WARNING! This post is politically incorrect and may be offensive to some audience members.
Reader discretion is advised.
The damsel in distress; oh what a symbol of misogyny and oppression. This ancient trope of a male hero saving a woman from imminent harm is arguably the most bemoaned in our culture today. I’m sure you have all heard the frequent criticism of Disney animated films featuring princesses, “Why do they all need a man to save them?” Mainstream media clamors for female characters who can save themselves, are independent of men, or better yet, save a man in distress! Although, it is a bit strange that you never hear people say how demeaning it is to men that the male lead must save a woman in order to have value. Hmm...
Is the modern day scorn for the damsel in distress well deserved? To a degree. Like any story element, the damsel in distress plot-line can be written poorly.
As many point out, the Damsel in Distress trope can sometimes paint the woman in distress as being one-dimensional. Some fear that this trope sends the message that, “women are inherently weak and their only strength is their beauty.” If a particular story creates a damsel that is weak, pretty…and that’s it, then I would agree that this is a valid point.
Making the damsel in distress weak and one-dimensional is bad not so much because it’s insulting to women (even physically weak women still have worth), but it is bad in that it is just poor story writing. No one is one-dimensional. No person is simply just weak and that’s all there is to them. People are complex, so to write a one-dimensional damsel, a one-dimensional character, is not realistic, and harms a story.
When one makes the damsel one-dimensional, the Damsel in Distress plot then becomes a mere cop-out. Instead of doing the work to create conflict and tension, the writer simply makes the Hero’s love interest fall into enemy hands and boom! Instant conflict and tension! But the story will ultimately fall flat, and seem unbelievable.
That said, I don’t think the Damsel in Distress plotline is inherently evil. What is more, despite the criticism, the reality remains that we love the Damsel in Distress plot!
"The reality remains that we love the Damsel in Distress plot!"
For both men and women, boys and girls alike, this trope is loved, and has been for thousands of years. If people didn’t like it, then we wouldn’t have it everywhere in our stories. We wouldn’t have books, movies, and even video games that are saturated with men saving women from peril. It is cliche because it works.
But why? Why is the Damsel in Distress so popular?
Where we get the name for this device gives us some clues. As Wikipedia states,
“The word ‘damsel’ derives from the French demoiselle, meaning "young lady", and the term ‘damsel in distress’ in turn is a translation of the French demoiselle en détresse. It is an archaic term not used in modern English except for effect or in expressions such as this, which can be traced back to the knight-errant of Medieval songs and tales, who regarded protection of women as an essential part of their chivalric code which includes a notion of honour and nobility.”
The example of a man risking everything, enduring pain and suffering which would be unbearable to most others, all for the sake of the woman he loves, is a romantic notion which ties into the Chivalric culture of honor and nobility. This ideal esteems love, sacrifice, and the value of women, not the weakness of women as modern critics suggest.
However, this plotline extends back further than the term we have today. We have plenty of examples from ancient Greek mythology, such as the princess Andromeda and her hero Perseus.
Why men love it:
Men love the damsel in distress plot because men want to be the savior of the women they love. More than being seen as attractive, men want to be seen as being capable. When he saves a woman, it is the ultimate proof that he has fulfilled his function as a man.
"More than being seen as attractive, men want to be seen as being capable."
Beyond this, men also want their sacrifice to be reciprocated by the love and admiration of the woman he risked everything for. From a very young age, boys often picture themselves doing something valiant to attract the respect and esteem of a girl. We see this often played out in films and books. The hero “gets the girl” at the end as a reward for his sacrifice.
Men were created to be protectors, and the Damsel in Distress plot allows us to see this reality played out in a dramatic and usually idealistic sense.
Why women love it:
Much to the chagrin of Feminists, many women love the Damsel in Distress plot-line too. Don’t we all know of the common dream young girls share to be rescued by a knight in shining armor? Women want to be the sole subject of one man’s undying devotion. Women want a man who will risk everything for them, and endure pain and loss for them. The Damsel in Distress plot magnifies this innate desire.
