Six Degrees of a Damsel in Distress

Spoilers Ahead: Kimse Bilmez (Nobody Knows) (2019- ); Erased (僕だけがいない街; Boku dake ga Inai Machi) (2017); Stranger Things (2016- ); and Mother (마더; Call Me Mother) (2018)

Ever notice how many stories use the kidnap> quest> rescue formula? It's way too many to count. In most cases, the female characters are weaker or younger than the others, playing into the damsel in distress trope. They need rescuing, and the rescuer is often a stronger older male with a history of violence.

From a positive viewpoint, these stories preserve the belief that good always triumphs over evil and promote the protection of innocence. However, from a negative perspective, this overused trope spews the toxic ideology that females are the weaker sex needing men's rescuing.

Luckily today less and less stories employ this trope in the traditional sense. The structure is still used, but subtle changes reduce the toxic messages; making a world of difference.

So, shall we play a game?

I invite you to play Six Degrees of a Damsel in Distress with your favorite or recently viewed movies and television shows.

The goal of the game is to determine how far a story veers from the damsel in distress story structure while still being recognizable.

But what is that structure? Many things. But for the sake of today's argument, it includes the following components and sequence of events:

1) There is a damsel

2) She is in distress

3) There is a male hero

4) He goes on a quest to rescue the damsel

5) He Rescues the damsel

6) Happy ending/ They live happily ever after

Need some examples? Look no further than the nearest action movie to get a dose of the above structure. The action genre, second only to classic Disney princess movies, follows these steps to a T.

For instance, Taken (2008), The Man From Nowhere (아저씨; Ajeossi) (2010) and the beginning of Kimse Bilmez (Nobody Knows) (2019- ) adhere to all the components of the damsel in distress story structure. All of these examples employ a younger female character's abduction, disappearance, or imprisonment as a catalyst to an older male character's quest and eventual rescue of the female.

Now, let's play a round!

John Wick (2014)

How does Keanu Reeve's resurgence into the limelight play with the role of a damsel?  Simple, the film replaces her with a car while preserving every other step during the duration of the film. It's a trilogy, for now, so it technically omits step six, but one wouldn't call it a tragedy.

The recipe for tragedy eliminates the rescue of the damsel and/or the happy ending. In the case of Se7en (Seven) (1995), there isn't a quest to rescue the damsel at all. The male protagonist, Mills, is unaware the damsel is in distress, and her death is tragically revealed to the at the end.

Arguably there are more opportunities to play Six Degrees of a Damsel in Distress with television than in film. TV doesn't have the same time constraints, or the need to focus on a single or central story. Additionally, multiple characters may even have coinciding story arcs that mimic the damsel in distress structure.

Some stories innovatively omit some components while embracing others and play with the sequence of events. These stories include Erased (僕だけがいない街; Boku dake ga Inai Machi) (2017); Stranger Things (2016- ); and Mother (마더; Call Me Mother) (2018).

For example, Erased is a show that starts in the middle of the story and utilizes time travel to change the tragic past and present. In the story, children are abducted and murdered. Using time travel, the hero, the damsel, and the supporting characters,  (both as children and adults) work together to save each other. The roles of damsel and hero evolve, and the sequence of events is naturally reordered due to the time travel aspect.

Similarly, Stranger Things challenges a damsel's traditional definition and the hero's standard criteria. For instance, a young boy disappears at the start of the show,  and a heroine is revealed showing all genders and ages can play both damsel and hero. Furthermore, multiple characters take on the two traditional roles throughout the series. The damsel and hero roles switch back and forth on their quest to protect each other.

In Mother, a woman abducts a female child from an abusive household to raise as her own. By unconventional means, the heroine rescues the damsel born in distress. Later it's revealed our heroine has personal experience living in an abusive household which motivates her to act. The quest to rescue the damsel in this show is unique as it uses abduction as a tool for the rescue. Mother is an example that the hero of a story is not constrained to older and/or male characters.

In the end, some damsels do need saving, sometimes they can save themselves, and sometimes it takes a village to save the day. All in all, tropes exist as guidelines, not rules. As stories that showcase the strength of women and the vulnerability of men continue to be produced, it will be interesting to see just how many more versions of the game we get. Until then, keep playing the game for yourself, and try applying it to your writing to discover new and innovative ways to tell your stories.

About the Author

Angela M. Thomas is a Writer and lifetime student of the classics and media arts as well as a Co-Founder & Administrator of The WODC.