The Hero's Journey

Here is an excerpt from a piece by Tony Binns.

"The Heroes journey fantasy for men is always starting at the bottom and coming into your own, so you are the complete bad ass at the end. The heroes journey fantasy for women is to be acknowledged for the power they already possess.

"This has real world echoes. Men have always been told to roll up shirt sleeves and work their way to the top, whereas women are struggling to be heard, to not be interrupted, to be taken seriously, to not have their ideas stolen and to have equal pay and opportunity as their male counterparts. We fight for position, they fight for recognition."

I encourage all writers to find and read the whole piece to gain perspective on how to write for a different perspective. And I do agree with this viewpoint, and want to add my thoughts that it also can apply to some degree to more than just the difference between sexes, but also to minority viewpoints, and to those socially and economically deprive. But more than that I feel the entire hero's journey that is a common trope, is a scheme, a scam, a lie. It is just another big lie. The fact is this idea that has been around for hundreds, maybe thousands of years is a fantasy. The leaders, the politicians, the rulers, the dictators, the business men, virtually everyone that has expounded on this ideal since forever, has never experienced it. They have almost all been born to their power and riches, made no journey what so ever, but expect everyone else to believe this is the way of the world. They literally have more, maybe everything in common with the main villains in all the stories that tell of the hero's journey.

Certianlly there are people that take the hero's journey and come out on top, but it is not common. The hero's journey is not the way of the world, but they way the world should be. They good guys should win, hard work and perseverance should be the standard, not the exception. We read these stories, write them, and love them because they embrace hope. That hope should not be the end in itself. It should inspire those not born to the purple to take the journey, to work for change, to be your own hero. A thousand everyday heroes can do more than the greatest heroes of story have ever done. And the challenge for those of us who write, is to change the hero's journey to inspire the next generation of real world heroes.