Does the Heroine's journey work without misogony?

 

    I found the Hero and Heroine’s journeys odd that a male and female protagonist would have different general outlines for their adventures. Why not have different templates based on how the story is structured or based on the focus of the story? Campbell’s 17 step hero’s journey often focuses on the hero’s goal in the physical world, often something like destroying the death star in Star Wars. Along the way, the hero learns and evolves to better understand themselves, often represented in the “master of 2 worlds” and “atonement with father” steps of the journey. While exceptions show Campbell’s template is not solely about physical transformations, Siddhartha for example, the focus of Campbell’s structure focuses on a goal outside of the hero. Often the goal benefits society or a larger group, rather than just the hero. 

    The Heroine’s journey on the other hand, especially Murdock’s diagram, focuses on the heroine’s journey of self discovery and finding their place in the world. Most of Murdock’s steps focus on the heroine’s personal discovery. Separation from the feminine, Identification with the Masculine, the Union of feminine and masculine all focus on the heroine finding where they belong in the world, how to portray themselves, who to look up to. 

    The reason the heroine’s journey was created as separate from the hero’s journey was to illustrate the differences male and female protagonists face in their journeys since humans live in a unequal world. Women face more and different obstacles from men due to systemic misogyny and conscious and subconscious biases against women. My question is, in a world without patriarchal injustices and inequalities, does the Heroine’s journey work as a model of protagonists’ journeys? 

    I think the as the Hero’s journey works better in describing large scale problems which the hero faces to help improve the world. Since the hero’s journey diagram focuses on some outside force calling the hero to adventure, Campbell’s model focuses more on what the Hero does to help the world around them. Murdock’s Heroine’s journey on the other hand focuses on the journey of self discovery of the protagonist. With steps including “separation from the feminine” and “healing of the wounded masculine”, Murdock’s model is all about the protagonists self discovery. 

    Murdock writes that in the early stages of the journey, the heroine finds “Identification with the Masculine, but not one’s inner personal masculinity. Rather, it is the outer patriarchal masculine whose driving force is power” and the protagonists struggles with the implications of identifying with the masculine and feminine throughout their journey. (Murdock, “The Heroine’s Journey”). The heroine has personal battles about their gender, self image, and the balance of feminine and masculine sides of themselves they wish to portray. Due to the emphasis on the journey of self discovery, I think in a world of complete gender equality, Murdock’s model would effectively model stories heavy on personal growth and improvement. 

    Of course exceptions to these generalizations about the models of the hero’s and heroine’s journey always exist and the models cannot portray every story. Storytelling is meant to be original.

-Kai