On Grammar, the Uterus, and Free Will

Wendy Davis and Letticia Van der Putte are my heroines. They stood (literally) and spoke and were wholly present for a cause that should be close to the hearts of every human with free will and the desire to control their own body. Others have written far more eloquently than I on why that matters and why their fight needs to be upheld and why Texas women should not be messed with. I'm interested in my own gravitation toward the word "heroine" here. I generally support the use of non-gendered language - I wouldn't say "poetesses" - so why am I not saying "heroes"?

It probably comes down in some respects to the beauty of the word. It just looks strong. HEROINE. If you avoid thinking about the drug name contained within it, it's a pretty interesting assemblage of letters, with the O anchoring it all.

Maybe the "-ess" is problematic. What I like about heroine is that it's not as obviously derivative of hero (even though it is derivative, in point of fact). The "-ine" is less frequently used, and it shifts the word's pronuncitation, to make it a new thing. A heroine has free will. She isn't just a suffixed word. She has her own (vowel) sound.

I'm on a bus with no wifi other than on my phone, so I can't look up research on this that would bolster my flimsy argument, but I like thinking about this. If anyone knows of any citations that might be helpful, please send them my way!