The heroine with a thousand faces
I admit I struggle with society's stereotype of the strong woman.
The kick-boxing leader-figure sarcastically showing male colleagues how incompetent they are. The gobby ladette who don't take no **** from no one.
Loud. Domineering. The female bully.
I find it hopelessly reductive in its portrayal.
What if you're a woman who sees herself as not pushy, but a gentler personality, nurturing, sometimes hurt?
Who maybe struggles sometimes with bouts of depression or anxiety?
Who doesn't feel she's 100% successful all the time?
There is such a thing as gentle strength.
So my ears swivelled round like our cat's when I heard Irish singer-songwriter Dani Larkin talking about her album, Notes From a Maiden Warrior.
The 'notes' are her songs. The 'maiden warrior' is herself. Why this status, what does it mean to her, and why does it resonate with me?
In Irish Celtic mythology, ‘Maiden’ refers to the first aspect of womanhood or femininity. Within a Jungian psychological model it is one of the three female archetypes.
‘Warrior’ refers to the fact Dani is from the province of Ulster which she explains is the warrior province within the island of Ireland.
She feels rooted in that warrior sense but ‘not in that particularly masculine or violent way we currently understand it, but the wildness and resilience and strength we find within femininity.’
‘The wildness and resilience and strength we find within femininity.’
'Find' can be taken to mean sometimes we have to make an effort to find it.
I love the fact that she uses the word ‘femininity’ which is so often a term clouded in a miasma of pink and frilly Disney princessiness.
Dani, a graduate in history and sociology, with a Master’s degree in international conflict and cooperation, uses her feminine warriorhood not in the masculine way referred to above but in peace-building in Palestine, Israel, Romania, Indonesia and Colombia.
Conflict resolution rather than conflict escalation.
The truth is, a woman may be showing her strength every day of her life not by heroics but by simply going out and facing the world to the best of her ability.
You don't have to kick ass, or be badass, or tough girl, or girl boss to have feminine strength.
You can decide to be a heroine rather than a hero.
The heroine has a thousand faces.
