heroines and alternatives

[marycatelli]

Pondering this aftersartorias 's post on Fighting Princesses.  Because one comment was about the dichotomy between the action heroine and the damsel in distress.

Actually it can be fun playing with strong women who are not by any stretch of the imagination action heroines.  Like the story I wrote in which a heroine saves the day by sewing something.  Which someone in my on-line writers' group disliked on feminist grounds.

But pondering further I remembered more adventures.  Like "Free Passage."  In which there are warrior women -- Amazons -- and then there's the Princess Chloe, and her reaction to battle is to find something to hide behind while the men protect her. 

She's the heroine.  And furthermore, if she hadn't dived for cover, she wouldn't have been able to save the day.

And then there was "Lifestone".  I don't remember if I consciously thought as I was writing "Let's make a canonical Damsel In Distress and a strong woman" -- and if so, for how much of the composition -- but that's certainly what the effect is.  (At least, since MZB bought this one, and "Free Passage" for Sword and Sorceress, at least someone else thought they were strong women.  0:)

Lots of room for fun between the alternatives.

Comments

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

I dislike "damsels in distress" but I also hate the Mary Sue characters who can solve everything. I'm addressing this in my own work (which is in the early stages of 'in progress') by having the warrior woman save the ranger in battle, and then need his help on the trek through the forest afterwards. Being the bes sword-swinger in the world won't keep you from starving if you can't hunt and cook, and hypothermia can be a huge issue unless you're traveling in high summer with no rain.

Also, I'd like to grumph at the people who dislike the heroine saving the day by sewing something. Well-designed, well-made gear is often the telling difference between a good warrior and a bad one, and sometimes something as simple as a puoch with a quick-release opening can save someone's life when you're grabbing for a healing potion. (I LARP, by the way, and make all my own costuming and leather gear. Boy, does that give me an edge!)

skill sets!

[marycatelli]

Yes, a very useful thing if you want to make everyone useful. As long as the readers don't think you set everything up to make them all useful.

On the other hand, I have seen people object to fight scenes where the woman has no fighting skills, logically would not have had fighting skills, and therefore does the only thing she can -- keep the villain from taking her hostage. (Maybe she pops off a distraction that is otherwise ineffectual -- but it really does distract -- but don't except her to get any points for doing something she could plausibly do.)