I think I just had an epiphany.

[karma_aster]

I was doing some thinking about fairy-tale princesses and mythological female archetypes like Penelope (Remember? The chick from the Odyssey?). Anyway, what they're famed for is patientence. Things go horribly wrong in all of thier lives and, showing great forbearence (so we're told), they stick it out until the right guy comes along and rescues

Comments

[ginzai]

No, no. Thank makes much the sense, honest. Basically, you're the Buffy girl type, or the Belle girl type, not Sleeping Beauty. Maybe a bit of Xena? I'm not certain, having so rarely watched that last... Still, more with the ass kicking than the standing about waiting for someone else to do that for you. I think that's to be applauded; it's certainly liked as a trait in today's culture. Everyone's favorites seem to go out and do things for themselves, not waiting passively for it to solve itself.

[karma_aster]

Well, maybe not Xena. I think I'm more of a Gabrielle type, really. Still, point well-taken and Belle? Whoo-hoo!

[ginzai]

Very Belle esque. And what are the personality differences between Gabrielle and Xena? Xena's more abrasive, I suppose, but that's the only one that I know of. My knowledge of them comes from roughly five minutes of show watching in five shows over five years..

[karma_aster]

Belle-esque? Really? Ooooo... (happydances!)

Gabrielle's the poet and dreamer of the duo and she's more into a pacifistic lifestyle. Basically, she believes in self-defense, but not that the solution to all problems is to pick up a sword and start slicing and dicing.

[negaduck9]

Oh, I know just what you mean. Have you read Grimm's fairy tales? Some of them are so mysogynistic they make me angry. In one, a husband tests his wife's fidelity by abusing her, separating from her on the grounds that she wasn't high-class enough for him, making her work as his servant, then setting up to marry another woman and making his wife help with the wedding. Before he marries her he reveals that, ha ha, it was just a test. She passed. Whoopee.

And then there's the one in which a daughter is forced to marry her father because he promised his wife that he'd only marry someone as beautiful as she was. Hey, he's a king, he can marry anyone he wants! Blech.

[karma_aster]

Yeah. I know about those Grimm boys and thier fabulous misogyny. Although, to be fair, it was the larger society's view of women that was being reflected. Which doesn't excuse it, but it does explain some of it.

And Donkeyskin? Yeah, I read the sanatized version of that story a long time ago. Imagine my shock at reading what really happened to the girl in the story, huh?

Well, duh X3

[bakeneko]

Not that patience isn't a virtue, just only to a point...and strength is equally one.

Glad you're finding your own way down :3
Trust me, you'll meet nicer people outside the tower.

Re: Well, duh X3

[karma_aster]

I'm reading this very, very good book right now called The Heroine's Journey that you'll have to remind me to lend to you. It goes into the Joseph Campbell idea of the archetype of the heroic quest and how that both does and doesn't apply to women and about what we give up when we chose to fit ourselves solely into a male model of success. It's really some good stuff.

[alryssa]

Isis was also the only deity to learn Ra's secret name, thereby making her insanely powerful. :D

She rocks.

[karma_aster]

Oh, no dissing on Isis. If you want one of the most romantic and heartbreaking stories ever, Isis and Osiris are it. She rocks muchly.