The Need for Heroine's Journey Stories
by Deborah Whitaker, 2018
I don't recall ever being this disappointed in a film. Loving Madeleine L'Engle's Newbery award-winning A Wrinkle in Time about the story of Meg Murry and her otherworldly travels, I looked forward to seeing it turned into a film. I was especially excited after hearing about the female filmmakers behind it: Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon (Wild, Big Little Lies), Ava DuVernay (Selma, 13th) and Jennifer Lee (Frozen, Frozen II), among others. But by the very first act my heart sank, and I almost didn't make it to the end.
Rotten Tomatoes tomatometer gave it a 42% critic's rating, with only 27% of the audience liking it. Many critics used verbal punches to process their swift fall from high expectation -- "As Winfrey sees it, Wrinkle the movie heightens the stakes even more. 'I felt like we were making the new Wizard of Oz for another generation'" -- to clear disappointment:
Ouch, especially since A Wrinkle in Time was a well-intended and much-needed film to inspire adolescent girls of color. As director Ava DuVernay, the first black woman to direct a film with a budget of over $100 million, explained in a March 2018 interview, “When I was growing up, I had brown hair, glasses, and braces. So, based on these attributes, why couldn’t Meg be portrayed as a black girl?” Oprah Winfrey continued “I think unless you are a person of color who never sees yourself, you don’t really understand what it’s like to never see images that reflect you back to you, and how important that is.” Reese Witherspoon added “I think there’s so much out there that makes girls lose confidence in themselves. They’re bombarded by images that don’t look like them and are unattainable.”
These women are the pioneers I admire, especially Jennifer Lee who, with Frozen II, created the standard-bearer of the heroine's journey. Their intentions were pure. So, what went wrong? We can only guess. Perhaps they forgot to seal it with a KISS: Keep it (the Story) Simple. With its 15 Academy Awards, 9 Golden Globes and 11 Grammys, Pixar relies on six storytelling rules; their last, and perhaps most critical one, is to keep the story "simple and focused."
This rule makes the process sound effortless but as a screenwriter, I can attest in a multitude of ways that it's not, and the brilliant women behind this movie most likely can too. It's easy for any writer or filmmaker to make the cardinal sin of telling not showing, and then get so stuck in the muck, the story's clarity and depth are completely lost.
Yet this issue is about so much more than dissecting what went right and what went wrong in a particular film. The failure of this high budget, greatly anticipated film from a beloved and timeless book and equally beloved and esteemed women filmmakers offers an opportunity to shine a light on the skewed nature of our storytelling culture; a systemic flaw that even the best and brightest of us might be easily subjected to and influenced by: “In 2019, females accounted for 37% of major characters, up just 1 percentage point from 36% in 2018, and 34% of all speaking characters, down 1 percentage point from 35% in 2018. Regarding race and ethnicity, the percentage of Black females in speaking roles declined slightly from 21% in 2018 to 20% in 2019. The percentage of Latinas increased slightly from 4% in 2018 to 5% in 2019. 7% of all female characters were Asian, down 3 percentage points from 10% in 2018, but even with the percentage achieved in 2017.” (It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World”)
In its critique of A Wrinkle in Time Movie Nation nailed it: "The “Hero’s (heroine’s) Journey” quest takes a back seat, when it’s given any seat at all." The hero's journey format in screenwriting -- the mythic structure of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth -- has helped create some of our most favorite films. Star Wars, Spiderman, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc. The heroine's journey is less known, with far fewer movies having used it, and then only recently (Brave, The Hunger Games, Inside Out).
Describing the main difference between the Heroine’s and Hero's Journey, screenwriter and industry blogger Ken Miyamoto writes that the heroine’s journey is more "centered on moving forward, with the female trying to bridge the gap between male and female roles while The Hero’s Journey is often much more about personal glory and achieving victory in the end."
