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216 Love Will Bring You to Your Gift JennIFer STuller Reprinted by permission from Ink-Stained Amazons and Cinematic Warriors: Superwomen in Modern Mythology (I.B. Tauris, 2010), 87–104. Empathy is really the most revolutionary emotion. Gloria steiNem “love”—a CompliCated ConCept if there ever Was one. buffy is told by her spirit guide that love will bring her to her gift. William Marston’s Wonder Woman is made of love, simply because she has the body of a woman. He even wrote that “Man’s use of force without love brings evil and unhappiness. But Wonder Woman has force bound by love and with her strength, represents what every woman should be and really is.”1 In Luc Besson’s film The Fifth Element, the eponymous character finds that the only reason to save our tragic world is for love. and for a time, Xena’s companion Gabrielle follows a pacifist philosophy called “The Way of Love.” Often with women, love is stressed again and again—making it necessary to wonder about this particular emotion, or ethic, consistently being linked to the source of a female hero’s strength. Does love constitute a reimagining of heroism? It’s certainly a different motivation from that of a quest for a prize, be it grail, fleece, dragon, or damsel. It is also a break from the “Lone Wolf” model of heroism, which is rooted in traditional uber-masculinity and isolationism.2 Does the suggestion of love as strength, or as gift, embrace innately female characteristics? Does it infuse what is “naturally” powerful about women into a liberating archetype? Or does it reinforce stereotypes about how women should behave as self-sacrificing nurturers? The assumption that love is inherent in women, but not in men, is a sticky, even sexist concept, and the idea that a female superhero’s greatest gift is her nurturing temperament or her ability to love selflessly certainly has the potential to reinforce stereotypical feminine ideals. But there’s evidence that love in the superwoman does in fact present a reimagining of heroism. Wonder Woman, Xena and Gabrielle, love WIll brIng you To your gIFT 217 Buffy and the Scoobies, and Max Guevara (among others) are compelled by their values, which are in turn reinforced by love—a power greater than any of their physical skills. Their love is the impetus, but becomes integral to their strength, and thus the success of their missions. These superwomen illustrate a new form of heroism for popular culture that is based on loving compassion, and compassion itself is a heroic act. The connection between “love” and superwomen can at first seem troublesome , as it evokes notions of heroines in the traditional sense—of fair maidens and damsels in need of rescue by the hero of the story. But superwomen are not heroines in the traditional sense. Love, as it’s used in stories about the female heroes described throughout this chapter, underscores three intertwined themes: redemption, collaboration, and compassion. Redemption comes through a personal quest to make amends for past wrongs, often with guidance from a partner or a community. This definition of redemption emphasizes the belief that there is an innate good in all of us and allows for second chances. and many superwomen believe that anyone can change and grow into a better person. In the original Wonder Woman series, this is seen as reformation, and in Buffy and Xena, it is seen as redemption. (The difference between reformation and redemption may seem subtle, but the nuance is crucial when evaluating the evolution of emotional complexity in depictions of superheroes in modern myth.) In the early Wonder Woman mythos, “Redemption” came through imprisonment and “love re-education.” Villainnesses were taken to Paradise Island’s sister oasis, Transformation Island (originally named Reform Island), a place where “bad” women were taught to be “good” women. Here, good is of course equated with loving—in keeping with Marston’s theories of the good and beautiful woman who should rule the world with her altruistic love.3 In the Buffyverse, the individual human or demon in question is provided with the agency to decide what kind of life to live and what kind of person they want to be. (and just about anyone who has met Buffy is indeed influenced by her compassionate example to better themselves.) along with female power, redemption is one of the overriding themes of the Whedonverse. Writer/director Joss Whedon has said, Redemption has become one of...

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