It’s been over 30 years, but I can still remember my first action figure. Breaking open the package to reveal the molded plastic beneath, making sure not to drop the accesories. I can still recall the white outfit contrasted by the dark brown hair in the distinctive “cinnamon bun” do. Even before I found Han Solo and Luke Skywalker, I was playing with Princess Leia.
Now, I can’t remember for sure whether my parents got me Princess Leia because I asked them or whether it was the only figure left. It didn’t matter to me: I played with her all the same. For all the grief George Lucas gets, he managed to create, whether by accident or design, a fairly memorable heroine. Leia was brave, resourceful, and by far the best shot of all the Rebels.
It’s been repeated ad nauseum that while girls can relate to male lead characters, boys will reject female lead characters. This is often true (whether the success of The Hunger Games will translate into the movies remains to be seen), but how much of this is due to the atittidues of boys themselves, and how much of it is socialization? Boys and men are not encouraged to follow female heroes and role models. They go from relating to women as mothers to women as potential mates. The cliche is that boys consider girls “icky” before puberty, but that wasn’t my experience.
Looking back, I’m amazed at home many of my favourite novels from my childhood had female lead characters. I loved Harriet the Spy, writing everything she observed in her notebook. Then there was Claudia Kincaid in From The Mixed-Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, running away to live in the Metropolitan Museum Of Art. From an earlier generation came Beverly Cleary with the Beezus and Ramona books. Leroy “Encyclopedia” Brown survived the taunts of Bugs Meany partly through the efforts of Sally Kimball, who was actually allowed to be a tough girl. I also enjoyed the story of Annabel Andrews, trapped in her mother’s body for a day in Freaky Friday, and her further adventures in the lesser-known sequel A Billion For Boris. Even Sheila Tubman, the obnoxious next-door neighbour from Judy Blume’s Fudge novels, got her own book in which she was a far more sympathetic character.While these girls could be as tough and resourceful as the male characters, they weren’t the stereotypical “Tomboys”; Sally Kimball could punch out the bullies while wearing a skirt.
My heroine worship didn’t end with puberty; it just got more complicated. My earliest pop culture crushes were on Laura Holt (Stephanie Zimbalist) from Remington Steele, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) from Raiders Of The Lost Ark , and (via reruns; I’m not THAT old) Samantha Stevens (Elizabeth Montgomery) from Bewitched. All these women were stunning, but they were more than matches for the men. I was attracted to them, but part of me wanted to be like them.
Was this a product of being exposed (through family and their friends) to Second Wave feminism? It’s possible. Certainly the message that women can do anything men can do was out there. However, Gloria Steinem’s claims to the contrary, the idea that men can do anything women can do -including look up to women as role models- is nowhere near as accepted. Even more troubling, I cannot think of a single example from pop culture in which a female character mentors a male character. This is especially ironic considering that the word “mentor” comes from a manifestation of the goddess Athena in The Odyssey.
When I entered university in the early 90s, identity politics was in full swing and the female heroes in pop culture underwent some changes. I had a harder time relating to Thelma & Louise or Clarice Starling because in both cases not only were all the villains they faced male, but most of the men in these stories were either patronizing or openly hostile to women. Over the past two decades, we have seen many heroes that kicked butt as women against the patriarchy.Subsequently, I felt left out. It’s not that I resent these and other examples of “Girl Power,” but I realize that their message is not intedended for me.
Nonetheless, I’ve found new female heroes in, of all places, the real world. Among my personal pantheon of heroes are the activist Dorothy Day, film critic Pauline Kael, Patti Smith, the journalist Amy Goodman and the amazing Kate Bornstein. They speak to me as people more than anything, ones whose struggles I can relate to.
And, who knows? Maybe The Hunger Games will change things. Maybe kids of all genders will be able to look up to a strong character regardless of their gender identity. We’ll know things have gotten a little better when a boy asks his parents to buy him a Katniss action figure.
MaMu1977: I’m decidedly not a fan of Rand, but to each their own.
Avatar: The last Airbender has been mentioned, but Legend of Korra was not.
A reason might be that you can’t watch it yet (at least not legally *cough*). I guess you guys would like it. The Avatar is female now, and I think she’s awesome.
