The Appeal of Damsels in Distress

Rona, the ultimate damsel in distress?

It doesn't take a genius to recognise that I am fascinated with two types of women. The femme fatale type, made famous of course by the likes of Lauren Bacall, and the damsel in distress, made famous by all those Disney fairy tales made up to the end of the 70s or all those PULP comic and novels from the 40s and 50s, almost all of which have semi naked women tied up by some dastardly moustached villain.

These types are of course, on the face of it, on the extreme opposite ends of the spectrum- although I prefer to think of them as two sides of the same coin.

Generally speaking of course, my stories all seem to start out with damsels in distress. For example, just about all the female characters in The Hellfire Saga start out in distressful situations, their lives in the hands of dangerous and powerful men. Sara Kalu is a young slave girl in need of rescue in Timestorm. And of course, poor Rona Byron in The Blackmail Game (pictured above) is the ultimate damsel in distress, her own weaknesses handing her over to her evil ex-husband who wants his vengeance on her for having the nerve to have left him ten years earlier.

For most of us, the idea that we can be the handsome (or beautiful, depending on your gender & orientation) hero who steps in to save the damsel in distress is a very appealing idea indeed. After all, who wouldn't want to save the princess by slaying the dragon?

Then again, there's also the thrill of finding the damsel, tied and gagged, her clothes torn and ripped, helpless before you, her eyes pleading to be rescued- the same brave heart that wants to be the hero could also, for a moment, be tempted to be the villain.

The idea of the damsel therefore speaks to the duality of human nature; the desire to be a hero, the propensity to be a villain. It's up to you as the individual to decide which will be your response of course, and humans, being complex creatures, can drift along that spectrum depending on the circumstances.

But can a damsel in distress ever manage to become more than the passive object of pity or lust? They certainly can and it's that journey that, for me, makes the damsel in distress even more appealing...