Yeah, sorry, no Trope Tuesday this week. Third week missed in a row! Not so good. Thing is, I’m really focused on finishing Star Wanderers: Reproach (Part VII) right now, with a self-imposed deadline of May 31st. I figure that’s more important, and I really don’t want to break my momentum.
I’ve been vacillating a lot about this project. Sometimes, I think it’s halfway decent, perhaps even good. Other times, I wonder how the @#$! I came to be trapped in this story and why I’m wasting the best years of my life writing this crap. The other Star Wanderers stories are selling decently well, but this one is so shite that it’s bound to kill the series and why am I writing this why why WHY???
And then I get the chains back on my inner editor and drag him down to the dungeon, where I keep him on a strict diet of bread crusts and rotten cheese. No wonder he hates me.
I know those trope posts are a popular feature around here, so I’ll get back on top of them once this project is finished (which WILL be this week! It WILL!!) In the meantime, if you’re looking for a trope fix, you should check out Anita Sarkeesian’s latest Feminist Frequency video. She does an awesome job deconstructing feminist video game tropes, in a much more meticulous and thoughtful manner than I have ever achieved here:
Part of me wants her to take my own stories and analyze them for feminist tropes. The other part shudders in abject horror at what she might possibly find.
Whoops, looks like the inner editor just got loose again. Better go hang out on the KBoards until I’ve got him back in the dungeon.
Later!
I hear you on being quiet on the blogging front because of trying to finish a novel! Hope you managed to make your self imposed deadline!
Just read this. It’s interesting because I actually have a very strong response to “damsel in distress” portrayals or ideas, much more strongly than guys in distress and I’ve spent a lot of time thinking trying to figure out why that is because I’ve always found it interesting. I remember watching Disney’s Peter Pan when I was four and being intrigued by the climactic horror of watching Wendy get tied to the mast of the pirate ship. No idea why that’s so powerful and poignant to me. I think there’s an underlying something to the damsel in distress that really does have meaning, perhaps on a primal level (something to do with our connection to our mothers, perhaps?), but I also think the gal in the video hit the nail on the head in that the “damsel in distress device” misrepresents moments of female vulnerability as an excuse to harden and propel a male protagonist on a bloody tirade–ultimately rationalizing dehumanization rather than sensitivity.
I think I’m going to have to write my own thought post about this–great post and great video link. 🙂
And Joe, I honestly wonder the same thing about hitting “damsel in distress” tropes the wrong way in my stories too, particularly when I’m doing male protagonists because I know the story centers mostly around what he does and he has to be the strong one driving the plot forward or he won’t be interesting to follow. After watching this clip I feel a lot better about how I do “damsel in distress,” though. It’s about what suffering is used for, rather than showing female vulnerability at all. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a female opposite who’s suffering in some way or that needs his help/rescuing, etc., as long as the story sincerely takes on what that suffering is and means rather than using it as an excuse to show a bunch of gruesomeness and to dehumanize and brutalize the world, if that makes sense. Suffering is most meaningful when we can draw greater compassion from it. That’s my two cents.
Interesting thoughts. I’ve also used the damsel in distress trope a few times, probably because I grew up with three younger sisters and no brothers. Looking out for them was definitely a part of my adolescent experience, but don’t worry, I didn’t go on any killing rampages because of it. 😉
SPOILERS
But yeah, even in stories where female vulnerability comes into play, I try to make the female characters strong in other ways, so that they’re not just objects to be saved (or earned) by the hero. In Bringing Stella Home, for example, Stella starts out as a stereotypical damsel in distress but ends up rising to a position of authority among her captors, so that she has a lot of other things to weigh in her mind besides simply the desire to escape and return to her family. In Desert Stars, Mira has a fairly complex growth arc, where she becomes a lot more self-reliant–and in the end, Jalil doesn’t just swoop down and save her, but she has to actually make a choice that she never would have been able to do at the beginning. And in Star Wanderers: Homeworld (Part IV), Jeremiah tries to save Noemi on his own, and he does play a major role, but it ends up being much more of a collaborative effort where she takes the lead and he follows.
/SPOILERS
So yeah, interesting stuff. Like you said, I do think there’s a place for female vulnerability in storytelling, but the trick is constructing the story in such a way that the female characters are not reduced to objects. That’s what’s so insidious about this trope (besides the fact that it often excuses the hero to go off on a vindictive bloodbath).
I think you nailed it, Joe. Giving all important characters strengths and weaknesses just makes good storytelling, male, female, in distress or not in distress. It adds depth to everyone and makes them dynamic.
I’m still trying to mull this video over–it’s such an interesting discussion. I think the analysis of story/game content and its symbolism or effects can get carried away, too. A subject for another discussion, perhaps. 🙂
Oh, damsel in distress tropes…
I also need to read more of your stuff. 🙂
This is Sarah, by the way. I’m logged into my WP account. 🙂