“No, that’s not true!” some might proclaim. “Women don’t want to be saved by men! They want to be seen by men as being fully capable of saving themselves and being able to do everything on their own!”
Certainly being seen as capable is desirable, but not at the expense of being worth the loss of all else in the eyes of a man. Why do we not have a lot of stories showing the reversal of the Damsel in Distress? Why do we not have “men in distress” plot-lines? Sure, some feminists have tried to push such story-lines, but they have not experienced much success. Why? Because no one wants these kinds of stories.
Women love story-lines where the woman is rendered helpless in the face of immediate danger, and has no hope except for one man, who has to risk giving up everything for her sake. Why? It’s not the woman’s function to protect the man, that’s the man’s job. A woman wants a man who will protect her and put everything on the line for her.
So all female characters have to be wimpy and incapable of protecting themselves?
Not at all. If your goal is to write the ideal female character, she should be strong. Proverbs 31 is painting just such an ideal picture, and an ideal woman is one who, "girds herself with strength, and makes her arms strong," (Proverbs 31:17). Having the damsel rescued from danger doesn't mean she can't do anything to protect herself from any threat, but seeing what the man does for her demonstrates that he is the kind of man she needs.
This is very politically incorrect, but we are writers after all, and more than that, we are Christian writers! It is our job to portray reality, and shine light on the truth. Political correctness is often little more than a make-believe world that the culture insists we accept as reality. We have to be the ones to point out, “Hey! The Emperor has no clothes on!”
"Political correctness is often little more than a make-believe world that the culture insists we accept as reality."
Okay, but why do these two innate desires exist in men and women? Aren’t they bad? Are men really glory-seeking psychos who merely want the admiration of women to stoke their own sense of masculinity? Are women really just selfish sociopaths who think men should have to give up everything just for them?
I don’t think so. I think these innate desires and functions exist in men and women because that is the way God created us. Going back to the garden of Eden, we see that Adam was responsible for Eve and her protection, whereas Eve was created to be Adam’s helper. These unavoidable desires remind us that we were created differently, for different functions. Certainly, these desires can be misdirected, just as all good things can be misused.
Does this mean a woman can never save a man?
Of course not. There are many ways in which women save men that are part of their function. This could be saving a man from false belief, or doubt, fear, or other spiritual or emotional prisons.
This could even include saving a man from a physical prison as well, provided she is still sticking to her feminine role. (Unless, of course, you are depicting a negative example of women with a particular character.) One could say Eve saved Adam when God created her, as she liberated Adam from a "not good" state-of-being into a good state.
"One could say Eve saved Adam when God created her..."
However, having the female protagonist don a suit of armor, storm the castle, slay the dragon, and be the leader and protector of the man she loves, feels more like a Feminist sermon than a believable story.
In case you didn’t already know, (I hate to be the one to break this to you) men are generally physically stronger than women. Shocking, I know. I'm glad we have science to tell us these things or else we might never have known.
I’ve read quite a few stories by young authors where their female lead, many times a princess, manages to defeat much larger and more experienced soldiers in a sword fight. Very rarely does it strike me as being believable.
Many today bristle when you claim men, on average, are stronger than women. If you have a problem with this reality, take it up with biology. Of course, many then make the jump and say you are claiming men are superior to women if you point out that women are the weaker gender (1 Peter 3:7). Such a jump is little more than a desperate strike at a straw-man. We have no problem saying women are generally better at detecting colors than men, or that women tend to live longer than men. These realities don’t make women superior to men any more than greater strength makes men more valuable than women in the sight of God.
Of course, if you have a Darwinian worldview, I do understand how saying men are physically stronger would devalue women, as being bigger and stronger equates to more value in an Evolutionary sense. But then, that is the Darwinian who is claiming men are superior to women.
From God's point of view, physical strength has no significance whatsoever in calculating our worth as people. But even if it did, then I would probably say it is actually those who are weaker whom God gives more value to, as the scripture is full of examples of God glorifying the weak, and laying low the mighty.