Rotten Tomatoes tomatometer gave it a 42% critic's rating, with only 27% of the audience liking it. Many critics used verbal punches to process their swift fall from high expectation -- "As Winfrey sees it, Wrinkle the movie heightens the stakes even more. 'I felt like we were making the new Wizard of Oz for another generation'" -- to clear disappointment:
- "The movie drinks its own Kool-Aid…. saturated with self-importance."-Cleveland Plain Dealer
- "A sincere attempt at empowerment crushed into preachy dullness." -- Entertainment Weekly
- "Almost every scene is so saturated with clumsily delivered ‘believe in yourself’ mantras that it becomes monotonous, meaningless and even creepy."- Dark Horizons
Ouch, especially since A Wrinkle in Time was a well-intended and much-needed film to inspire adolescent girls of color. As director Ava DuVernay, the first black woman to direct a film with a budget of over $100 million, explained in a March 2018 interview, “When I was growing up, I had brown hair, glasses, and braces. So, based on these attributes, why couldn’t Meg be portrayed as a black girl?” Oprah Winfrey continued “I think unless you are a person of color who never sees yourself, you don’t really understand what it’s like to never see images that reflect you back to you, and how important that is.” Reese Witherspoon added “I think there’s so much out there that makes girls lose confidence in themselves. They’re bombarded by images that don’t look like them and are unattainable.”
These women are the pioneers I admire, especially Jennifer Lee who, with Frozen II, created the standard-bearer of the heroine's journey. Their intentions were pure. So, what went wrong? We can only guess. Perhaps they forgot to seal it with a KISS: Keep it (the Story) Simple. With its 15 Academy Awards, 9 Golden Globes and 11 Grammys, Pixar relies on six storytelling rules; their last, and perhaps most critical one, is to keep the story "simple and focused."
This rule makes the process sound effortless but as a screenwriter, I can attest in a multitude of ways that it's not, and the brilliant women behind this movie most likely can too. It's easy for any writer or filmmaker to make the cardinal sin of telling not showing, and then get so stuck in the muck, the story's clarity and depth are completely lost.
Yet this issue is about so much more than dissecting what went right and what went wrong in a particular film. The failure of this high budget, greatly anticipated film from a beloved and timeless book and equally beloved and esteemed women filmmakers offers an opportunity to shine a light on the skewed nature of our storytelling culture; a systemic flaw that even the best and brightest of us might be easily subjected to and influenced by: “In 2019, females accounted for 37% of major characters, up just 1 percentage point from 36% in 2018, and 34% of all speaking characters, down 1 percentage point from 35% in 2018. Regarding race and ethnicity, the percentage of Black females in speaking roles declined slightly from 21% in 2018 to 20% in 2019. The percentage of Latinas increased slightly from 4% in 2018 to 5% in 2019. 7% of all female characters were Asian, down 3 percentage points from 10% in 2018, but even with the percentage achieved in 2017.” (It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World”)
In its critique of A Wrinkle in Time Movie Nation nailed it: "The “Hero’s (heroine’s) Journey” quest takes a back seat, when it’s given any seat at all." The hero's journey format in screenwriting -- the mythic structure of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth -- has helped create some of our most favorite films. Star Wars, Spiderman, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc. The heroine's journey is less known, with far fewer movies having used it, and then only recently (Brave, The Hunger Games, Inside Out).
Describing the main difference between the Heroine’s and Hero's Journey, screenwriter and industry blogger Ken Miyamoto writes that the heroine’s journey is more "centered on moving forward, with the female trying to bridge the gap between male and female roles while The Hero’s Journey is often much more about personal glory and achieving victory in the end."
Depth psychologist Anne Davin, PhD, further differentiates: "The hero is self-sacrificing; the heroine receives from others. The hero dominates; the heroine surrenders. The hero competes; the heroine collaborates. The hero asks, “What can I get for myself?” The heroine asks, “How can I serve the dream?”
In her book, "The Heroine's Journey, Woman's Quest for Wholeness", author Maureen Murdock writes (in 1987), "it appears to me that the intense focus on female spirituality at this time is a direct result of so many women having taken the hero's journey, only to find it personally empty and dangerous for humanity."