I don’t know if this counts as trolling, but there are *thousands* (if not millions) of men in the world who are “inspired” by the works of Aunt Rand. She was a woman, she was a sociological/political figure, her viewpoints are still followed to this day, etc…
Monkey: “In any case, Katniss is such a good character it ultimately doesn’t matter to me. She’s tough and resourceful, but she’s not a superhuman ass-kicker of the type that has become a cliche over the past ten years, starting with Trinity from The Matrix and moving on to River Tam in Serenity and countless others. She gets hurt and makes bad decisions like a real person.”
Plus, she doesn’t treat hurt or berate any of the male characters, even Peeta, when it isn’t deserved. I commend Collins greatly for presenting a heroine who appreciates the male support.
I don’t see why it’s so hard to believe that Collins had never heard of Battle Royale. It wasn’t released in the US and was only really know to cult movie fans. As well, both borrow from Lord Of The Flies and “Richard Bachman’s” The Long Walk In any case, Katniss is such a good character it ultimately doesn’t matter to me. She’s tough and resourceful, but she’s not a superhuman ass-kicker of the type that has become a cliche over the past ten years, starting with Trinity from The Matrix and moving on to River Tam in Serenity and… Read more »
Still, Schala, having similarities doesn’t mean it’s a “Rip-Off”.
Similarities:
Both children
Both as punishment for something others “that look like them” did
Both to the death
Except Battle Royale was before Reality TV became rampant. The novel is 1999.
Schala: “Isn’t Hunger Games a rip-off from Battle Royale?” I really get tired of people making this kind of comparison as a fan. “The Hunger Games” is not a rip-off of Battle Royale. We’re talking about two VERY different stories here. In “The Hunger Games”, children are selected to compete via lottery draw in battles to the death as punishment for when the 11 districts rebelled against the tryannicle government housed in the 12th district. In “Battle Royale”, both the movie and the novel, classmates are gassed and end up on an island against their will to compete in a… Read more »
“Even more troubling, I cannot think of a single example from pop culture in which a female character mentors a male character.”
I’d like to add another female mentor to the list. Dame Judi Dench’s M in the James Bond series. Dench has moved the M role out of just assigning orders and into the mentoring role even if that mentoring is often pretty adversarial.
@Schala: I’ve seen Battle Royale. Fansubbed Japanese pirated, of course (is there an English language release of this?, I first saw it quite a while ago).
That actually makes me more interested in Hunger Games, I hadn’t paid a lot of attention to it previously.
Isn’t Hunger Games a rip-off from Battle Royale? The premiss is less sadistical and less “we want to lower the population of students for our entertainment”…but it still seems very similar.
Battle Royale is a class of Japanese students being forced to battle it to death on an island, given random weapons in backpacks and having electronic collars that will detonate if more than one survives after three days or tries to escape the island where it happens. It’s been banned in a couple countries.
@daelyte: The Sisko/Dax relationship is complicated, sometimes he’s more of a mentor to her. (Particularly when she’s Ezri Dax) It seems when he was Curzon he was definitely a mentor to Sisko, but of course he was a dude, then, so…
@monkey: I had to look pretty hard, I expected to find some in Stargate: Atlantis, Babylon 5, or something by Joss Whedon, but came up empty. Maybe in fields where women are more traditionally seen as competant, like writing or music? You know, like the Sound of Music. Some factors that I think might be involved. I think in the same fictional works that portray older women capable of being mentors, there’s also often a shortage of young males worthy of mentoring, thus none are mentored. Those that do have heroic young men are usually grounded in older, more patriarchal… Read more »
Sanctuary, Helen Magnus
Do Dax and Sisko count? Dax had a male host (Curzon Dax) when they first met, but changing hosts doesn’t make Jadzia Dax not still be Sisko’s mentor right?
daelyte: another interesting choice. I didn’t mean that there were no examples of this, just that I couldn’t think of them.
The only episode of DS9 that I watched was the Tribbles one, and I did enjoy the interplay between Dax and Sisko.
I still can think of more M/M, M/F, and F/F examples than F/M.