Life is one big Damsel in Distress plot:
Ultimately, this ancient plot-line is revealing the fundamental nature of men and women, which ultimately reflects the fundamental nature of how Christ relates to the church. When you think about it, our world is really just one giant Damsel in Distress plot.
Christ is the knight in shining armor, and we—the church—are the damsel. We weren’t always in distress. We were at one time perfect, but then we spurned our knight, and this led to our kidnapping by Satan. Our rebellion and treason allowed Satan to take over our entire world. We were trapped, completely unable to free ourselves, though many have tried. Or, laughably, we think that we, the damsel, need to save Christ. We think that we are somehow doing God a favor by our "worship" or "ministry". Even worse, we have also turned and embraced our captor! We are in so much peril, “distress,” we often don’t even know we’re in danger!
"Christ is the knight in shining armor, and we—the church—are the damsel."
So in the story of life, our perfect Hero has just been spurned by the woman He loves, and then, she goes and gets herself kidnapped. Upon reaching the villain's lair, she subsequently begins worshiping her tormentor. Wow, just wow.
Can you imagine if this was a movie or a novel? We’d all be saying, “Leave her to her fate! He doesn’t deserve her!” But what does our Hero do? Does He abandon His damsel? His damsel which isn’t even pretty anymore, but an ugly traitorous friend of His Enemy?
No He doesn’t. He charges right up to the gates of the Enemy, and endures trial after trial. He beats back the captor of His bride-to-be, and arrives outside her prison cell. What does she do? Does she ask His forgiveness and leave with Him? Does she redeem herself? Not quite.
Instead, she brandishes a dagger which she had been hiding in the cell, and she plunges it into his heart. It was all a trap, yet our Hero was not surprised. He saw it coming, and He endured the pain so that she may one day be free. He died, but in the process conquered death itself, so that His bride might be free.
Does this story demean the damsel? Far from it. At every turn, the damsel did something to deserve condemnation, but the Hero continued to show her love, and to give her value with His actions. We see that our perfect Hero was willing to die for her, give up everything for her. This story tells us that the damsel has worth because the Hero’s sacrifice gave her that worth. We have worth only because Jesus gave it to us with His life, death, and resurrection. Likewise, a man in pursuit of his trapped damsel will give her worth in the eyes of readers merely because he believes she has worth, and demonstrates her value through his selfless actions.
The innate desires men have to protect and be admired by a woman, and of women to be cherished by a man, all point back to how Christ relates to us, the Church.
This is why it’s so bewildering when people belittle the “overuse” of the damsel in distress plotline. It doesn’t compute when people say we need to “elevate women”. Elevate them to what? Being worthy of someone’s willingness to give up everything isn’t enough? You can’t elevate women any higher with the damsel in distress plot-line. You can’t display a man’s valor better than showing his willingness to give up everything he has for a woman to whom he pledged his love.
"You can’t elevate women any higher with the damsel in distress plot-line."
Of course, the analogy of the Damsel in Distress plot-line and the relationship between Christ and the church breaks down at a point. Men are imperfect, unlike Christ. All humans need God in order to have value and worth, and women do not need men, or the pursuit by a man, to have worth and value. Likewise, a man does not need to save a woman from mortal danger to be fulfilled as a man. Our value can only come from God, and God certainly is greater than us, whereas men are not greater than women.
That said, a man risking everything, enduring horrible pain, all for the sake of a woman just because she is a women and he loves her, doesn’t hurt. It helps paint a picture of the spiritual reality that Christ is our savior and Bridegroom, and we are the trapped Bride in need of saving. In fact, this trope can help drive home the message that women are intrinsically worth saving, and the lives of women should universally take precedent over the lives of men (see Titanic). Why? Because that is how God created the genders to relate.