How can the hero's journey be dangerous? Story impacts us on a deep level. Recent neuroscience studies indicate that when reading a story, different brain regions collaborate to create an experience that is much like imagining a real life vivid event. Evolutionary theorists call our need for narrative ‘literary Darwinism’: ”Storytelling is a form of cognitive play that hones our minds, allowing us to simulate the world around us and imagine different strategies, particularly in social situations. It teaches us about other people and it’s a practice in empathy and theory of mind,” (Joseph Carroll, University of Missouri-St Louis.)
Female-led feature films are now making as much money at the box office, if not more, as male leads, but the percentage of women stories and female filmmakers -- and therefore the stories written from the female point of view -- is staggeringly low. Of the 1200 films produced in the last ten years, a recent study revealed that only 4% were directed by women, and according to the 2017 Celluloid Report, only 11 percent of the top-grossing 250 films of the year were written by women. A historical comparison of women’s employment in the top 250 films in 2017 and 1998 reveals that the percentages of women writers has actually declined. Even Pixar doesn't get a pass. "Historically, Pixar's greatest critics have taken issue with the studio's lack of female and culturally diverse characters.” (Chris Weller, Tech Insider)
In her book, "The Heroine's Journey, Woman's Quest for Wholeness", author Maureen Murdock writes (in 1987), "it appears to me that the intense focus on female spirituality at this time is a direct result of so many women having taken the hero's journey, only to find it personally empty and dangerous for humanity."
How can the hero's journey be dangerous? Story impacts us on a deep level. Recent neuroscience studies indicate that when reading a story, different brain regions collaborate to create an experience that is much like imagining a real life vivid event. Evolutionary theorists call our need for narrative ‘literary Darwinism’: ”Storytelling is a form of cognitive play that hones our minds, allowing us to simulate the world around us and imagine different strategies, particularly in social situations. It teaches us about other people and it’s a practice in empathy and theory of mind,” (Joseph Carroll, University of Missouri-St Louis.)
Female-led feature films are now making as much money at the box office, if not more, as male leads, but the percentage of women stories and female filmmakers -- and therefore the stories written from the female point of view -- is staggeringly low. Of the 1200 films produced in the last ten years, a recent study revealed that only 4% were directed by women, and according to the 2017 Celluloid Report, only 11 percent of the top-grossing 250 films of the year were written by women. A historical comparison of women’s employment in the top 250 films in 2017 and 1998 reveals that the percentages of women writers has actually declined. Even Pixar doesn't get a pass. "Historically, Pixar's greatest critics have taken issue with the studio's lack of female and culturally diverse characters.” (Chris Weller, Tech Insider)
Photo thanks to Thought Catalog
This grossly slanted industry is shaping women's stories. In my attempts to sell my screenplays over the years, I've encountered this scenario first hand. My first script, The Widow's Walk, is a classic heroine's journey. It’s based on the true story of Mary Ann Patten, a pregnant, 19-year-old Clipper ship captain’s wife who, in 1856, commanded a 216 foot Clipper ship of 35 men to safe port, all while nursing her dying husband.
Not long after I wrote it, a local production company offered to take an option on it. This was my introduction to the industry. Sitting alone with the producer and director - both men - I was told about their plan to approach the cable channel Lifetime, the only place to sell a woman’s story at the time. Considering their offer, I asked the director what he loved most about the story. He replied, "the ship". No matter how much I wanted to make this movie, my attorney confirmed my apprehension when she said she couldn’t recommend going forward with this company. I turned down their offer. I knew my script would be turned into something it was never meant to be, dismantling its message and the opportunity to positively impact both men and women.
And it wouldn't surprise me if something similar happened with the production of A Wrinkle in Time. If so, what concerns me most is that, years later, even powerful Academy award-winning women filmmakers may still be subjected to similar scenarios.
