There is a pervasive unease in the world; a lingering belief that we’re blind to the truth or it’s being hidden from us; that there is a world unseen. This is an increasingly common theme in narrative art. Whether it is the magical world of Harry Potter, invisible to mere “muggles,” or the nagging belief of “Mr. Anderson” that something is wrong with the world, the public is attracted to, even obsessed with this idea. Increasingly, this theme is extending beyond narrative and is particularly potent in conspiracy theories. The latter can perhaps be explained away as the paranoia of addled malcontents but what of the former? My proposition is that this feeling of unease is a genuine intimation of the truth. That we are in fact blind to a huge aspect of reality but not due to a conspiracy against the public but instead because we simply lack the language to articulate it and that once we do, it will appear like magic.
This is easily one of my favorite posts that I've ever read. I'm very interested in archetypes and Jungian psychology, and, as you mention, there isn't much conversation about what would be considered "the heroine's journey", so I was immediately hooked at the introduction. I was particularly interested in your idea that feminism should have explored these topics but that it failed to do so, and, instead, pushed women into following the masculine patterns.
Thank you for writing this. I hope to read more of your work.
This is great. Adolescent me was torn up by the idea that men were superior to women. I remember being a 14 year old, crying about it to my dad. I was coming to terms with some of the harshest realities about life and sex, that yes, men excel at many things women don’t. But as I’ve gotten older and wiser, and read the works of Camille Paglia and Christina Hoff Sommers, I’ve come to realise just how powerful and important a woman’s role is, and now I go through my life feeling emboldened, not bitter, inferior and vulnerable. It’s a cliche but, the truth does set you free.
This an interesting framework, thank you. Campbell was also familiar with First Nations Peoples and their role of matriarchal positioning in roles and myths. As a First Nations women we entered a global time of Grandmother time which refers to female energy and 'heroic' leadership coming to lead both in men and women, we say we are at 100 years of this development. This framework speaks to some of this. Many First Nations cultures have developed a stronger sense of storytelling around female role as the are older cultures, and in our traditional oral tradition we talk these still. This maybe a genuine way to push through the narrow feminist approaches taken to date.
I like that the author tries to be more fair and reasonable than most.
"Men are more adept at and suffer more from violence" - Yes, and I am not sure if men suffer more from violence. Women and children suffer quite a bit from violence perpetrated by men because they are weaker physically. And in 1st world countries one of the challenges is to channel that aggression into something productive. And if that violence is sophisticated, using modern technology and ideas, someone like Putin can destroy the country to rubble in days.
"second wave feminists were intellectually mediocre and often severely mentally ill. - Nietzche was mentally ill. As were many influential western thinkers who were men. To call their work mediocre is misunderstand their work. There were a lot of writers even from Victorian era like Virginia Woolf, Emily Bronte who inspired feminist ideas. Once women had access to write and influence other women, like men did, those ideas became much more powerful.
"Archetypes and evolutionary selection" - Archetypes is the dogma. We like familiarity. That archetypes were there before language itself is a dogma as well. Chimps form more violent patriarchal societies. Baboons form more egalitarian matriarchal societies. Feminist ideas are powerful precisely because world war I and world war II caused a lot of damage.
"Post WW2, an artificial prosperity emerged " - What caused WW2? Women can't surely be blamed for it. Women gained power precisely because of WW2 where they had to get into work and so all sorts of labor including flying planes to the airfields. In a way, men forced women to get into the labor market. And this precipitated feminist ideas. Post WW2, the world was still a violent place. Vietnam war caused the counter culture of 1960s. It is those feminist ideas, that challenged society and men, made the world less violent place.
"Archetypes - Women's choice and sharing power" - Women choose. Like nature selects. The population has increased exponentially in every corner of the world, despite the bloodiest wars in human history. Women's choice is not necessarily a bad thing. Order and chaos are two conflicting mechanisms.
Women's quest for equality and power is what caused feminism. Women never wrote anything for the last 1000s of years. Like the saying goes, it is their historical insignificance that doomed them to ignominy and not their ignominy that doomed them to historical insignificance.
