The Death of the Female Hero: Rey Palpatine vs. Clarice Starling

The heroine never needs to be stronger than the villain; she just needs to win.

The female leads of modern movies have completely undermined the character development and definition of what it means to become a hero. From Rey in Star Wars to Galadriel in the abomination that is the Rings of Power; female leads are being written in the most contrived and maligned way possible.

For the last decade, modern audiences have been able to complain over social media outlets about how underserved their compatriots are. Whether the issue circulates around sex or race, writers rooms are paying attention to all the wrong cue cards when crafting their scripts. As a result, the female lead has suffered greatly. Social justice warriors have stolen all the bullhorns and soap boxes, and what has followed are infallible heroines. A perfect heroine is a boring one.

In order to understand how far the writing has fallen concerning female leads, we need to analyze one of the best to ever grace the screen: Clarice Starling. Played by Jodie Foster, Clarice Starling is the female lead of 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs. Clarice operates in a world dominated by men; she is never far from their judgement. They impede her, and she is constantly sidestepping…