This also isn’t surprising. Thanks to the Me Too and Times Up Movements, the rampant sexism in Hollywood and the horrific way women in the film industry have been mistreated and silenced for decades is just now coming to the surface. The prevailing bias toward the mythological path of the male within our stories may be a subtler issue, but it’s still a form of sexism, with profound and lasting effects. Maureen Murdock writes “Women emulated the male heroic journey because there were no other images to emulate, a woman was either “successful” in the male-oriented culture or dominated and dependent as a female. To change the economic, social, and political structures of society, we must now find new myths and heroines.”
The heroine’s journey can provide a gold standard, like the hero’s journey once did. There are some disagreements in properly defining the heroine’s journey, but not when it comes to its most basic principle. The heroine cycles through a separation from the feminine, expressing herself through a masculine paradigm, and then returning to the feminine.
Maureen Murdock goes on to quote none other than Madeleine L'Engle: "Part of the calling of women… is to revive a spirituality of creativity that is not afraid of the strange beauty of the underwater world of the subconscious, and to help men out of the restricted and narrow world of provable and limited fact in which society has imprisoned them.”
As a construct to emulate, the hero’s journey can be imprisoning. A depth Psychologist, Craig Chalquist, Ph.D., writes that he seldom teaches the hero’s journey anymore: “What in the end does the Hero’s Journey offer people who are not heroes? A way to understand them, perhaps, but certainly not a path open to everyone... We Americans have a troubling history of over-identification with this archetype. We don’t have it: it has us. Psychological possession.”
Popular comic book illustrator Alice Meichi Li expresses concern about women being stuffed inside the hero’s journey. “A heroine is thrust into a world gone mad. Everything has flipped and turned upside down and heroines are struggling to find their way home. They feel that they are the only sane ones… It would be wonderful for it to feel realistic for a woman to go on a hero’s journey, Alice in Wonderland and Dorothy in Oz as heroes only return to the status quo. When they win, they get to go home. Great you’re home! (laughs) Nothing’s changed. It’s not really a huge deal, you know?”
Not long after I wrote it, a local production company offered to take an option on it. This was my introduction to the industry. Sitting alone with the producer and director - both men - I was told about their plan to approach the cable channel Lifetime, the only place to sell a woman’s story at the time. Considering their offer, I asked the director what he loved most about the story. He replied, "the ship". No matter how much I wanted to make this movie, my attorney confirmed my apprehension when she said she couldn’t recommend going forward with this company. I turned down their offer. I knew my script would be turned into something it was never meant to be, dismantling its message and the opportunity to positively impact both men and women.
And it wouldn't surprise me if something similar happened with the production of A Wrinkle in Time. If so, what concerns me most is that, years later, even powerful Academy award-winning women filmmakers may still be subjected to similar scenarios.
This also isn’t surprising. Thanks to the Me Too and Times Up Movements, the rampant sexism in Hollywood and the horrific way women in the film industry have been mistreated and silenced for decades is just now coming to the surface. The prevailing bias toward the mythological path of the male within our stories may be a subtler issue, but it’s still a form of sexism, with profound and lasting effects. Maureen Murdock writes “Women emulated the male heroic journey because there were no other images to emulate, a woman was either “successful” in the male-oriented culture or dominated and dependent as a female. To change the economic, social, and political structures of society, we must now find new myths and heroines.”
The heroine’s journey can provide a gold standard, like the hero’s journey once did. There are some disagreements in properly defining the heroine’s journey, but not when it comes to its most basic principle. The heroine cycles through a separation from the feminine, expressing herself through a masculine paradigm, and then returning to the feminine.
Maureen Murdock goes on to quote none other than Madeleine L'Engle: "Part of the calling of women… is to revive a spirituality of creativity that is not afraid of the strange beauty of the underwater world of the subconscious, and to help men out of the restricted and narrow world of provable and limited fact in which society has imprisoned them.”
