Posts
Someone asked me to repost this, written two years ago, because she wanted to discuss it with my current blog readers and her comments in a past post wouldn't be seen by anyone. Want to chime in?
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Virgins Really Should Get Penetrated First Before They Kill People For A Living. LOL
So someone pointed me to a vent by an author who didn't like my "Virgins Really Should Live First Before They Kill For A Living" post. Notice the title of my post. She has gone and rewritten my post as: Virgins Really Should Live Before They Kick Ass, before venting about why a heroine should be able to kick-ass before "penetration" (her choice of word, not mine) by the male penis. Which is why we always disagree ;-) on this point. I have never said a heroine should need the magical male sperminator to suddenly turn kickass, but the fact remains that a virginal heroine who doesn't know how to turn a man on, yet can go out there and spy for a living just isn't believable, especially in a romance book.
All this is subjective, of course. Lots of readers love their virginal heroines who "kicks ass." Fine by me. I just beg to differ their status of being a kick-ass heroine. Being able to take care of oneself during a fight is cool. Being brave, bold, and strong are fine qualities, and all writers aspire to make their heroines that way...so why not just say every book has a kick-ass heroine then? You can't. You can't expect a virgin heroine to do certain kick-ass things because as a writer, you've chosen to make her a virgin. She can't cross certain lines (shrug). Sorry, she turns into a cockteaser to me in the type of spy intrigues I read. All she does is play with emotions and then magically, before penetration, she is saved by the author's deux-ex-machina, whether it's the bad guy showing, or the sudden honorable change of heart of the hero, or the appearance of a magical halo proclaiming to all and sundry that she is "super kick ass heroine" and can't....
Like I said before, I've enjoyed virginal heroines who are tough and smart. They are like "good" cartoon heroines to me...beautiful in their tight costumes, with an honorable core, and with rarely any bite that gets to the heart of darkness. You want a KICKASS cartoon heroine? Why, she's not really a heroine of course. It's Cat Woman.
And perhaps that's the zinger that I fail to emphasize. For me--and I'm going to continue saying that this is my ideal for kickasshood and no one else's--there is an edge that make kick-ass female characters a little un-"heroine-like." She has lost her innocence, just as the very scaredy-cat pre-catwoman character did, prior to her costume change ;-). I know Cat Woman will survive. I know my Marlena will survive if her Stash dies. She will do a lot of unpleasant things, but she will survive. After a lot of bloodshed, of course.
Virginal Super Heroine, out in the dark dark world? Nah...she will find her hero in her one big adventure and that's the end of the story. Her "kickass" abilities recede and she is back to her normal self, which is, a nice girl--strong and wonderful and a good person (and oh, no longer a virgin, bwahaha). Kickass? Hardly.
Those heroines aspire to kickass-hood. They want to have their virgin cake and eat it too. They are the oxymoronic shy killers, blushing furiously while they take off their clothes to change in front of the other operatives before switching mode to become terminators when the time comes. Oh wait. But they don't actually pull that trigger, do they? Do they?
And as for being told I'm being demeaning to women just because I don't think virgins make real kickass heroines...oh well, what can I say? It's equally demeaning to call experienced heroines "sluts" because they enjoy more than one man before the right one comes along. What I'm saying is--it's more believable to ME as a reader, when I'm reading a SPY or action heroine out on a mission, that she's a little more worldly, a little more cynical, a little more EXPERIENCED, and a whole lot more thick-skinned than a heroine who turns out to be virginal in all the senses of the word (hymenically, philosophically, mentally, and retardedly). And please, please, gods, don't make her a weapon-virgin (she doesn't believe killing is good for her. THEN WHY ARE YOU A DAMN SPY?!)
This is especially true if the author decides to make her virginal kickass girlie-spy partner with a dark and experienced, thoroughly, sinfully, deliciously wicked uber-spyMAN. In real life, when faced with such inadequacies, the latter will quietly eliminate the girl in question and tell his handler there has been an accident. But in some books, I have to suffer along with the hero as he overcome dangerous situations after dangerous situation while protecting his "partner." Lastly, if she's out to save the world, please let her understand how bad the world is...the last thing I need is an ending where an idealistic goodie-two-shoes heroine suddenly turning the bad guys to mush with just a fantastic speech straight from a summer movie.
(ed. today: EARLY) Anita Blake kicks ass. I might not agree with her choices, but there is no question in my mind that she will survive anything life throws at her. Buffy The Vampire Slayer kicks ass. She loses everything and yet she continues. They are both dark and edgy, with a macabre sense of humor coming through at the oddest moments. They know the dark side (of men, of sex, whatever) and they play with it, are attracted to it, and make choices about it. That's what makes them sexy and dangerous to me, as well, as their men.
And not to my surprise, the aforementioned author who vented against my post does not like either of these two heroines. Which is fine. But she doesn't get "kickass", for sure ;-).
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
A Re-Rant: Virgins Really Should Get Penetrated First Before They Kill People For A Living.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
I was so excited when I first read Linda Howard's Kiss me While I Sleep years ago. The heroine was a real assassin! But in the end, the hero did all the killing. Grrr.
I was also very disappointed by a bunch categories, was it Intimate Moments, where they were doing a series on spies through the year, and of those twelve books, at least nine were super female spies who never had sex. Can you see me hitting my head against my desktop?
It is okay to have a female spy who knows how to seduce, people. Like, hmm.... T!!!!!!!!!!
I truly enjoy "sweet" romances where the woman is a virgin, she meets her virile soul mate and they make wonderfully, passionate love until they're 90 and they kill each other in bed - making love of course.
