It will be interesting to see how Pixar's Brave pans out with relation to these discussions. I see some thematic similarities with The Hunger Games, and then there's the obvious heroine with a bow and arrow. In the Japanese version of the trailer here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8cLhckSAAw, I also noted some similarities to the Wii video game The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess of all things. It's interesting to note that Frankel's theory suggests the heroine's journey has an altogether different goal than a hero's journey whereas what I had noted essentially established a difference in the way they go about solving the problem. While this is true for The Hunger Games and how Katniss volunteers in an effort to save her sister, I have no idea how the rest of the series plays out (though, and correct me if I'm wrong, I do believe she becomes actively involved in taking out the tyrants). Furthermore, what does this say had a male been put into the same predicament? How would they have reacted? Would the audience have responded as strongly had a male character displayed motherly tendencies? Probably not, which leads me back to the whole Mental Sex idea and how it feels like it does play a vital role. Outwardly, Katniss, being a female herself, speaks to those female tendencies of protector, mother, etc., while also being thrust into the more traditional function of a male hero. As such, females identify more readily with both elements whereas had the function been fulfilled with a male character displaying entirely female tendencies, particularly in this type of a movie that requires steps to reach a goal, the audience would have been left feeling confused.

TBBB, I'm sure you've seen this article by Jim Hull at Story Fanatic already and his take on Brave. For those who haven't, it's a good explanation of the Dramatica view on the issue of problem solving and male vs. female characters, similar to what TBBB wrote in yesterday's comment thread.

Yep, I follow Jim and chat with him regularly. He said one of his recent articles was influenced by me or at least some stuff I had shared with him so I had a big grin when I read it. He does a great job of communicating the theory so that anyone can pick up on it.

jwindh- I'd have to disagree with your comment: “[I'd] say that Alien’s Ripley and SOTL’s Clarice are very much “male” hero stories where the protagonist is female. I would say mostly the same with Katniss, too – although the maternal feelings she has for her sister are very “feminine” (but still not really any different from any tough male hero who still has a soft spot for protecting “women and children”).” I don't believe that being an action hero as opposed to a social hero makes a woman's journey a male one. One of the things I loved about Katniss in the books is she had absolutely no desire to have a child. That did not make her a male personality but someone who recognizes the limitations of the world around them. She loves kids so much she would not bring one into that world. Everything she does is either based in caring or on surviving. She's spent her life doing both so she has an extremely clear perspective of what those things mean and how best to do them. Noting Clarice's journey as an example of a male hero's story is a shock to me. Picture a man relating the major thematic monologue explaining what happened to the lambs on the farm. In our culture, a man imparting a tear filled childhood memory like that would be thought of differently. Would Hannibal even be interested in that story from a man? Wouldn't it make him dismiss the man as weak instead of as an intimate exchange that makes him feel closer to Clarice? As to Ripley, I spent my senior paper in college analyzing the first three Alien movies as different stages of womanhood. I have 15 pages to argue that Ripley is a woman and those movies can be seen as a vehicle for a woman. It bothers me when people say that when someone out of the mainstream vision of that thing (i.e. a white male) is taking over a positive characteristic they are emulating the representation of that characteristic, instead of that characteristic. Even if I speak the King's English and listen to Tyler Swift I am still going to be black. In no way, shape, or form, does that change my skin color or the experiences I have had as a black person. If I beat up a bunch of guys and jump off a building that does not make me a man. All the things and experiences that make me a woman will still be there. Think of Trinity in The Matrix. She's been through just as much as Neo has. She's even kicked more butt than Neo. With the exception of the last minutes she is the major bad ass. Yet we do not say she has a male story because in the end she is deferential to and in love with a man. Is that what it takes for a bad ass woman to keep people seeing her story as female one? I hope not.

[...] for the week but I wanted to post the comment that I made on Go Into the Story’s Blog on Part Two of Heroine’s in film.  Heck, I took so much time on it I gotta post it here.  It makes me [...]