Female Protagonists on the Hero's Journey

I honestly haven't made an effort to see a Marvel movie since The Avengers. I've watched some of the others on Netflix, but for the most part I'm just done with superhero movies. But also, speaking of representation, if we want to see if females and minorities are properly represented, than maybe we should stop looking exclusively summer blockbuster action films. Also also, Elektra from 2005.

 

I've got a proposal I hope many of you will find interesting.

Since Marvel is clearly failing to show equal representation, I think Marvel should be banned.

 

Yeah, the Netflix 'verse has had some issues with representation, but the best of the Netflix 'verse has been a lot better than the best of most of the MCU (barring Black Panther):

• Jessica Jones season 1, while problematic on LGBT+ presentation and not the best on race, handled the feminist angle perfectly
• Luke Cage handled the racial angle very well and maintained a subtle feminist angle, no glaringly positive LGBT+ representation but no glaring problems like with the Hogarth triangle in JJ season 1
• The supporting POC protagonist in The Punisher was much better developed than any of the supporting POC protagonists in JJ season 1
• and I haven't finished Jessica Jones season 2 yet, but so far the feminist angle has stayed strong, and so far they seem to be handling the LGBT+ angle a lot better than they did in season 1

What exactly was the value added here?

 

Very funny.

No.

 

I don't know why people still shit on Elektra. I really, really liked that movie. I have a taste for old Kung Fu movies and anime, so some of the tropes probably clicked better with me than other people, but still, it wasn't bad. It was better than Daredevil, Catwoman, most of the Batman movies, the pre MCU Hulk movies, maybe even X-men 2, I'd still put it above Ironman 2 or 3.

 

Yeah, well, it's hard not to be better than Halle Berry's Catwoman. I'd like to compare it to The Room, but at least The Room is so bad it's entertaining. I thought Tim Burton's Catwoman was a way better character. It's a shame he didn't get to give her her own movie.

 

Seems like bull to me. At least for everyone you mentioned other than Punisher (and that's likely because Punisher is a fundamentally different sort of character from DC's trinity).

If you look at the enduring superheroes, you find something similar at the core of them: these are people who choose to use their abilities (whether those be superpowers or peak human skills) to help others, despite not being under any obligation to do so. That example can be a pretty powerful inspiration and motivator, even if the average person doesn't have those abilities and never faces the scale or type of challenges as the character in question.

Ask fans of these characters what the draw is, and you tend to get answers along that "inspirational/exemplar" line. And I've seen more than a few psychology articles that back this up as the reason for their popularity and resonance. Up against that, the "assert themselves in a dominance hierarchy in the same way" falls rather flat. It's likely true for some people, but I doubt it's a factor for most men, never mind the primary factor.

Honestly, the dominance hierarchy argument seems more applicable to morally gray characters in the anti-hero/anti-villain range (such as Punisher or Catwoman). Audiences may not agree with their actions, or their motivations for taking them, and so the skill/abilities themselves become a bigger draw.

 

Yeah, I'm not married to the idea I was expressing earlier. It's thin. Good post.

 

New Trope Talk on the uses and problems with the Hero's Journey:

 

Huh. It's disconcertingly easy to map my Highly Flavored Novel to almost every element that he describes.

With the "hero" as Female Co-Protagonist, not Male Co-Protagonist, though I may listen to it again with him in mind. It may well be easy to map it as a double-lobed journey where his world is her unfamiliar world and her world is his unfamiliar world--and then we hit the middle of the novel and they're both catapulted into a "place" that's an extension of both worlds, one that's unfamiliar to both of them.

Huh.

I'm kind of weirded out.

Edited to add: Yeah, I can map it to Male Protagonist, too, except "his" Stage 1 through Stage 4 happen before the novel opens, his "apotheosis" happens roughly in the middle of the novel, and depending on how you see his "boon", he may never get it.

One could argue that since the novel maps to her "journey" neatly, while his just intersects the novel, she's the primary of the two protagonists.

Weirded out.

 

That sounds awesome.

 

Yep, puffy-faced Russian woman.

OK, now I have to post the twelve-minute video. It has a much lower violence proportion and much higher personality proportion, though that definitely doesn't mean it's violence free. Helena? Never violence free.