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.