"By contrast, an approach to narrative that privileges dominant status beliefs emphasizes the difficulty of making women the protagonists of classically heroic stories. Tell a story in which a woman responds to a threat assertively and instrumentally, and readers will probably not like her or identify with her. They will not derive from her story the message that, if they are in a similar situation, they should behave in the same way. They will hear a different story: one not about heroism but about the dangers that women face or the dangers that foolish women face.Dominant gender norms trump the power of genre in shaping readers' interpretation and evaluation of what happens in the story."
Poletta, 294
Does this idea that gender norms influence viewers/readers more strongly than genre ring true today? In what way is this different now than women in classically heroic stories?
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