Jane Eyre's Sisters: How women live and write the heroine's story, by Jody Gentian Bower PhD, Theosophical Publishing House, 2015
I know Dr. Bower. We have been in a chorus together for years. However, she is an alto and I am a soprano and we are on opposite sides of the room.
I bought her book directly from her and have bought 3 more copies as gifts so far. I like her book very much and am still thinking about it and arguing with it, because I pretty much argue about everything. Mostly with myself. My parents used to disagree about something, including some fact, and then they would bet: a quarter, a dollar, ten dollars, doing the dishes. Then one of them would look it up. My sister and I joined in pretty much as soon as we could talk.
This book is about themes that run through stories about women and how a heroine is different from a hero. What is a heroine? Is she a princess who waits to be rescued from a dragon by a prince? I keep thinking that not one of the animated disney movies that I've seen so far has an adult woman who is not an evil queen or a witch or fairy or a fairy godmother or a mermaid or a mouse or nursemaid dog... It seems that in Disney Animation Land, once a princess marries the prince and has sex, she is then doomed to become evil. Or she could die: the Good Queens are always dead. Does sex really make women evil? Also unmarried adult women are evil, usually witches. Guess you have to be magic to be an adult woman who is not evil.
Dr. Bower uses books and stories that I have read and myths that I am familiar with and others that I don't know, including the Aletis myth. Grundoon and I felt that the US culture does not really have an adult female "Coyote" figure. There are postmenopausal tricksters and premenopausal tricksters, but not much in the way of stories about role model women in between. Feel free to send me examples if you disagree. Dr. Bower has her own answers to this.... I do recommend this book. Enjoy!
http://www.amazon.com/Jane-Eyres-Sisters-Women-Heroines/dp/0835609340
http://jodybower.com/jane-eyres-sisters/
Lily Allen: 22 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWjNFC-FinU&list=RDfUYaosyR4bE&index=4