Today, however, the existence of differences between the genders is being challenged. Feminism has taken women off the short-lived pedestal they once occupied, and put them on the same level as men. Women are no longer seen by men as being worthy of respect and admiration merely for being female. Many men don’t so much like the idea that they should put the lives of women before their own. In stories, we have to make a woman put on armor and go into battle in order to have worth (or get a degree and a career in the real world), whereas before just being a woman, exercising her God-given feminine gifts, infused her with worth.
But isn’t it cliché?
Sure, the Damsel in Distress plot device is cliché, but so are villains, and mentors, and love side plots in general. All good stories follow the same basic structure. All great stories use the same ingredients; the authors just rearrange and mix them into an original pattern. However, if you want to shake things up a bit, there are ways.
The "cliche" Damsel in Distress plot is actually depicting an ideal. The hero is rewarded for his sacrifice. He "get's the girl." Personally, I would like to see more stories where this ideal doesn't manifest. Life doesn't always match up with this perfect fantasy.
In real life, sometimes the sacrifice of men results in their death, such as aboard the Titanic. When it sunk, the call was for “women and children first,” while the men stayed behind. This doesn't make their sacrifice any less valuable. If anything, it makes their actions all the more noble.
Yet, if we turned this story into a stereotypical adventure novel, it’s likely the male lead would miraculously survive and eventually be reunited with the woman he loves. We don't like seeing the character's loss result in no reward for himself. It's not ideal he had to die, and having your male protagonist die for his woman could potentially frustrate your readers as well.
Another twist on the Damsel in Distress plot-line, perhaps even more frustrating to the reader, is when the hero doesn’t “get the girl” despite his efforts. He survives his ordeal, rescues the girl, but she does not reciprocate the feelings he has for her. This is a rare outcome in stories, though I did witness this fantastic twist on the Damsel in Distress trope in a Korean drama. The male ally continually saves the clever and capable female protagonist from physical harm, even up to the point when it becomes clear she loves another man.
"Giving without expecting anything in return, that is true love, not the mushy and self-interested romance that fills many YA fiction stories."
These spin-offs on the old trope have the potential to be very powerful, but also run the risk of upsetting your reader, and you don't want them to finish your novel feeling upset! You want to leave your reader feeling satisfied, and if you can't satisfy the reader's sense of justice by uniting your protagonist with the women he endured an entire novel of pain for, then you will probably need to use some creativity to find another way to satisfy your readers.
Another simple way to spice up this trope? Make the damsel seemingly undesirable, like in the example above of Christ and the church. Make the damsel hurt the hero over and over. Make her oppose him, and yet he refuses to abandon her. Giving without expecting anything in return, that is true love, not the mushy and self-interested romance that fills many YA fiction stories.
Of course, the Damsel in Distress device is not for every story, and many young writers might be better off not including a “love” side plot at all in their stories. However, the Damsel in Distress plot, or some version of it, is not a bad idea if you are going to give your main character a love interest. If your main character is female, this doesn’t necessarily mean she can’t rescue the male lead. That said, how she saves him should correlate with the innate and different functions men and women each have (i.e. Eve’s arrival to help Adam and save him from his loneliness).
At any rate, the Damsel in Distress trope doesn’t have to be the women-belittling plot device mainstream media claims it to be. It can actually be a great way to show the intrinsic worth of women, mirror the love Christ has for the Church, and also add some great conflict and tension to your story, which never hurts.
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Wow, it was so awesome to read an article on this topic written by a man! You have great insight to both genders. I also admire your courage in posting something so “politically incorrect” but that you have a firm belief in.
I, for one, have always enjoyed reading/daydreaming over romance/damsel-in-distress books where the man is the hero who rescues the woman (with an interesting and unique plot, of course), and look forward to someday fulfilling my role as the smaller, cherished one, as I feel that this my calling as a woman. I wouldn’t have it any other way if I could. *ducks to avoid flying objects* 🙂
Out of sheer curiosity, have you ever written a story from the perspective of a woman? I remember reading it in the Writing Themes post and wondered.
Blessings!
~Abby
Thank you so much for positive comment! Nice job avoiding those flying objects too. Haha!
