I’m a quarter of the way through American Gods and Kali has made her appearance.  Out of all the deities in the Hindu pantheon, Western writers are most fixated on Kali.  She’s made appearances in Christopher Pike’s The Last Vampire series and on Supernatural that were far more prominent than any other god.  My family is Hindu, so I make mental notes of every time Western culture makes a reference to the religion.  (When you’re in a small minority, it’s nice to feel “acknowledged” by the majority.)

For every appearance Kali has made in Western entertainment, her portrayal is always wrong in some crucial way.  In The Last Vampire, the narrator thought Kali was evil, which was something no  Hindu would make an error on.  It’s like a Christian calling St. Paul an evil demon.  Kali does get demonized in a really bad way in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (of course that movie was all kinds of wrong about “Hinduism” to begin with).  In Supernatural, she’s made into this sort of stupid waify creature (but bear in mind all the gods were screwed in that episode) and considering the context of the episode, Durga would have been a much much better deity to go with.  Kali would also be a much more decisive and Gordon-like character.  In American Gods, it’s made to sound like she’s not worshiped anymore which I find hard to believe since Navaratri (which celebrates the nine major female deities) was just two weeks ago, there are temples and sects still devoted to her, and every so often someone mentions a blood sacrifice made in her name.  Plus she made the cover of the temple’s monthly newsletter…  So why would anyone say she’s forgotten?  She’s as popular as she ever was.  Perhaps it’s that Western culture thinks because it sees her so much that the West thinks Hindus have forgotten?

I’m not exactly sure why Westerners find Kali the most fascinating, but it’s probably because she’s the dark side of “goodness.”  The hard decisions, the cold and calculating dark actions we make to preserve goodness.  The goddess images are also graphic and bewildering.  She doesn’t come up very often in Hindu functions I’ve been to compared to Lakshmi, Saraswati or Durga, but no one ever skimps on her offerings when they come up.  She’s also not a common idol found in people’s houses either.  So for Hindus, it’s a little odd to see her come up so much in Western culture, more than Shiva, Ganesh or Durga.

The West chose Kali as the representative for Hindu culture, but then still doesn’t quite understand her or the role she plays.  She’s not forgotten or neglected, but rather an extreme that people don’t always want to face.   (Moral ambiguity is a never-ending source of fun for Hindu philosophy.)  Kali is an awesome goddess by all means, but I’m waiting for the day when Western culture will get right what her role is…

We once again circle back to the lack of strong female characters in today’s day and age. While I’d say the U.S. is still far more advanced than most countries in that it is even willing to have a discussion about female empowerment, it’s still got a long way to go.

NY Times writer Peggy Orenstein decided to tackle the issue with her daughter getting bored by princesses waiting to be rescued. There’s a song from a Disney movie that seems oddly appropriate titled “Cinderella.” There was one princess cartoon movie, not from Disney, titled Anastasia, where the girl did save herself and the guy too. It’s one of my all time favorites from my childhood.

Girls rarely get the chance to play the hero. The hero’s girlfriend (Sue Storm), the hero’s archnemesis (Catwoman), or just his sidekick (Supergirl). Orenstein quickly recognizes that most female heroines are just eye-candy molded for boys and that its an unfortunate thing she and her daughter must settle for. Female heroines often find themselves in conflict with their femininity. Often donning revealing costumes, they are one of the few outlets for young girls who are sick of waiting for Prince Charming to save them. I won’t go into the body types of female characters because really, how is that less biased than the male form depicted in fiction? Both are beautifully fit and flexible, with form-fitting costumes that leave little to the imagination.

I read a debate recently about the Power Rangers not having a female leader, and the one time they did, it was an interim period between when their original leader (also the female’s boyfriend) died and the next one was to take his place.

Why aren’t heroines unable to escape this cycle? Well, most cartoon artists are male for one thing. The American comic book nation is male-oriented, so they won’t waste R&D with marketing dollars for a niche like this. A lot of things are catered to men, more so than women. It’s okay for girls to look up to men or be tomboy-ish, but the minute the tables get turned, people get mighty sensitive.

For those TV watchers out there from the early 2000s, you’ll remember the “girl power” phase that swept the nation. Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer became the beacon of this idea and the girl hero for the 21st century. The task of keeping humanity safe was left in the hands of a girl, and one that played by her own rules no less. Another show that comes to mind was James Cameron’s short-lived Dark Angel series, which too featured a street smart, genetically empowered teenaged girl who was the hero with not one, but two hot male sidekicks.

In the literary world was where I found refuge as a young girl anxiously looking for that slick, smart heroine I knew had to exist somewhere. Garth Nix’s Abhorsen Trilogy was great, with two female leads who carried on with unsure steps but a ton of heart. If you browse through any young adult section in the bookstore or the library, you’ll quickly notice that a majority of the books are female oriented — girls in mythical kingdoms who have to save it, sword-wielding smart alecs, princesses who have to save princes, girls with superpowers from other planets… The list goes on.

I won’t make many bones about it, most people don’t like to read these days and so a lot of things go uncensored. That is where the female heroine has been relegated to, the underground, between the lines world of novels and what is sometimes known as “chick lit.” Good heroines do exist, but their PR sucks. If Harry Potter were a girl, it is highly doubtful it would have reached the proportions it has today. Author J. K. Rowling had to take the nom de plume “J. K.” instead of “Joanne” because publishers feared boys wouldn’t read books written by a woman.

Society has yet to embrace the notion of a popular, individual heroine with mass appeal. Until that happens, girls are stuck just reading about great heroines rather than seeing them in action.

Image Credit to: Fanpop