like I know that the script didn't decide what gender Ripley was until Sigourney Weaver showed up and the writers went hey, okay, Ripley's a woman - that's kinda neat

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>I think that the important thing here is that; gender isn't all that crucial to the character.<<

I think it depends on the character, culture, and story. Sometimes it doesn't matter much. Other times, it's the core of everything. And we need both kinds of those stories and characters.

>>So I really liked some of your heroine choices (and here we differ about semantics; I would rather use the old word, because I tend to like "big tent" definitions) <<

It's okay. Language is the ultimate democracy: ever speaker gets one vote on how words should be used.

>>because these are people whose role within the story doesn't hinge on them being female<<

Except for Tim, the Schrodinger's Heroes characters all started out gender-indeterminate. I rolled for their genders and races with on a gaming website.

>>I'd disagree with Poison Ivy.<<

I'm okay with Hot Chick Adversary as long as there are other types of female characters around. After all, some women DO use their sex appeal as a weapon, for good or ill.