As a construct to emulate, the hero’s journey can be imprisoning. A depth Psychologist, Craig Chalquist, Ph.D., writes that he seldom teaches the hero’s journey anymore: “What in the end does the Hero’s Journey offer people who are not heroes? A way to understand them, perhaps, but certainly not a path open to everyone... We Americans have a troubling history of over-identification with this archetype. We don’t have it: it has us. Psychological possession.”
Popular comic book illustrator Alice Meichi Li expresses concern about women being stuffed inside the hero’s journey. “A heroine is thrust into a world gone mad. Everything has flipped and turned upside down and heroines are struggling to find their way home. They feel that they are the only sane ones… It would be wonderful for it to feel realistic for a woman to go on a hero’s journey, Alice in Wonderland and Dorothy in Oz as heroes only return to the status quo. When they win, they get to go home. Great you’re home! (laughs) Nothing’s changed. It’s not really a huge deal, you know?”
Photo by Sam Manns
Like our characters, women writers and filmmakers are on their own unique heroine's journey. We express the masculine only to reconnect and reclaim our feminine nature, in our stories, and in our lives. After writing a parable, five screenplays, and five life fables, I’ve learned there is a profound difference between writing a story of a successful woman and writing a heroine’s journey. For the audience, a film produced from the first may be interesting, while a film produced from the latter may just be life-altering. The path of a heroine is not toward success, but toward herself. That’s what going home in the heroine’s journey truly means, and when the heroine does return home, she has plenty to say, as well as the means to say it.
“The heroine must become a spiritual warrior. This demands that she learn the delicate art of balance and have the patience for the slow, subtle integration of the feminine and masculine aspects of herself. She first hungers to lose her feminine self and to merge with the masculine, and once she has done this, she begins to realize that this is neither the answer nor the end…. she will then begin to use these skills to work toward the larger quest of bringing people together, rather than for her own individual gain. This is the sacred marriage of the feminine and masculine - when a woman can truly serve not only the needs of others but can value and be responsive to her own needs as well.” (Maureen Murdock, The Heroine’s Journey)
“L'Engle, who passed away in 2007, was wary of her works being adapted to film. Of a critically derided "The Wonderful World of Disney" version of Wrinkle that aired in 2004, she was quoted as saying, "I expected it to be bad, and it is."” (Zach Smith, Indyweek) We can only wonder what she would have thought of the latest version. Maureen Murdock finishes Madeleine L’Engle’s quote: “My role as a feminist is not to compete with men in their world -- that's too easy, and ultimately unproductive. My job is to live fully as a woman, enjoying the whole of myself and my place in the universe."
Upholding that standard every day isn’t easy. We all must find our own unique way of living fully as a woman, and that path doesn’t come from one already defined for us, especially from Hollywood. As Michelle Obama warns “If you don’t get out there and define yourself, you’ll be quickly and inaccurately defined by others.”
Being daily bombarded by the questionable images of girls and women by the entertainment industry makes it difficult to find our own way. Research conducted at the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media dispels myths that imply things are getting better in the way girls and women are portrayed in Hollywood. Statistically speaking, their research indicates that “there’s been little movement forward in 60 years; messages that diminish and devalue female characters are still rampant.”
“So what message are we sending to our very youngest boys and girls at this very vulnerable age if the female characters are one dimensional, sidelined, stereotyped, hyper-sexualized, or simply not there at all?” asks Geena Davis. “We’re saying that women are less important than men, that girls are less important than boys, that women don’t take up half the space in the world.”
The impact upon girls and women self-esteem due to this cannot be understated. "Media images have an enormous impact on children's self-esteem and aspirations," Davis said. "This is why we decided to launch a global gender in media study: If girls see it, they can be it." In 2019's film "This Changes Everything," Marie Giese summarizes it best: "Women's creative input is not making it into our nation's storytelling." With each story of a heroine that rejects and then returns to the divine feminine, delving deep into the water of her subconscious to bring back the treasures of self she discovers there, we are inspired to take the journey ourselves.