I have written a couple stories which had female point-of-view characters, yes. I find it much more challenging though, so most of my POV characters have been male. If you have any insights to share on the topic, you are more than welcome to submit an article for publication consideration. 🙂
God bless!
Reagan
I agree with you completely, Abby! I also hope someday to be the cherished maiden fair a man wants to protect and defend. I agree that it would fulfill my calling as a woman and would fulfill my man’s masculine calling. I also enjoy reading stories of fair maidens in distress being rescued by brave heroes who know their duty as a man is to protect and defend women and keep us safe. I have daydreamed about this scenario many times and imagined myself as the silent movie heroine tied to the railroad tracks watching the brave, gallant cowboy who rode to my rescue fight the dastardly villain to save me. Sigh! I’ve always wanted to sigh “My hero” as I flutter my eyelashes while looking adoringly at my man.
You guys hit the nail on the head so many times! It was quite refreshing! One thing that I would point out is that this would have been easier to chew on if it had been broken it up into several posts. for a blog, it was a bit of a hefty read.
Glad you liked it!
This was quite a heavy post. I wanted to make sure we covered all our bases and met all the possible objections, rather then leaving people hanging and just saying, “wait until we post the next part.” But you do make a good point. We’ll have to consider chopping up long posts like these in the future.
Thanks for the comment!
Reagan
What a thoughtful and well-presented article, Reagan! It was a particularly good point that the whole “survival of the fittest” perspective would indeed make it seem “belittling” to women to have them portrayed as anything less than mighty fierce warriors. I also found your point about the hero’s pursuit of the woman giving her worth incredibly true, and it was something I hadn’t previously considered.
Thank you for taking the time to write out a thorough address of this topic! I actually got an idea for an article that relates to this topic and would expand on it: Ways a female character can be truly strong, other than the typical “warrior” ideal. Mainly, I was reading another post on the topic of writing “strong” female characters and realized I consider a woman strong if she is strong in character traits. I was planning to go ahead and write it and submit it, but I thought I’d check first to see if anyone else had written/was planning to write something similar.
Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
We actually are planning on posting an article next week addressing “strong” female characters, and what “strength” really is; however, that doesn’t mean you should not submit! We may want to publish both. 🙂
Thanks for the comment, Amanda!
Reagan
Can’t say that I agree with your conclusion, but I like your logic, and your analogy to Christianity.
As a for-instance, say the woman is gifted with some extraordinary brand of magic? Or perhaps she’s a metahuman with superstrength. Obviously these aren’t realistic possibilities, but then there’s the little girl in my brother’s ju-jitsu class who could probably thrash him.
Certainly, there are exceptions. However, as Christians, we always want to make sure we are revealing the truth, as all truth points back to God. Included in that truth, is how and why God created men and women. That doesn’t mean we can’t give characters superpowers, as God also gifted us with creativity and imagination. But underlying our fantastic and made-up worlds, we are really telling a story about our own world.
Out of all of KP’s articles, this has to be my favorite yet. I love the logic and the way it was laid out and backed up. And I love how you weren’t afraid to be ‘politically incorrect’ to write it. Good job!
HC
Thanks! Glad you liked it!
– Reagan
All this about “unreciprocated love” and “sacrifice” makes me think of “A Tale of Two Cities” and want to cry. Great article! I desire to write about heroines who can be cool, without sacrificing being feminine. I dislike stories that make out the guy to be all weak, and the girl to be the strong, tough one. A girl who has to dig deep to find her withered tender, emotional, sensitive side, is callous to me. (Although it probably has its place)
I too like the damsel in distress trope:) I was once asked, by an author I have great respect for, (I love his books!) what I thought of a novel he wrote. At first I was like, “Wow, he wants my opinion!” Then I was like, “Oh, man…” because the book he asked my opinion about was my least favorite! All of his books up until that one had been about heroes. Sure there were occasionally strong heroines fighting alongside them, (by strong meaning they weren’t helpless, but could fend for themselves if necessary) but the guys were THE heroes, and they protected the heroines. Then he found out that girls read and enjoyed his books too, so he wrote one (just for us) with a girl as THE heroine. She had a role of leadership thrust upon her in the story, where she had to take the lead, and play the hero, and, even though she wasn’t too extreme or anything, I just didn’t enjoy the book as much as the others. I kept wishing that a guy would enter into the story to take over, and give her a break. She was struggling to fill the role that she didn’t really seem designed for, which made for an interesting plot, but…it felt a bit forced, and outside the author’s comfort zone.
