Caitlyn King - The Lack of Femininity in the Hero's Journey

 Since the hero's journey is so old, there are certainly some more old-fashion tendencies within them concerning gender roles. There's an almost hazing aspect to the hero's journey with pain and suffering signifying a drastic change (usually for the better, which is an important distinction) within the characters. It's all about physical aspects, which tends to exclude women, who were contained to more domestic tasks, hands calloused not by weapons but from washing and cooking (which arguably is more important in terms of survival).

Actually, yeah , why is it that the hero's journey, something that signifies a sort of graduation from adolescence to adulthood (at least mentally), is only qualifying things in violence and not in compassion? What's the use of sidekicks if no one cares for them, what do you learn from it?

There's a sort of over-importance to violence, even in contemporary media, where trauma or violence is used to make a character "deep" and it sort of invalidates those who have none. You're no longer an interesting character (or hero in this case) if nothing bad happens, either to you or to someone else. Why are there no longer importance on peacekeepers, or negotiators. People who do not respond with violence, but rather extend communication.

When there are female heroes, they're usually put through the same process, and it can seem masculine as inevitably they are the ones who "shun" femininity. They are never the type of women to enjoy embroidery or dresses or makeup. If a woman is the main character, it's assumed that the media she's in is a romance--or maybe a horror, or a thriller, (the latter two with the caveat that she's the infamous Last Girl trope) or some combination of those. But she's never really happy without a romance. And she never really gets the closure male heroes get, at least in my opinion.

There's nothing wrong with romance, or the lack thereof, but there is a problem to be seen when only feminine heroines have it as their goal, and masculine heroines turn feminine after romance is achieved, solely due to having a love interest and nothing to do with their character. For example. in Hunger Games, fans were apprehensive when Katniss (a technically masculine hero, although it's arguable) became a mother in the epilogue, but throughout the series she's shown to love children, with the Capitol being the only reason cited as to why she never gave it further thought.

Pride also has a role in this. People thrive off of their pride, but men (especially back then when these tales originated) never saw feminine activities as a valid source of pride. Heracles took pride in his strength throughout Weight, but Atlas had the more feminine mentality with the pride of sacrifice keeping him under the world beyond time. Maybe it also has something with glory: writers hate a woman wanting glory. In media, women who want fame are the villains, because they crave to be known. Men can be known in media, and still be heroes. They'll receive character development, but inevitably, at the end, they are famous and wanting nothing.

I think I'm typing a whole lotta nothing but this is the type of topic I've thought about for a while. A bunch of thoughts, but not enough articulation to convey points in a way that's not just the jumble above this.