Creating stories about girls and women via the lens of the heroine’s journey is vital in turning this monstrous, slow-moving ship that we call the entertainment industry away from gender bias. The women filmmakers behind A Wrinkle in Time should be commended for taking the ship out of dry dock, which was no small feat. Most likely, they recognize their film was just a beginning. It will take film after film and television series after television series of women of all colors, ages, and ideologies bravely stepping onto the heroine’s journey, in life and on film, for this ship to finally be balanced, and hopefully traveling in open waters at a great clip.
With each story of a heroine that rejects and then returns to the divine feminine, delving deep into the water of her subconscious to bring back the treasures of self she discovers there, we are inspired to take the journey ourselves. As Meg Murry said, "Maybe I don't like being different . . . but I don't want to be like everybody else, either."
“The heroine must become a spiritual warrior. This demands that she learn the delicate art of balance and have the patience for the slow, subtle integration of the feminine and masculine aspects of herself. She first hungers to lose her feminine self and to merge with the masculine, and once she has done this, she begins to realize that this is neither the answer nor the end…. she will then begin to use these skills to work toward the larger quest of bringing people together, rather than for her own individual gain. This is the sacred marriage of the feminine and masculine - when a woman can truly serve not only the needs of others but can value and be responsive to her own needs as well.” (Maureen Murdock, The Heroine’s Journey)
“L'Engle, who passed away in 2007, was wary of her works being adapted to film. Of a critically derided "The Wonderful World of Disney" version of Wrinkle that aired in 2004, she was quoted as saying, "I expected it to be bad, and it is."” (Zach Smith, Indyweek) We can only wonder what she would have thought of the latest version. Maureen Murdock finishes Madeleine L’Engle’s quote: “My role as a feminist is not to compete with men in their world -- that's too easy, and ultimately unproductive. My job is to live fully as a woman, enjoying the whole of myself and my place in the universe."
Upholding that standard every day isn’t easy. We all must find our own unique way of living fully as a woman, and that path doesn’t come from one already defined for us, especially from Hollywood. As Michelle Obama warns “If you don’t get out there and define yourself, you’ll be quickly and inaccurately defined by others.”
Being daily bombarded by the questionable images of girls and women by the entertainment industry makes it difficult to find our own way. Research conducted at the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media dispels myths that imply things are getting better in the way girls and women are portrayed in Hollywood. Statistically speaking, their research indicates that “there’s been little movement forward in 60 years; messages that diminish and devalue female characters are still rampant.”
“So what message are we sending to our very youngest boys and girls at this very vulnerable age if the female characters are one dimensional, sidelined, stereotyped, hyper-sexualized, or simply not there at all?” asks Geena Davis. “We’re saying that women are less important than men, that girls are less important than boys, that women don’t take up half the space in the world.”
The impact upon girls and women self-esteem due to this cannot be understated. "Media images have an enormous impact on children's self-esteem and aspirations," Davis said. "This is why we decided to launch a global gender in media study: If girls see it, they can be it." In 2019's film "This Changes Everything," Marie Giese summarizes it best: "Women's creative input is not making it into our nation's storytelling." With each story of a heroine that rejects and then returns to the divine feminine, delving deep into the water of her subconscious to bring back the treasures of self she discovers there, we are inspired to take the journey ourselves.
Creating stories about girls and women via the lens of the heroine’s journey is vital in turning this monstrous, slow-moving ship that we call the entertainment industry away from gender bias. The women filmmakers behind A Wrinkle in Time should be commended for taking the ship out of dry dock, which was no small feat. Most likely, they recognize their film was just a beginning. It will take film after film and television series after television series of women of all colors, ages, and ideologies bravely stepping onto the heroine’s journey, in life and on film, for this ship to finally be balanced, and hopefully traveling in open waters at a great clip.
With each story of a heroine that rejects and then returns to the divine feminine, delving deep into the water of her subconscious to bring back the treasures of self she discovers there, we are inspired to take the journey ourselves. As Meg Murry said, "Maybe I don't like being different . . . but I don't want to be like everybody else, either."
