A hero in Greek mythology and folklore was a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability. First applied to human men in the 14th century, it wasn't until the 15th, when "hero" extended to more general moral excellence, that heroine came to signify female heroes. So today, do we call a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities a hero, and a woman with the same heroic qualities a heroine? No, Rosalie insists. Given the devaluation and discounting of woman-associated words in our language, it seems best to support hero, a neutral term, for all.

Joan Michel  

HERO/HEROINE

The words "hero" and "heroine" convey subtle--and sometimes not so subtle-differences to a reader or an audience. (See sidebar quote. Do we imagine that heroes are also virgins?) We need to use "hero" for both men and women. In 1939, Amelia Earhart wrote, "No one can scan the shelves of teen-age reading matter without being struck with the fact that girls are evidently not expected to join in the fun. There are no heroines following the shining paths of romantic adventure, as do the heroes of boys' books.

Jan van den Hoecke Hero bewails the death of Leander. Hero, a priestess of Sestos, loves Leander who swims across the Hellespont to meet her, but drowns.

For instance, who ever heard of a girl--a pleasant one--shipping on an oil tanker, say, finding the crew about to mutiny and saving the captain's life (while quelling the mutiny) with a well-aimed disabling pistol shot at the leader of the gang! No, goings-on of this sort are left to masculine characters, to be lived over joyously by the boy readers."

Things aren't that different today. Once you set up women as a subset (a heroine is a female hero), there's no longer any equality. To say that "hero" is the masculine form of the Greek word, while "heroine" is the feminine is really only useful if you are speaking Greek, which we are not.

Also, oddly, two of Greek mythology's best-known lovers were named Hero and Leander, and Hero was not the manly half. Although theoretically it should be possible to use "hero" and "heroine" in a gender-fair manner, they are already subtly weighted in favor of the broader, more prestigious "hero" and, given the devaluation and discounting of woman-associated words in our language, it seems best to support one neutral term. Do you think of Norma Rae as a hero or a heroine? Joan of Arc--hero or heroine?

Do you have one image of a hero, another of a heroine? The most common use of heroine today is the reference to the female main character in a literary work. But you can just as easily refer to her as the protagonist, the main character, the central character ... or as the hero of the story.

ABOUT ROSALIE

Of Sicilian heritage, ROSALIE MAGGIO was born in Texas, grew up in Fort Dodge, IA, and today lives in Pine Mountain, CA. With her seven fratelli e sorella, her best friends, she has recently co-authored "Pieces of Eight," a memoir of anecdotes from their past and e-mail exchanges from their collective present. A graduate of The College of St. Catherine, St. Paul, MN, Rosalie is married to David Koskenmaki and the proud mother of three. She reads hundreds of books every year and her hobbies include a daily walk in the woods and collecting inkwells. Among her 20 books of particular interest to feminists are the "Dictionary of Bias-Free Usage: A Guide to Nondiscriminatory Language," "The New Beacon Book of Quotations by Women," "An Impulse to Soar: Quotations by Women on Leadership," "Talking About People: A Guide to Fair and Accurate Language," "Quotations from Women on Life", "How to Say It," "Nonsexist Wordfinder: A Dictionary of Gender-Free Usage." Coming soon is "Unspinning the Spin."

More about Rosalie at www.rosaliemaggio.com

Your Comments are Welcome! Just Send them to

Rosalie:maggio1@juno.com or to

Joan: womansvoice123@gmail.com