Towards a Better Damsel in Distress Story (Sasha Reed relaunch on the Kindle Store!)

Posted on March 3, 2022 by Rawle Nyanzi

The damsel in distress: a scenario where an attractive female is abducted by a villain, and a hero — usually male — has to save her. Once a common motif in popular culture, it has fallen out of favor in modern times because critics and creatives alike consider it limiting or objectifying. Films like the first Star Wars, Terminator, even the first Bad Boys, — situations like that have been replaced by “action girls” like Furiosa of Mad Max: Fury Road or Rey from the newer Star Wars films. This is hailed as a step forward in storytelling, a rejection of old and bigoted ideas in favor of progress and inclusion.

But in the hurry to abandon the damsel, something is lost: the sense of romance.

It is common to note that women love romance. By contrast, men are said to be uninterested in romance, preferring action or adventure instead.

However, this is false — and the proof is in romance manga aimed at boys.

The truth is that guys like romance just fine — if it appeals to their fantasies, as opposed to those of women. You can do this through harems, idealized girlfriends…or damsels in distress.

Because the male fantasy isn’t only erotic. It is centered around a woman showing admiration for a man who shows how useful and protective he is.

The damsel trope satisfies this: the woman is beautiful, she is rescued through the man’s skill at arms, and she rewards this rescue with love and affection.

Kukuruyo, my main artist, has noticed a certain shift in recent anime (archive):

Add action to that formula and you have a winner.

So I did.

Instead of whining on the internet like so many do, I put my money where my mouth is. I wrote a series of damsel in distress stories called The Perils of Sasha Reed, and now they’re available as an e-book on Amazon itself. Perils is about a pit stop girl who builds a “compact containment device” or “Cocodee” that can fit truckfuls of items in a tiny space. Because of this, bad guys from all over the Earth Sphere seek to kidnap her, and her boyfriend must one to her rescue every time.

Now when I first conceived of this story in January of 2020 (those were such peaceful days), I made an important decision about the main character: she would be an ordinary woman. Competent in science and engineering, but ordinary, with no superpowers. This is meant to create a sense of danger when a villain hauls her off; damsels don’t work when they’re superpowered fighters, since action girls lack the vulnerability that makes damsels so endearing.

Furthermore, she shows total loyalty to her boyfriend. No snark, no backbiting, no tsundere antics — she satisfies him physically and emotionally because he risks himself to come to her rescue. She values him as a person and would never dream of betraying him.

Lastly, I wrote the story from Sasha’s perspective to avoid a critique of the damsel trope that I do agree with: the “sexy lamp” problem. This is when the damsel is written in such a way that she could be replaced with a priceless object and the story would not change in any way. Writing from the damsel’s perspective forces me to give her some thoughts and ideas of her own, and to make her a more active participant in the story. I need to show that this woman is worth smashing killer robots for.

Two readers have already found much to like in Perils:

Now join them, and help me bring the damsel back to her former glory.

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2 Responses to Towards a Better Damsel in Distress Story (Sasha Reed relaunch on the Kindle Store!)

  1. Xaver Basora says:
    March 3, 2022 at 8:59 pm

    Rawle

    Thanks for post. I’ll need to read the novel so I can see how you treated the trope. It’s one of my preferred ones but I worry if wrote it’d be a bit too earthy (no not unitive acts) but some really lame double entendres.

    The key is the ordinary woman with great talents who compliments the male love interest with her femininity.
    The second key is how do the couple get out of their jams? Good stories have a mix of Lester Dent danger formula followed by dungeon type crawls (the pieces move in place for the climaxes until the ultimate boss battle)

    I’m glad you revived it. Now it’s up to others to try their variations,

    xavier

    • Rawle Nyanzi says:
      March 3, 2022 at 9:01 pm

      Thanks, Xavier. Whether here or in an Amazon review, tell me how I did. I’m always looking to improve.

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