@ monkey
For what it’s worth, I don’t think mentor relationships should ever be presented as sexual in realistic, all-audiences mainstream-type media. There’s a power balance that may sound cool, but is just not healthy to casually emulate. It’s like real life doctor-teacher-boss/patient-student-employee raltionships. It’s not that they could never work out, but the potential for abuse is too real, IMO.
Skull Bearer: The Dark Crystal! Of course! A very underrated movie.
Hugh: I think they both count in the Joseph Campbell Hero’s Journey sense. Morpheus gives the Call To Adventure, but the Oracle is a guide within The Matrix. In modern terms, Morpheus is Obi Wan, The Oracle is Yoda.
Much as I dislike Voyager, I think Janeway counts. One of the tropes of the Star Trek series is that the Captain usually does act as a mentor to the junior officers and sometimes even to the senior ones (you wouldn’t have called Kirk Spock’s mentor, but Picard was definitely Riker’s mentor). I don’t think it was presented particularly well and it’s troubling that the character with the most protege-esque relationship with Janeway was Kim, who was usually presented as useless at almost everything and not very masculine, but I think it’s definitely an example, if not one I’d like… Read more »
@monkey: I thought about mentioning The Oracle, but I’m not sure it counts – Morpheus was Neo’s main mentor, The Oracle was kind of a sub-mentor.
Anonymousdog: There wasn’t any particular reason for focusing on fictional characters; this was just based on my own experience.
In terms of mentors, I have had many in real life, and I didn’t want to go into too much detail about them, but I had a “click” moment that there were far fewer example in fiction.
I thought of one that was actually fairly well-done: The Oracle and Neo in The Matrix.
JayGenerally: What I find interesting is that there *are* examples of men mentoring women in fiction, and they’re not always sexual in nature.
“Certainly the message that women can do anything men can do was out there. However, Gloria Steinem’s claims to the contrary, the idea that men can do anything women can do -including look up to women as role models- is nowhere near as accepted. Even more troubling, I cannot think of a single example from pop culture in which a female character mentors a male character.”
This is why I loved the Dark Crystal 😀
@ Monkey This is a nice article, monkey. It touches on a topic I’ve been tangling with for a long time: the absence of female mentor/male protoge partnerships. For me there’s a distinct lack of positive F/m relationships altogether. Even most of the examples provided, though good, would be littered with asterisks. Avatar: The Last Airbender is a great series (like, I may consider it the best american animated series ever, great) and it isn’t that the mentorships don’t count, but Aang holds the role of primary protaganist, most powerful bender, group leader (even if Sokka winds up as group… Read more »
Much of that stance regarding women’s role (positively) is thanks to feminism, the lack of a change for men’s role is thanks to everyone in society wanting to keep its beasts of burden as faceless numbers waiting to be slaughtered at the drop of a hat, or a war.
From my understanding the bullying of boys and men for liking feminine and/or girly stuff comes from men and women, boys and girls, people in positions of authority, parents and close family, teachers and even therapists (see Ken Zucker). From birth til death. The bullying for liking masculine stuff comes from insecure men, insecure women, and people with “old school” mentality about female’s place in society (the kind of people who think women should primarily be mothers regardless of what the women themselves think). I guess other bullying also comes from people regarding masculine stuff itself as icky (motor oil,… Read more »
@Monkey: “However, that doesn’t stop them from reading about and identifying with boys, and I was asking why it’s not as common the other way around” I’m tempted to say that this is mostly result of a phenomenon that was previously discussed here – i’m referring to how white cis male is the default setting/point of view, and anything else is “other”. That might not necessarily be bad “other”, but it’s certainly not the assumed standard. It’s somewhat hard for me (as white – albeit not anglo-saxon – cis male) to say to what extent that could influence someone else’s… Read more »
Anything you say, L. Here is your ACTUAL wording: “There’s a difference between the phenomenon that Eagle is talking about, where writing and characterization are the reasons why one character might be mean to another (which, really… just happens in stories), but what’s far more insidious is more along the lines of Maartje’s comment: where the structure of the story itself prohibits a character or several characters (of a non-white, non-cismale identity) to be fully realized or even perceived as valuable.” This is the last time. If you can’t see how dismissive it is when you believe what happens to… Read more »