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ZorbaTHut  1yr ago (text post)   44935 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 5, 2022

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I ended up late with this post, with the topic being discussed on the late subreddit, but hey, let's bring it here and pretend it's original.

A lot of fiction uses the same character arc, which is called the positive character arc in the business or the hero's journey by Joseph Cambell:

  • the hero had a tragic event in the past

  • the hero has a flaw because of this event

  • the hero answers a call to adventure

  • the hero tries using the flawed approach and keeps failing

  • the hero reluctantly tries using the correct approach as a tool

  • the hero finally has some initial success, but the flaw bites him in the ass and he almost loses everything

  • the hero has a cathartic experience, rejects the flaw and adopts the right approach

  • the hero righteously wields the right approach and overcomes the opposition

This kind of arc is omnipresent: you see it in capeshit, it child-friendly comedies with Jim Carrey or Eddie Murphy, in Disney/Pixar and Dreamworks cartoons.

What I've noticed is that modern heroines do not follow the same arc. On the surface, it follows the same beats:

  • the heroine had a tragic event in the past

  • the heroine thinks she has a flaw because of this event

  • the heroine answers a call to adventure

  • the heroine lets herself be held back and keeps failing

  • the heroine tries letting herself go and starts succeeding

  • the heroine finally has some initial success, but the tragic event comes back and she almost loses everything

  • the heroine has a cathartic experience, rejects the tragic event and embraces her full power

  • the heroine righteously wields her full power and overcomes the opposition

When I look at this version of the heroine's journey, which I have tried to express in the most charitable terms, it does still look a lot like the hero's journey. Yes, the flaw being thinking you have a flaw is a weird one, but it's still a flaw. The heroine still overcomes it and the adversity, what's wrong with this arc?

I think it's the duality of the flaw that is missing. In the beginning of the hero's journey the tragic event is in the past. The hero is one with the flaw. He might not be living in the best possible world, like Shrek or Earl from Up!, but everything he has he has achieved with the flaw. The flaw is not pure weakness. You can reasonably construct a reverse story, a story of downfall or corruption:

  • the hero is pure

  • the hero answers a call of seduction

  • the hero tries using the righteous approach and keeps failing

  • the hero reluctantly tries using the flawed approach as a tool

  • the hero finally has some initial success, but his idealism bites him in the ass and he almost loses everything

  • the hero has a traumatic experience and embraces the flaw

  • the hero wields the flaw and obtains a victory that he learns all too late is hollow

You cannot do this with the heroine's journey, the reverse heroine's journey is just gaslighting that ends with a mental breakdown. The hero goes down and up in his journey (and up and down in his reverse journey), the heroine just goes up and up, there's no moral lesson beyond "don't let yourself be trod upon".

The man must realize a lesson of humility where he confronts his inner darkness/weakness/emptiness, the heroine must realize the truth of her inner light/power/fullness.

This coincides with the Western cultural understanding of men as inherently agentic and women as inherently unagentic. This also coincides with the pagan understanding of the act of sex as weakening men and strengthening women.

I have not watched any drag shows (besides Rocky Horror Picture Show, Disney’s The Little Mermaid, and that one episode of My Little Pony), but I am putting together pieces of a puzzle I haven’t seen: in a drag show storyline, the drag queen empowers the heroine to find, embrace, and perform her inner light/power/fullness.

One of the fascinating things about season 1 of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic is that the friendship between the two focus ponies of the episode is treated by the story structure as the hero, and both ponies involved must own the errors they made before the friendship is restored and the “hero” “wins”. In particular, the Rarity/Applejack sleepover episode and the Rarity/Fluttershy fashion model episode.

This coincides with the Western cultural understanding of men as inherently agentic and women as inherently unagentic.

Is this a 'Western cultural understanding'? I imagine this is a pretty universal phenomenon, found in virtually all other cultures too. And even modern woke feminist media, which is ostensibly trying to deconstruct/criticise Western cultural traditions ends up reproducing the same thing (without realising it?), which is half the reason woke media sucks, because more often then not the female heroine has no agency despite the story pretending like she does.

I mean it's been more than a century and men are still trying to figure out whether it was a good idea to let women out of the kitchen. So the roots are definitely deep. Almost no culture in the world is considered sociologically matriarchal, so in majority cases the men are the decision makers so again that would bias the world view towards men as agents and women as inherently unagentic.

However there is another alternative system that does arise in certain cultural time periods. Generally during the warrior class in high levels of activity time periods. Such that often the men would go to war and the women would be the home care takers along with handling finances and the family business or their family part of the feudal estate. In these instances women are decision makers and are well versed in financial matters.

It is my belief that if industrialization had not taken place, then this would likely have been the final outcome of gender roles. A woman respected within her own sphere of influence as a well educated and skilled person but still within a societal expectation of her area of expertise being a woman's role.

So it would be akin to all men being soldiers, and all women being real estate agents as a firm rule or something along those lines separating certain skilled jobs as for women, and others for men, both being respected.

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