To be honest, I think all of the books I like best have a guy as the main character. I have to think a moment to come up with one I liked that had a girl as the main character. That doesn’t mean the guy was my favorite character, I just enjoy that approach to a story more often than not. I suppose that has a lot to do with the fact that I am a girl, and since I know how girls think and react, it is far more interesting to me to read about a guy. (I wonder if that has anything to do with reason why I am struggling to write a girl for the main character in one of my novels? Hmm…)
Cool and feminine sounds good to me! The two are definitely not mutually exclusive.
That is a really interesting story. The culture is telling us we need to writer stories with strong, independent, aggressive female characters in order to appeal to girls and women, but it sounds like that is not the case for you. That is very interesting to hear.
You, a girl, find it hard to write a girl as the protagonist? What exactly do you struggle with?
– Reagan
Getting bored, I guess. I invented both a girl protagonist, and a guy secondary character for this story. The problem is, I enjoy writing about the guy more, especially because we have related experiences, whereas the girl comes from a completely different background. I think part of the issue is that I’m telling it in first person. Perhaps I should write it a different way, so that I get more of the other character’s point of view? It might assist me in developing her better.
I’m just thinking, it’s rather interesting that there aren’t that many damsels in distress in the Bible itself, when you look at individual characters. Chivalry is a newer invention, and you give Greek stories as examples of older ones. It doesn’t mean it’s not an old beloved story, but… it seems to me the Bible does work excellently in giving you examples of strong female characters, by simply giving you stories of female characters and the things they did. Take Ruth: that is, sort of, the story of a woman saved by a man, except that it’s the story of how a woman made a man save her…
Basically, the Damsel in Distress story is the story of a male protagonist. I think one part of the feminist argument against it is that there are way too few stories in the mainstream told from a female point of view. And as a Christian, I personally have no problem with that particular argument.
P.S. You do make some very good points, especially the one about bad writing in general, and the one about Darwinism and the disingenuity of attacking only one side of the trope.
But I was struck by your overlooking a very biblical side of the argument… Maybe it’s easier for me to see, being a woman. I also think that by reducing the opposition to “political correctness”, you’re missing the mark rather broadly, and in the process missing the abovementioned opportunity to look at the issue yet more from a biblical standpoint…
In yet other words, I think you’re sort of attacking a strawman here, not being acquainted with the full extent of the opposition. You’re defending the trope, obviously; maybe that’s not quite right either. It’s not necessarily a bad trope if it’s not written badly, but then most of the attack on it these days actually isn’t, deep down, concerned with that (aside from the Darwinism question, which I think is where you’re right on the mark): it’s concerned with the fact that so many female characters in popular culture are reduced to it. The obvious first reaction to that is to invert it, yes, but many feminist readers and writers these days are actually simply calling for more female characters of more personality types. And as I said above, having grown up with various biblical women as my examples of female characters, I see no problem with that in itself.
As a fictional example of what I mean: In the Chronicles of Narnia, in The Horse and His Boy, you get a male protagonist, Shasta, and the main female character, Aravis. Most of the book is told from Shasta’s point of view, and there is a point in the book where he gets to rush into a dangerous situation to save Aravis. But Aravis isn’t by any means the despised damsel in distress, because throughout the book, you also get passages and stretches of plot written from her point of view, and in the overall plot, she has just as much agency as Shasta.
So you get a male character performing his male role, but it all comes across in a nice, balanced way, without inviting disparaging comments about damsels in distress.