This was a great post! It reminds we why I love Fargo the movie and TV show. The female cop in the movie and in season 3 are great heroines but not in the feminist way. However, maybe the better example of the heroine archetype you are discussing here is the matriarch of the mob family in season 2.
This is incredible writing! Glad I saw this link shared in Aaron Renn's newsletter.
This is easily one of my favorite posts that I've ever read. I'm very interested in archetypes and Jungian psychology, and, as you mention, there isn't much conversation about what would be considered "the heroine's journey", so I was immediately hooked at the introduction. I was particularly interested in your idea that feminism should have explored these topics but that it failed to do so, and, instead, pushed women into following the masculine patterns.
Thank you for writing this. I hope to read more of your work.
This was an incredible read. The vacuum of heroic feminine archetypes is very true in our culture. Thanks for shining a light on it.
This is great. Adolescent me was torn up by the idea that men were superior to women. I remember being a 14 year old, crying about it to my dad. I was coming to terms with some of the harshest realities about life and sex, that yes, men excel at many things women don’t. But as I’ve gotten older and wiser, and read the works of Camille Paglia and Christina Hoff Sommers, I’ve come to realise just how powerful and important a woman’s role is, and now I go through my life feeling emboldened, not bitter, inferior and vulnerable. It’s a cliche but, the truth does set you free.
Thanks for writing this. It is full of very astute observations.
This an interesting framework, thank you. Campbell was also familiar with First Nations Peoples and their role of matriarchal positioning in roles and myths. As a First Nations women we entered a global time of Grandmother time which refers to female energy and 'heroic' leadership coming to lead both in men and women, we say we are at 100 years of this development. This framework speaks to some of this. Many First Nations cultures have developed a stronger sense of storytelling around female role as the are older cultures, and in our traditional oral tradition we talk these still. This maybe a genuine way to push through the narrow feminist approaches taken to date.
I like that the author tries to be more fair and reasonable than most.
"Men are more adept at and suffer more from violence" - Yes, and I am not sure if men suffer more from violence. Women and children suffer quite a bit from violence perpetrated by men because they are weaker physically. And in 1st world countries one of the challenges is to channel that aggression into something productive. And if that violence is sophisticated, using modern technology and ideas, someone like Putin can destroy the country to rubble in days.
"second wave feminists were intellectually mediocre and often severely mentally ill. - Nietzche was mentally ill. As were many influential western thinkers who were men. To call their work mediocre is misunderstand their work. There were a lot of writers even from Victorian era like Virginia Woolf, Emily Bronte who inspired feminist ideas. Once women had access to write and influence other women, like men did, those ideas became much more powerful.
"Archetypes and evolutionary selection" - Archetypes is the dogma. We like familiarity. That archetypes were there before language itself is a dogma as well. Chimps form more violent patriarchal societies. Baboons form more egalitarian matriarchal societies. Feminist ideas are powerful precisely because world war I and world war II caused a lot of damage.
"Post WW2, an artificial prosperity emerged " - What caused WW2? Women can't surely be blamed for it. Women gained power precisely because of WW2 where they had to get into work and so all sorts of labor including flying planes to the airfields. In a way, men forced women to get into the labor market. And this precipitated feminist ideas. Post WW2, the world was still a violent place. Vietnam war caused the counter culture of 1960s. It is those feminist ideas, that challenged society and men, made the world less violent place.
"Archetypes - Women's choice and sharing power" - Women choose. Like nature selects. The population has increased exponentially in every corner of the world, despite the bloodiest wars in human history. Women's choice is not necessarily a bad thing. Order and chaos are two conflicting mechanisms.
Women's quest for equality and power is what caused feminism. Women never wrote anything for the last 1000s of years. Like the saying goes, it is their historical insignificance that doomed them to ignominy and not their ignominy that doomed them to historical insignificance.
I’m glad the world and women aren’t how you wish they were. May it all continue to go to shit ❤️
This was a great post! It reminds we why I love Fargo the movie and TV show. The female cop in the movie and in season 3 are great heroines but not in the feminist way. However, maybe the better example of the heroine archetype you are discussing here is the matriarch of the mob family in season 2.