Power

Joseph Campbell discusses the hero as having achieved a freedom to live through conquering his fear of death as well as a mastery over both the inner and outer worlds as being the hero’s ultimate reward. This power of abstract inner peace does seem to be the next evolutionary step in the hero’s spiritual and personal growth, but the heroine has other dragons to slay before she can reach that point. Liberation of the soul can not occur until the body is free. Historically speaking, many of our fairy tales were written and passed down at a time when women were still restricted by a lack of agency over their own destinies, and even today the ability to govern her own body and sexuality is questioned under intense public scrutiny. In reading these stories, it has become clear that the heroine’s journey is less about confronting inner demons or defeating grand philosophical concepts in the guise of hoary beasties. The heroine is tilting at the unconquerable windmills of the straitjacket of ever-changing and onerous demands society places on her.

In the films drawn from the comic book series The X Men, there is a character named Jean Grey. Jean is a telepath with impressive powers that she is terrified to use to their full potential, and throughout the film series she is shown to be mostly the protégé of fellow telepath and leader of the X Men Professor Charles Xavier and as fodder for a rather weak love triangle between her boyfrien Cyclops, and the main hero, Wolverine. By the third film, she loses control of this power and goes on a murderous and apocalyptic rampage. As I watched this unfold on the screen during my third date with my now-husband, I was thoroughly confused. I knew he was a fan of the X Men comics, so I decided to ask him for clarification as we left the theater. He explained that Jean was being controlled by an outside entity called “Phoenix Force”, and that it embodied the primal powers of creation. It was her inability to control this raw power that lead to her attempting to annihilate the universe. He also mentioned that in the comics, it was clear that Jean was a far more powerful telepath than Professor Xavier, but that she couldn’t handle that much power and so he had to use his powers to block some of her’s. I remember thinking at the time how twisted the whole concept felt, from the “women can’t be trusted with their own power” aspect to the fact that even though she was more gifted than he was, Jean was forever dependent on a man to keep her safe from herself. Not unlike watching predominantly male politicians debating matters of birth control, rape, and abortion in the public arena, the murky hand of the patriarchy hovers over her “for her own good”.

In one of the few examples of a male hero being burdened with a gift that must be suppressed to this extent, The Incredible Hulk is charged with policing his own rage, rather than having someone other than himself keep him in check. Bruce Banner is trusted with his own power, and when we see him lose control and “hulk out”, it is to battle an enemy or defend the weak. Jean Grey is shown as being indiscriminate in her actions, killing people who love her or care about her and setting out to destroy the world because of her own internal pain. Her weakness in the face of her power blurs the lines of her morality. She becomes evil and witch-like by default. The fact that this fear of the “witch” is still as much with us today as it was in the time the Grimm Brother were collecting their stories shows how important the heroine’s journey continues to be as an archetype. Walking the path of self-salvation is her only hope of controlling of her fate, but it is ability her control of fate that the world fears. Unlike Campbell’s hero who’s ultimate boon is the ability to cross the threshold between worlds at will, only women have the literal ability to grant admittance for others to cross that threshold through procreation. This is what makes the heroine something to regulate, to keep in check. Characters such as Jean Grey are blatantly expressions of society’s fear that one day woman will go rogue and become The Destroyer of Worlds, transforming from Shakti to Kali. If all the world’s women decided to stop procreating to pursue their heroic calling, our species would come to and end in one generation.

Heroines like Jean Grey who are tormented for their power are not rare, especially in comic books culture. In her informal study of superheroines, “Women in Refrigerators”, Gail Simone exposes the hypocrisy with which we treat the heroine in our culture. The name comes from a scene in a Green Lantern comic in which the hero comes home to find one of his foes has murdered his girlfriend and stuffed her body into the refrigerator. Time and time again, we see the heroine virtually raped or stripped of her powers. This is usually done in an exploitative fashion, or to emphasize the impact of such an act on the hero, rather than the women it happens to. She is a tragic device, not a person. Conversely, this phenomenon of the symbolic raping of the heroine as plot device was handled much more deftly in Disney’s Maleficent, where we are given a rare and humanized glimpse into the effect this theft of power has on the heroine. The main character, Maleficent, is a very powerful fairy and a warrior queen, who’s enormous black wings give her the ability to soar over the battlefield like a Valkyrie. A man, who she believes loves her, drugs her and cuts off her wings in order to become king. The scene where she wakes up and discovers what has happened is beyond devastating. He has literally stolen her power and built his own kingdom with it. Her lust for vengeance is palpable and understandable. Time and time again, we see that the origin story of the heroine is surprisingly based in her first becoming a victim, usually physically. She is raped, beaten, or abused, therefore she must seek revenge or liberate herself. We like the idea of a heroic, empowered woman following her path, but we are going to make her suffer for it.

What is the heroine’s journey? The answer is not a simple one. For each heroine there are differences. The challenges change, events happen out of sequence, even the outcomes change from story to story. Ultimately, it is a journey of empowerment and liberation. Our fairy tales are a cry for freedom. Freedom from drudgery and dependency. Freedom from society’s unrealistic demands and expectations. Freedom to access our power and achieve our goals. They are the adventures we were never allowed to have and continue to struggle for. The heroine may or may not seek out her quest, but she does not dodge it when it arrives. In spite of what we have been lead to believe, the heroine’s passivity is not an indication of weakness, but rather an inner strength and fortitude. In the end, if she is steadfast and true, she will win autonomy over her destiny and freedom to decide for herself what her next adventure should be.

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