Heroine's Journey

The journey, transformation, movement through a New World and State, detachment, attachment, Gaining of Capacities etc are all gender independent. The heroine's journey follows the same structural process as the hero's journey, as demonstrated by the heroine in stories such as:

  • Annie in Bridesmaids (2011)
  • Bella in Twilight (2008)
  • Maggie in Million Dollar Baby (Academy Award Winner Best Film, 2004)
  • Karen in Out of Africa (Academy Award Winner Best Film, 1985)
  • Clarice in Silence of the Lambs (Academy Award Winner Best Film, 1991)
  • Both Thelma and Louise (1991)
  • Sally in When Harry met Sally (1989)
  • Ripley in Alien (1979)
  • Anna in The King and I (1956)
  • Fanny in Funny Girl (1968)

The Hero and Romantic Challenge roles are often reversed:

  • In Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) , Holly is a Hero and Paul is the Romantic Challenge.
  • In Erin Brockovich (1999), Erin is the Hero and George is the Romantic Challenge.

Commonly, various false arguments (a result if flawed understanding of hero's journey) are used to differentiate the heroine's journey from the hero's journey, including:

  • The heroine's journey is a quest for wholeness. The journey is a metaphor for many things and wholeness is one of them. This applies to heroes as well as heroines.
  • The heroine must bear the burden of her parents' mistakes. This applies to heroes too.
  • She is presented with humanly insurmountable challenges that require supernatural aid to overcome. This applies to heroes too.
  • Her worth is usually defined by her beauty and patience. Her skills tend to be equally as decorative in value as herself. Just as male heroes are differentiated by a range of capacities that are presented in a range of ways, so are heroines.

If there is a feature of the heroine's journey you want to pick up on, it should be this (again, this is no different from hero's journey - it is common for the hero to start off with low rank):

Commonly, within a patriarchal society, the female starts off as the matriarch (second in command). Her journey involves rising past the patriarch and other fe/male competitors to the lead, where she represses the antagonism / Id and Restores the State of Perfection / self-actualizes. Following is the common heroine's journey process made explicit and obvious.

This requires that you first purchase and accept the principles contained within the:
510+ or 2000+ stage Hero's Journey / Transformation / New World template.