Don’t Send Me Any Heroines

One escaped family chains, wrote a book; one taught first graders. Both make a difference.

The women I love most — care about, write/text/email often, support or emulate, depending on the season — are NOT heroines.

Each of them, yes, has done some amazing things. Some make life manageable for their grandkids, or “ref” girls’ soccer teams, or support and structure much-needed nonprofits. There’s a doctor who was one of the first women at her medical school, a lawyer who proves that youth and dark skin are assets at work, and plenty of them have showcased the shorn heads and gutsy determination of aggressive cancer treatment. Two sit in legislatures; many are published writers adding depth to readers’ lives or making vital information public.

Maria Tatar brought out her new book The Heroine With 1001 Faces in September 2021. It’s her response to the Joseph Campbell classic The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Tatar’s book ranges “from Cassandra and Scheherazade to Nancy Drew and Wonder Woman.”

And that’s lovely.

Grateful for places to meet such friends …

But I’m in the trenches with my friends, as we wrestle with the implications of a changing American culture that may yet curtail a woman’s ability to choose when and with whom she gets pregnant. (Note that bearing a baby, for most of us, is a…