Peggy Hamilton wrote:
> I have a slight disagreement here. Although I don't follow Hercules
> very closely I did watch enough of the establishing episodes to know
> that they did explain why he is roaming around being a hero. He was
> married, with children, and all he wanted was to be left alone to
> raise
> his family, but Hera wanted to punish Zeus by persecuting him and
> first
> she stole Hercules' wife, and he was roaming around trying to find
> her,
> then Hera killed her. I haven't watched enough to know whether the
> kids
> got killed to, or Hercules is just afraid to get to close to them
> because it would put them in danger.
>
> Xena was introduced as a baddie, and only reformed when they realized
> how popular she was and wanted to give her her own series. This
> situation requires a little more explanation than someone who was
> always
> good. Gabrielle has always been good, and follows the adventurous
> path
> largely because she wants to.
>
> This association is one of the reasons I have a problem with "hera" as
>
> the feminine form of "hero." When I see hera I think of the goddess,
> who is not a particularly heroic figure.
>
> My vote for the term to use for a woman hero is hero. A woman doctor
>
> is a doctor, why can't a woman hero be a hero?
>
> Peggy Hamilton
I've tried to watch Hercules, and I much prefer Xena because she isn't a
puppet of the gods, she's actually trying to transform herself. As for
"hera" instead of "hero", it reminds me of some of the machinations
various people have taken in trying to eliminate male-centered
terminology from their language (I'm thinking of Mary Daly as one of its
more vivid practitioners). Another thing that comes to mind is Jean
Shinoda Bolen's Jungian discussion, Goddesses in Everywoman, where Hera
is used as one of the major archetypes.
I agree with Peggy, call a hero an hero. (I haven't gotten to the point
where I start spitting bullets when the word heroine is used though).
Cynthia
-- Total pleasure is a good book, a comfortable couch, and a cat curled up beside you.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:06:32 PDT