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... s the other X-Men all the time, yet he manages to stay alive. He knows what he's doing. He's untouchable. That's the way heroes are, even the ancient ones. -Could Achilles or Odysseus possibly be a woman? No.
In fact, Achilles made a poor woman. When his mother, in an effort to keep him from war, put him in a dress and secreted him away, Odysseus still managed to ferret him out. Odysseus pretended to be peddling weapons, and Miss Achilles could not stay away from them. Achilles failed to catch on to and imitate feminine qualities-but good for him! You wanted a firebrand like Achilles to go to war, didn't you? Women in fiction tend to embody qualities that we see in a Woman.
They are sisters, mothers, girlfriends, wives, grandmothers, irritating secretaries. One popular heroine in Japan right now is Nausicaa, from the movie Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Nausicaa triumphs because of her sweet nature, which is so caring that her love transcends not only ethnic boundaries, but species boundaries. She just has this knack for making all of nature happy. Now, Nausicaa isn't a wimp, not by a longshot, but her strength lies in having a nurturing spirit and a capacity for suffering, rather than being an introspective Person who wants to do things herself (himself! ).
The girl characters that Holden Caulfield cares about are the same. They may not be heroines to us, but Holden thinks about them in such a way that they are idealizations inside his head. He thinks of his sister Phoebe as so nice and sweet, and his friend Jane as so vulnerable, and both of them as innocent. All these are qualities generally attributed to ideal female characters, the female heroes, and not male ones. Aerith and Tifa, characters from the video game Final Fantasy VII, and also Lina from Final Fantasy VIII, and even the militaristic Celes from Final Fantasy III are all disappointingly bouncy during some part of the games they appear in, and they seem to exist to be loved or unloved by the male heroes-Cloud, Squall, and Locke. These girls have strong followings of fans, though, just like the heroes do.
Why? Because they " re so adorable, because they suffer so much, because they " re valiantly brave and they have heartaches over boys. In The Three Musketeers, D'Artagnan and his three musketeer friends are trying to save the queen from a plot by the Cardinal to destroy her. The two wily and worthy opponents are Cardinal Richelieu and Clarice De Winter, Milady. While the ultimate arch nemesis is Richelieu, his underling Milady is a far more chilling opponent. Richelieu can be confronted like a man, but Milady is sneaky, and so devious that you tremble in fear of this sylph-like vision of loveliness.
She can seduce even the most rigid of men into doing her evil work for her. That is what makes her so dangerous-all men are in danger of falling in love with her. In fact, what scares the reader most about her is not that she's going to kill D'Artagnan, but that D'Artagnan is going to fall all the way in love with her and expose himself to her. What makes her so strong of a character is not her actual character, it's her role as a dangerous woman. Men are often saying how inexplicable women are, so it makes sense that most women characters seem to have a kind of mysteriousness about them that makes them women. There are several strong female characters, however, that are almost masculine in their behavior.
Medea from Greek mythology, Catwoman from the Batman comics and movies, Faye Valentine from the anime "Cowboy Bebop, " and Lina Inverse from the anime "Slayers" are all powerful female heroines who are straightforward and who refuse to be dependent on anybody. Medea's character is powerful, because she is willing to kill her brothers and sons for what she believes in. Faye's character is also very strong; Faye doesn't like to work in groups. But at the same time, Medea is Medea as we see her because Jason drove her slightly wacko by slighting her.
Lina, as a cartoon character, is necessarily girlish at times. And any photograph of Catwoman or Faye Valentine shows us how important it is for both of them to be identified as attractive women. Do heroes ever worry about being sexy? Did Indiana Jones say, "Does this fedora make my head look funny?" Did Robin Hood ever say, "How about this shade of green? Marian? How about this shade?" Did Wolverine ever say, "Jubilee, I feel like we aren't communicating to each other enough.
Do you feel this way? Honestly. I need to hear how you feel. " Could Aerith say the same thing and not have us label it as "girl talk, " and when Professor X does say it, is it possible for us to think that he's the same brand of hero as Wolverine? I love my heroes, complete with their flaws, even the terribly bad ones like Achilles. But I do notice that I like more guy heroes than girl ones. This isn't because heroines are wimps, not necessarily, it's because there has to be a reason for a hero to be a girl, and when a hero becomes a girl, we tend to give her a typical girl's qualities.
Somehow, this makes her less heroic and more like a woman. We do see women as strong characters, such as Wendy, Faye, Aerith, and Barbara Gordon (Batgirl). But they aren't heroes, not like the men are. Peter, Wendy's counterpart, remains Peter to the end, despite Wendy's motherly influence. Spike, Faye's reluctant partner, never gets stuck in a tight situation. Sephiroth, Aerith's dark double, kills Aerith for his dreams.
Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon's compatriot, leaves the team because he disagrees with Batman, not because he, like Barbara, becomes severely injured for life. Even Little John is cooler than Marian. And though we might add females to the Batman family, nobody would make Batman himself, who is a definitive male hero, a woman.
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