Thoughts on The Heroine's Journey
Victoria Lynn Schmidtt first published her version of the Heroine’s Journey surprisingly recently in 2001. I have a lot of issues with Schmidtt’s template, but one of my biggest is simply how boring it is. The heroine only experiences internal change, and there’s no opportunity for her to go on an exciting, world-saving adventure. If I had read books as a kid that followed the Heroine’s Journey, I probably would have abandoned them halfway through due to a lack of excitement, action, and interest. The Hero’s Journey has potential for high-stakes adventures, such as Luke traveling through the stars in A New Hope, Frodo saving all of Middle-earth in The Lord of The Rings, or Harry Potter saving the world by defeating Voldemort. All of these masculine heros stories’ follow the Hero’s Journey template, and their adventures are some of my favorite books/movies, but I don’t understand why a new and less interesting template needed to be created specifically for heroines, which brings me to my second point.
My second issue with Schmidtt’s template is why it even exists. It seems like it should be fairly easy to rewrite a gender-neutral version of the Hero’s Journey that could apply to any hero/heroine, and would open the door for more inclusion in books/movies. Just by existing, this template is putting heroines in a lesser place than their male counterparts, and suggesting that a female protagonist could never handle the steps of the Hero’s Journey, focusing instead on only internal conflict. Finally, when I began to analyze Schmidtt’s template in more detail, I found a number of problematic steps within the cycle as well. The specific steps in the template aren’t all inherently bad, and I wouldn’t have an issue with them if an author independently chose to write a book that followed this template. However, the idea that this template should be at the core of every novel with a female protagonist is concerning.
The first steps of the Heroine’s Journey are relatively unproblematic, but in the critical moments of the Heroine’s Journey, when the heroine is facing her greatest challenge, instead of having a moment of Apotheosis (like in Campbell’s template for the Hero’s Journey), the heroine instead gets a step called ‘Support.’ In this step, the heroine allows someone or something to help her and overcome her challenge. This step in particular seems incredibly sexist to me, because it suggests that the heroine is incapable of fending for herself, and must rely on someone else. When compared to the Apotheosis step in the Hero’s Journey, this step becomes even more problematic to me, since the male version of these templates have the protagonist becoming divine, while in the Heroine’s Journey, the protagonist can’t even solve her own problems.
Finally, in the last step of the Heroine’s Journey (the Return to the Perfect World) the heroine is described as having a spiritual/internal reward for her efforts on her journey. Again, there’s nothing inherently wrong with a protagonist having a spiritual/internal reward unless it is assumed that female protagonists must always have these internal rewards, while male protagonists finish their journeys with much more fulfilling rewards. Additionally, the final detail of this step is “she has new coping strategies.” This note also feels weird to me, and seems to suggest that the heroine didn’t have any real influence on the world around her, she can just deal with conflict better. A perfect world to me seems like it should be more idealistic than simply learning new coping strategies to deal with an unchanged world. Overall, after reflecting on the steps of the Heroine’s journey, I don’t think the template is necessary, and that a revised, gender-neutral version of the Hero’s Journey would be more beneficial for understanding literary narratives.
Hi Miriam! I love your sentence about the lack of opportunity in Schmidt's version. It hints at the sexist ways of not allowing women to go on the same crazy adventures that men do in the hero's journey. I totally agree with you on making a revised gender neutral template. I mean, cmon! It's 2022!
ReplyDeleteYou make some very good points about the heroine's journey in contrast to the hero's journey. I like how you pointed out that you would have been bored as a kid reading a book following the heroine's journey in contrast to the hero's journey -- that definitely makes the distinction between hero and heroine's journey feel more sexist. I also really liked the line you had at the end of your second paragraph ("while in the Heroine’s Journey, the protagonist can’t even solve her own problems"). Honestly, I also think the distinction between the two journeys is needlessly gendered. The hero's journey and the heroine's journey, to me, seem to be separated not by gender, but by societal expectations placed on each gender. Perhaps a better distinction to make would not be between male and female protagonists but protagonists who search for things outside of themselves VS inside? (Along that line, I wonder how well Siddhartha's narrative fits with the heroine's journey...)
ReplyDeleteI think you made some good points about how the two journeys differ. And I totally agree with most of your points. I myself wrote about this useless gender boundary between the two. The templates aren't meant to be followed to a tee just a commonality, but also the paths that a male and female go through are most likely very different which is where I would find it hard to make a gender neutral monomyth. I think there are movies where they do intersect heavily like in Brave lets say. But I think editing the original monomyth is a better path to take when it comes to gender neutrality.
ReplyDeleteYou make some really good points! I agree with your part about not wanting to read something that follows this template as a child. I definitely wouldn't have liked to read it either. Honestly, the whole separate Heroine's Journey idea seems very sexist, and a revised gender-neutral Hero's Journey would make things so much easier.
ReplyDeleteSomething that might make the Heroine's Journey a bit better is that I think Schmidtt's version was written as something she observed in books at the time. I don't think hers is meant to be a guideline for books with a female protagonist, thankfully.
I think the that you make some really good points about criticisms of Schmidt's Heroine's journey. I think the one which I find most intriguing is how the heroine's journey's Support compares to Campbell's hero's journey. I think the main issue is that while heroes become like gods, heroines are left with just being supported by their friends.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. The Heroine's Journey is so boring — she only experiences internal change, instead of doing something like saving the world. And, your point about the "support" stage is excellent; why is she unable to pull herself out of her predicament instead of waiting for someone to do it for her? It really reinforces the "damsel in distress" trope and shows that this definition of a heroine can't save herself.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with this post, you made a lot of excellent points. I loathe the idea of a heroine's journey and you perfectly explained why. I loved the example you used about how if you read books following this template as a kid you probably wouldn't have finished them- it's true.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I absolutely agree. I didn't catch the difference in the Apotheosis/Support step, so I'm glad you pointed it out. Maybe a revised, gender-neutral hero's journey could be made and this template could then be revised into a gender-neutral template for more (boring) emotionally/internally driven stories.
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