I hope, I really hope, that we will
soon, finally, see the end of the stupid heroine. You know the one I mean, the
one who is Too Stupid To Live (TSTL) and needs rescuing at every turn. Usually
she is rescued by the hero, occasionally by a good friend or relative. And the
hero is attractive and capable, but if it’s a female friend/relative then she’s
not nearly as attractive as the heroine because apparently being TSTL makes you
sexy and desirable. Personally I think it makes her Too Stupid To Be Loved and
I find it difficult to understand why the hero is attracted to her.
TSTL heroines were especially prominent
in times past. Although Georgette Heyer has some excellent feisty heroines (the
eponymous Venetia and Sophy) she also has some quite foolish ones (Horatia in The Convenient Marriage, Nell in April Lady). And I haven’t read any
Barbara Cartland for decades, but as far as I can remember all her heroines were TSTL. In fact, some of them were too stupid
to speak in complete sentences, but that’s a topic for another day. Almost all
Mills and Boon heroines I read in my teens were TSTL – in fact the first time I
came across a book with a female doctor as a heroine my teenage mind couldn’t
compute it: if she was a doctor she must be bright, so how could she be the
heroine??
I would like to think we have moved on
from this mindset and that we don’t ever meet TSTL heroines these days. However,
there is evidence to the contrary. Bella in the Twilight series is often TSTL
and yet she is adored by the vampire hero, and by thousands of teenage readers. Why?
Really? I haven’t managed to read any of E L James’ books to the end, but
Anastasia strikes me as another TSTL heroine. Just by way of example, in the
first chapter of Fifty Shades Of Grey she:
is pushed into doing an interview she doesn’t want to do, dresses
inappropriately, doesn’t know what Christian Grey looks like or his age despite
him being a famous local, falls over her own feet, can’t work the recording
device and just generally hasn’t done even the most basic preparation for the
task at hand. So TSTLs are clearly (and unfortunately) not yet dead and gone.
But there is hope! Mills and Boon
heroines these days occasionally do something silly, or make mistakes, but they
are not unbelievably stupid. The heroines of all the women’s fiction books I have
read in the last ten years have been either reasonably or exceptionally
capable. As well as appearing in much crime fiction as the corpse (where she
obviously was TSTL, but was not the heroine), women also often feature as the
detective or sleuth. Erotica also often features a strong heroine, so E L James
is not typical of the genre.
I don’t read much literary fiction, but
I think in general there have been fewer TSTL heroines here, although there are
often unattractive ones (and I don’t mean in appearance).
I would like to say to my fellow female
writers: if you are a writer, you are probably not stupid. So please don’t
portray women in your books as stupid. And to male writers: a stupid heroine is
not a realistic heroine, so don’t go down that route. I’m pleased to say that
having scanned the list of current best-selling romances (the genre that
interests me most) I can’t see a stupid heroine among them. From Jill Mansell
to Katie Fforde, from Trisha Ashley to Veronica Henry – the heroines may be
wacky, they may be quirky, but they are not stupid! Progress has indeed been
made. Compare this to the 1970s when books by Judith Krantz and Jacqueline
Susann dominated the best-seller lists.
I’d be fascinated to know if anyone has
adored a book with a stupid heroine – and, if so, why?
