Concept Of Damsel In Distress & Its Impact Explained

Growing up, we all hear stories narrated by those around us at school or at home. And it’s a mark of our childhood that we believe these stories and then, slowly, outgrow them as we grow older. Most of us believed in Santa Claus, for example, when we were younger. We believed that an elderly man comes riding on a sleigh driven by reindeers and drops in gifts for Christmas. But as we grew older, we knew better. We knew that if we got gifts at Christmas, it was because a loved one—probably our parents—went through the trouble of getting us those. And just like that, we outgrew many stories, except one which has been reinforced time and again by not only fairy tales and storybooks but also through movies and shows—that of the damsel in distress.

A damsel in distress is typically a helpless woman who is in need to be saved by a hero, usually a man who is flawless. The woman, whether a princess or a peasant, doesn’t take any action towards saving herself, but waits patiently for the hero figure to take plenty of steps to save her. While this may be a simple description of the damsel in distress trope, we’re sure you have come across plenty of variations. From Cinderella and Rapunzel to the plots of innumerable movies and shows in languages from around the world, we’ve seen this trope surface again and again all around us.

But the thing to note is that for a trope that emerges frequently, most of us have failed to outgrow it or recognise the harm it does, especially to women. In fact, the trope does immense disservice to women and women empowerment. Here’s everything you need to know.

How The Concept Emerged

The concept of damsel in distress, in fact, the very words, are borrowed from its French origin, demoiselle en detresse. The concept itself is age-old and comes up repeatedly not only in Greek mythology but also in Indian ones. The woman in distress is always beautiful, usually of royal or godly heritage, and often pious enough to be a favourite of the gods (which is why she gets help in the form she does). In many of these ancient stories, the villain who put the woman in distress was an evil man or king, like Raavana in the Ramayana. In others, it was a beast of mythical proportions—like dragons. The saviour was almost always a prince, a king or a demigod who was handsome, chivalrous, virtuous and an epitome of goodness.

This stereotypical setting of the damsel in distress trope shifted a bit in medieval times in Europe as the damsel became a woman of noble birth, and her saviour a man who is a knight or has knightly virtues. The saviour’s role, therefore, expanded and this gave men from a wide variety of backgrounds the opportunity to become folk heroes. The state of the woman as a helpless victim did not change an inch, and neither did the concept of the villain. From Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales to other medieval books of note, all romantic stories were variations of the damsel in distress trope. The trend continued well into modern times, where the helplessness of the woman did not change, but the villains and their machinations changed shape and form.

The Explosion Of The Trope

After the industrial revolution, for example, factories and railway tracks became the setting where the villain trapped these women. Instead of a fantastic beast, the saviour now had to contend with machines, trains, explosions and a villain who had plenty of resources to utilise all of them. During the two World Wars, the villain transformed even further. Propaganda of the times portrayed captured nations like Belgium and France as damsels in distress (remember, most nations are denoted as feminine, but Germany has a masculine denotation), with Germany as the villain and the Allied forces as masculine saviours.

Of course, the greatest explosion of this damsel in distress trope occurred with the rise of television and cinema across the globe. The trope not only made the plots of many movies like the earliest Tarzan and King Kong movies of the 1930s and 1940s, but soon seeped into a major comic book and show themes. April O’Neill in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Olive Oyl in Popeye, and Lois Lane in Superman are prime examples of damsels in distress—and those that young kids throughout the second half of the 20th century grew up with. Disney’s stories have also been thoroughly criticised for perpetuating this trope. Even today, the trend continues to a large extent, even if feminist criticisms of this trope has led to a reimagining of the stereotypical roles assigned to women.

How The Trope Harms Us All

Feminist writers and activists, like Angela Carter and Jane Yolen, have pointed out all the reasons why the trope of the damsel in distress harms women. In fact, if truth be told, the trope harms more than just women because stereotypes can affect all genders and classes of people. Here are a few ways how this trope harms all of us, irrespective of gender.

• It turns women into inferior beings. By asserting that women need to be saved, this trope perpetuates the notion that women are generically weak and soft targets for violent crimes.

• It makes women believe that they are inadequate. Instead of self-sufficiency, this trope promotes the idea that women need to be saved or rescued because they cannot do it themselves.

• It places men of a certain type in the position of saviours. This stereotype creates an aspirational model for other men who also want to be heroes, and this can actually affect men’s self-esteem as well as shape their outlook towards independent, self-sufficient women.

• It denies women’s roles as caregivers. By making them people who have to be rescued, protected and cared for, it demeans the labour women put in to provide the same protection and care in other forms throughout their lives.

• It often presents women as a reward or property. The hero gets the girl, proving that women are commodities you can win through your actions. Also, by placing honour and shame in a woman’s body, the trope also perpetuates patriarchy at its worst.

• It often imposes toxic chivalry on men. Instead of viewing women as individuals who can fend for themselves and have the agency of asking for help, they learn that women need not exercise said agency at all in the presence of a hero figure.

The Age Of The Empowered Damsel

Over the last decade, the problems generated by the trope of the damsel in distress have led to some changes at last. The trend started earlier with a few women like Sarah Connor in The Terminator, Xena: Warrior Princess and Buffy The Vampire Slayer escaping the trope. But the real shift started in the 2010s and 2020s, where even Disney princesses became “emancipated” and independent. From feminist remakes of Beauty And The Beast to Cinderella, to stunning stories like Frozen, we have witnessed the slow and steady of the damsel from one in distress to one who is empowered. Will the trend last and actually lead to the end of this trope? Or will the trope manage to gain a new variation and resurface? Only time will tell, as we watch with hopeful eyes.