But I REALLY love a heroine I can relate to in the "grown up" sense of the word. Women love sex. Plain. Simple. Some women love it more than 20 men put together and they should not be ashamed of this fact. These are the women with strong passions and a strong sense of self AND the heroines who kick the asses of her foes within a hundred mile radius with only their big toe because . . . well, that's her job and she's damned good at it.
I would have a harder time reading about a uber-spy chick, a hard living assassin, or a rogue agent if she were a virgin unless there was a really, really good reason for it. No offense to virgins, having been one myself, but my instincts was different. I, personally, believe there are certain nuances between men and women they may miss or opportunities for manipulation (in a work of fiction, of course) they would not be able to delve into because you have to understand certain aspects of the psyche in a sexually active/aware person.
I can’t be comfortable with a heroine who can handle herself around guns and is not afraid to take a life of an evil being for the greater good, but doesn’t know that Kama Sutra is more than a flavor of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. I want a fully developed character who enjoys the thrills of all her experiences and is not afraid to let herself go and ask for what she wants – in and out of bed.
Deb
Silly Jenn, you know you can win ALL these arguments by using your resume--FORMER CIA EMPLOYEE.
I've given up LOGICAL and reality in everything I read--be it romance novel, news article, nutrition label, IKEA instructions...
I totally agree. I prefer a well rounded kick-ass heroine who has some sexual experience. Doesn't mean she always has to be on "top", just that she could be if she wanted.
Personally I don't' like them... I like my heroines to be kick-ass. period. Seeing as I'm not so kick-ass myself [cuz umm duh I'm no assassin]... I love to read about women who rock. So no virgins for moi thank you.
I think Jenn, you are pointing out that humans have an undeniable sexual aspect that they must be in touch with to be fully mature people. To have a full sense of your own sexual maturity you do not have to have been penetrated (most lesbians would agree here, I'm sure) but you do have to have experience.
Ahhh! Life happens, and the next thing I know, the virgin parade has passed me by! Ah well. Here goes anyway.
It's essentially about Gusto and Gray. There are those who play by the rules and those who sail off past the edge of the map to find the New World.
“Good Girls Don’t” is a cliché for a reason. Putting aside trauma or other exceptional causes, the usual reason for remaining a virgin* after your hormones kick in and you’re old enough to get yourself alone in a private place with your significant other is an adherence to a strict set of rules—whether religious, cultural or extremely high standards. It tends to arise out of a black-and-white style of thinking, and it tends to be externally derived. It’s essentially drawing an artificial line in the sand against, well, our own biological life force. (I’m definitely not saying that it’s not a perfectly valid choice. I’m just saying that it’s a certain *kind* of choice.)
Kick-ass people tend to be rule breakers. They take their own view of the big picture and they make their own decisions about what’s right and wrong. They’re high-energy people who are driven from within, for sometimes complex reasons, and they tend to have found along the way that some rules are good (i.e., don’t drive the wrong direction on the freeway) and some rules are less helpful—which they then discard. Sometimes this works pretty well and you get the Amelia Earhearts of the world. Sometimes you end up with the Donald Trumps.
But you almost never end up with virgins. It’s a willingness to take risks for the reward. And it’s the psycho- and biochemistry of “drive.” His ‘n’ her hormones getting revved up by an aggressive way of life. Anyone who’s got the passion to go balls-to-the-wall on the world will have come to terms with their own sex drive along the way. This usually (but, I admit, not always) involves having had sex with someone else.
I mean, come on. Who’d believe it if Rene Russo’s Catherine Banning told Pierce Brosnan’s Thomas Crowne “Sorry, buddy, it’s cold shower time?!?” And who’d want to watch that movie, anyway?
We all secretly love the rebels. This is because, at some point, most of us realize that The Rules don’t really work in real life. We realize that life is a lot more gray than absolute. And we love to see the smart-mouthed heroes and heroines who fight back against a dysfunctional system and WIN.
We love Hell-on-Wheels and Jed because they cross the line, but still somehow manage to come out through the gray areas wearing a white hat and smelling like… um, rose-scented massage oil or something.
*(meaning abstinent from sexual intercourse of any orientation)
The Virgin Parade, LOL. Pam, you crack me up.
I have nothing against virgins, live or fictional ;-). In fact, I've enjoyed many of them in my guilty pleasure candy-fluff, Harlequin Presents books.
I just don't buy their existence in certain situations in my book reading, that's all. Like a reader's comment above, there was one year when Harlequin/Silhouette put out a series of superspy books called The Year of Loving Dangerously, or something like that. Every month, there was one book out from a different author, and every one, it's a new virgin heroine who's been spying for a while, with skillz like some kind of super-babe. But sorry, they didn't go there*, even with the hero because they were "good girls" who just happened to be superspies. Argh. I was one frustrated and disbelieving reader.
Again, not saying that a dick would make a girl a superspy or kickass. That kind of logic is just crazy talk. But don't write a world-weary, experienced spy, a Renee Russon type character in The Crowne Affair, and expect me not to laugh when, during the scene where she wore the see-through thingie, she turns and casually remarks, "And btw, I've never slept with a man before." That kind of writing? Head. Desk.
Recently, there is the historical by Bourne, The Spymaster's Lady. I gave it a bit more leeway because it's a historical and the heroine wouldn't have the freedom today's written heroine would have. But Annique was a virgin and I totally didn't buy it at all. I forgave the author, but it knocked me out of the book entirely. Thank God, even though she was superspy of her time, the author did make her nineteen (?) and also do some stupid virgin stuff because if she'd been too good at her job and somehow stayed a virgin, I'd have ranted. But the state of her hymen became her downfall, which really hurt that story, imo. Yet, it's still my favorite book of the year ;-).
Post a Comment