As to writing female characters, similar questions popped up on a forum I’m member of, and the overwhelming advice from female members is to simply write humans. 😉
I thought I did give a Biblical example of a damsel in distress: we the church. Christ is the hero saving us from our distress, but that doesn’t denigrate us–it gives us more worth. Additionally, going all the way back to the Garden of Eden, Adam was tasked with the responsibility of protecting Eve. It is Biblical that men were created to be protectors, and that women were created to be helpers.
I’m also not sure if it’s true there are too many stories that don’t have female main characters. “Hunger Games”, “Divergent”, “Matched”, “Legend”, “Partials”, are all exceptions to what you just said, to only name a few recent titles. I was not at all saying we should only write stories with male protagonists. I have written stories myself told from the point of view of women.
I also agree with you that this trope can be written poorly. At the very beginning, I point out how this trope can be misused. You say you think the real argument is that mainstream culture doesn’t like that so many female characters are “reduced” to it. I am making the argument that it does not “reduce” them at all. Written well, the trope can elevate them. But as I said in the beginning, making them one-dimensional and just weak and helpless doesn’t help either.
But I also disagree with you that this is the actual argument. From my experience, and what I have read, the mainstream culture has problem with the very idea of a man rescuing a woman, and that men and women were created differently. We live in an androgynous culture which wants to tell us men and women have virtually no differences, and that a little surgery (or changing your frame of mind) is all it takes to make a switch from one gender to the other.
We have plenty of female protagonists, with many different personality types, many times saving the weaker male lead in the story. Our culture isn’t lacking for these kinds of stories.
The example you have of the Chronicles of Narnia is exactly what I am talking about! 😀 I am not at all saying we shouldn’t write stories from the point of view of female characters. That would be ridiculous. So we agree.
Thanks for the comment!
Reagan
Reduce in poor writing, of course, and reduce in not giving them the voice e.g. Aravis gets. That was what I meant.
I think it’s actually rather significant that the examples you give are all recent, but let’s agree to disagree about that.
And I think you misunderstood what I meant by leaving out the biblical examples… What I meant was simply looking at women, meaning individual characters in the Bible that could be treated like characters in a story, and what roles they actually do play – and how those stories are told. What strikes me about that is that, even within the framework of gender differences, those are very different kinds of stories. But I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree about that as well. I was brought up seeing the work of God in those indinidual people’s histories; I guess you have some other approach to it.
Ah, okay. Sorry for misunderstanding.
I gave recent examples because I thought the context of our discussion was the present time. My post was discussing our current times, how recently the damsel in distress trope has come under attack, and partially for good reason–as I described in the opening.
I’m not certain we disagree on your last point. I actually will have a post coming out later this week talking about some of the women in the Bible. I certainly don’t think the damsel in distress is a role for all female characters to play, (which I say in the post) and we have examples of women in the Bible saving an entire people group–Israel. I also pointed out it is fine to have a female character be the hero and save others. But how that is done, should fit with how God created women–and there are some great examples of women doing this in the Bible, which I will highlight in a forthcoming post. 🙂
Thanks for the comment!
Reagan
Indeed. Deborah, for instance. She’s like the Biblical equivalent of Joan of Arc.
Only she didn’t get burned at the stake.
Thanks for the awesome post! I think y’all rounded all the bases with this one and killed the younger teenager in me, haha. Women’s worth and the “damsel in distress” plot line has been one of the toughest issues of my teenage years, both in stories and in my own life. When I was about 13 I kinda adopted the mentality that I could be completely independent (and by completely “independent,” I mean that I accepted no help and little kindness, especially from a man). That did not turn out too well, as could be imagined, and I hurt some people because of it.
