The Women's Myth

I'm going to try my best to keep this post as little guerrilla feminist as possible. I promise!

Luke's discussion in school today brought forth a topic that I myself have pondered for years. He talked about the hero's myth, specifically the male myth. I wonder, why are almost all adventure based myths centered around males? Bulcsu in Kontroll, Luke Skywalker in Starwars, Alexandre Beck in Tell No One, Odysseus in the Odyssey, these are all male heroes. Even in Cloud Atlas, only two females were featured, and in their stories they had roles where they were largely assisted by men. That's not saying all hero myths are male, it's just that most of them are.

Now, why would I bother talking about something so obvious? Our society is patriarchal  there is always a tendency to prefer men in these kinds of things.

When I watched Cloud Atlas, I noticed something strange. My favorite plot line was the one in Neo Seoul. To sum it up quickly, the futuristic Korean society has created a set of drone-like clones who's only purpose is to serve food to customers at a New Seoul restaurant. These women are not allowed to be shown anything of the outside world, and they can be killed upon command if they disobey their masters. One of these clones, Somni-451, accidentally leaves her sleeping box, which puts her in grave danger. A man by the name of Hae-Joo Chang comes and rescues her. They fall in love, but it is brief, and she also leads a revolution for a while.

I feel like in all story-based art, we have a tendency to sympathize with the character that relates the most to us, and to put ourselves in their spot, as if we were the character. While watching this part of the movie, I found that I was not putting myself into the shoes of Hae-Joo Chang, the savior. I felt as if I was Somni-451, being rescued from a terrible life in order to lead a revolution.

It makes sense. We always relate more to people who are similar to us, and often, people of our gender seem pretty similar to us.

This brings me to my main point. If all action films are patriarchal, what can girls relate to? When you watch an adventure movie, you're supposed to relate to the hero, regardless of gender. To a certain extent I do. But when I see the male hero's point of view on women, I see women as beautiful, precious objects that are admired for their charm and beauty. Thus, I deduce that a woman is a beautiful, precious object that's admired for its charm and beauty. Thus, I believe that I should be a beautiful, precious object that's admired for its charm and beauty, and that will bring me happiness in life.

All women's myths teach girls that exact moral. Sleeping Beauty waited for her prince to wake her up. So did Snow White. Cinderella was saved by her prince taking enough interest to search for her with his only relic, her shoe. Jasmine road on some carpets with Aladdin and that's all she had to do.

When watching Cloud Atlas, I thought not about all the revolutionary things Somni-451 was doing, but how awesome it would be to have a man just come and rescue me. I mean wouldn't that be great?

But there's one major flaw with the Female myth.

IT SUCKS

Sure, it's nice to ponder being rescued for mundanity, but in real life that doesn't give you much excitement. How much of Snow White's life did you hear about before she fell unconscious? Do you really want to hear Penelope talk about the agonizing 20 years she spent waiting for Odysseus? Which story is more interesting to read, "The Girl Who Fell in Love" or "The Girl Who's Waiting Really Patiently"? Actually, let me revise that. Would you rather hear about "The Girl Who Fell in Love" or "The Girl Who Went on a Quest and Fell in Love Along the Way"?

It's more interesting to be involved in the adventure. Does adventure need to be a male-centric thing?

If girls can only see an active life from the male point of view, they how are they supposed to apply the morals to their own lives without seeming like a man? People say a girl can do anything a man can do, but when girls do things like carrying heavy objects, working ambitiously to get ahead in a job, or proposing marriage, people thing it's weird. They don't believe it wrong, they just view it as unusual.

My question is simple. Is the Female Myth a dimwitted version of the general adventure myth?

Perhaps the Man's Myth actually the Human's Myth, something that is meant to be applicable to all people regardless of gender.

If that's the case then we should have more girls starring in mythic stories. We need better role models.