Sugar and Spice, Not everything nice
For many years men have dominated the action genre onscreen. It is only until recently that Hollywood has exploded the screen with females kicking butt on the silver screen and the small screen, only with tighter and less clothes. But, as Hollywood has shown us, does less clothes mean more power? And have women really come a long way or do they still have more to go before seen as equals?
From the beginning of films and tv shows, women have taken a backseat to big, strong heroes as the damsel in distress. Things began to change as the 60s rolled by. From 1961 to 1969, the British import The Avengers teamed Emma Peel and John Steed side by side costarring a battle of the minds and the wits. The show quickly found audiences in 120 countries becoming one of the most popular television series of all time even today. Still, it was not until the fall of 1965 when veteran actress Anne Francis starred in the title role as feline spy Honey West; televisions' first starring female Private Eye with a male colleague Sam Bolt. Heroines of color exploded onscreen in blaxploitation films of the 1970's with the arrival of Pam Grier vehicles such as Coffy (1973), Foxy Brown (1974), Sheba, Baby (1975) and Friday Foster (1975).
A new action heroine was born that was not only sophisticated and sexy as her predecessors, but tough-as-nails and deadlier than her male counterparts. In 1979, the heroine not only broke through new ground with the Alien series, but science fiction benefitted as well. Ridley Scott's sci-fi horror fest introduced the idea of unseen terror in a claustrophic ship with a diverse crew. Although Sigourney Weaver's Lt. Ellen Ripley wasn't the head of command, the surprise ending gave way to reveal she deserved the title more than anyone else on board. Ripley continued to dominate the action scene through 3 more Alien sequels to continue the franchise alongside Terminator's Sarah Conner and eventually The Fifth Element's Leeloo (Milla Jovovich). In the video game world, the Tomb Raider series (1995) broke new ground with buxom heroine Lara Croft raiding tombs as an archeologist and heiress mixing the action of Duke Nukem and the story of Indiana Jones.
Through the early 90's a slew of action oriented films featuring heroines in the driver's seat have come and gone. From the western themed Bad Girls (1994), to the Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) Hollywood has ignored female action films in favor of more testosterone driven fare like Cliffhanger and the Die Hard series.
Latest Articles