It’s still a little bit of an issue in some stories I’m writing, especially one set in the Renaissance. At first the female protagonist was seemingly the hero, but really she wasn’t because she obviously had some deep psychological flaws. Now I’m trying to balance it out: while she originally sets out to help/save the male hero, he ends up saving her multiple times and definitely helps her with her weaknesses, such as her chronic fear of dying in battle. It’s so hard to know where the Christian boundaries of gender are, especially in a historical context, but this post helps greatly and does seem to give an accurate Biblical perspective. However, I did want to know what you meant when you said that a woman in a book can save a man provided that she stick to her role as a female. What do you mean by that?
Hi Brooke!
I completely understand where you’re coming from. The culture really pushes this “independent” message on us, guys and girls alike. But it’s not how we were created.
As for historical fiction stories, you can’t control everything. You are restricted a bit by the time period. I’m not a Renaissance expert, but from what I’ve read, I think women did have more freedoms during this time than in other generations. It sound like your female protagonist was a soldier maybe? Since she has a fear of dying in battle? I think you’re biggest obstacle here is the fact that women were not allowed to fight in that time period–as far as I know. She would probably have to hide her gender.
So something to keep in mind is that there is a difference between portraying reality, and advocating it. Death is a reality, and we can depict it in our stories, but we should be glorifying death in or stories. Does that make sense?
Concerning your question, what I meant was that we can not only depict but glorify a woman saving a man in a story, provided such a depiction coincides with the God-created roles for men and women. Eve was specifically created to save Adam from being alone for example. Proverbs 31 also tells us that, “A wife of noble character is her husband’s crown, but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones.” In other words, a noble wife is the glory of a man, but a disgraceful woman destroys a man. Women have a lot of influence on the lives of men, and they can either use that influence for good or bad. However, I don’t think we should glorify female characters who take the leadership role over a man, or is the protector of a man. If this is the reality of a particular story world, it can certainly be depicted, but we should show why it is less than ideal.
I hope this helps! Thanks for the comment!
Reagan
Wow. This was a incredibly insightful post. Things get so messy nowadays when it comes to gender differences, because people now feel like they can’t have an opinion without getting stomped on by feminists, anti-feminists, etc. The feminist movement nearly seems to want women to BE men, and that is frustrating! We should respect the differences of each gender and not try to get them to be more like each other.
Again, I’m so happy that this post exists. It was refreshing.
Hi. I’m a woman and I prefer damsel in distress trope than today “strong” female leads. In fact, I don’t relate well to current female character trend so I read older books. I’m really glad I found your post.
About Biblical damsel in distress, the female characters in Bible were rarely kidnapped IIRC. But there were cases. Sarah and Rebecca were “stolen” by the kings, though it was God Himself that saved them (partly because their husband’s virtue). The most likely damsel in distress trope was when Amalekites raided Ziklag and capture the women (and others). The men saved them. Looking your reference on God-church relation, I think Hosea’s wife can count, also Oholiba and Oholibama. (Sorry, I’m Indonesian and I read Indonesian Bible, it may have different name convention, I don’t check all of them in google).
Personally I prefer character like Ruth or Esther. They were not damsel in distress though. But I think it’s rather difficult to find those types in current trend. The sea is polluted by “strong” female characters, even some feminists dislike them.
I really think it would do good for you, and broadening, to read some Russian fairytales, some very ancient, specially The Feather of Finist the Falcon. There you’d see as even in an ancient, male-dominant society, a girl can save a “knight in distress”.
Wow, I agree with this so much. I couldn’t help laughing at the part about the damsel worshipping her capturer. It sounds so ridiculous when told that way! I think there should be a book like that, that would be awesome. I always love the damsel in distress stories, and you made a good point about Christ and the church being one, too!
I just discovered this blog and fully agree with it. As a young girl I did daydream about being a damsel in distress in the clutches of a dastardly villain, helpless and in peril, awaiting a brave, dashing man to come to my rescue and and risk his life to save me from dire peril. Sigh! And I still love this fantasy. I like to think men dream of rescuing helpless women, of being their lady’s brave, gallant hero. What woman doesn’t dream of being the fair maiden helplessly in peril, watching as a brave, chivalrous man fights the villain to save her from the railroad tracks to which she has been tied? Thank you so much for writing this!