How many on-screen badass women can you name?
(I’ll update the list periodically.)
Badass On-Screen Women
- Landlady (Kung Fu Hustle)
- Ellen Ripley (Alien, Aliens, Alien3, Alien: Resurrection)
- Sarah Connor (The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Terminator: Dark Fate)
- Zoë Washburne (Firefly, Serenity)
- Kaylee Frye (Firefly, Serenity)
- Inara (Firefly, Serenity)
- Private Vasquez (Aliens)
- Xena (Xena: Warrior Princess)
- Chrisjen Avasarala (The Expanse)
- Naomi Nagata (The Expanse)
- Roberta ‘Bobbie’ W. Draper (The Expanse)
- Camina Drummer (The Expanse)
- Yu Shu Lien (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)
- Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
- The Bride (Kill Bill, Kill Bill: Vol. 2)
- Trinity (The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions)
- PrinceessLeia (Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi, Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi)
My biggest issue with most strong women characters in action movies is they seem to be swappable with a male and nothing changes.
They’re strong characters who are portrayed as a woman.
Take Ellen Ripley for example: strong woman. Can’t be played by a man as the character no longer makes sense. Has to be a woman. Someone else would get it wrong.
Also I’m getting tired of the “I had X amount of brothers” or “dad taught me Y” as justification. Why can’t a woman be strong on her own? Why does it have to be a man making her strong?
Ripley was originally not even written as a woman.
There is not a single scene in the original Alien where her being a woman is in any way relevant.
Eh, I don’t see why being a woman has to be an important part of a character, it’s cool to see when it is, but people can have many important qualities in their life besides their gender.
As a kid I didn’t really think much of the gender when thinking about characters, heck, one of my biggest heroes was Chihiro from spirited away and I’m sure as heck she didn’t have a penis like I do.
You don’t see why being a woman should be part of a “strong woman character”?
No, they’re saying that as a person they don’t really care about it when relating to characters. We experience things as human beings, not by sexual orientation or sexual identification.
Unless the specific human experience is related to sex/gender in some way, we feel what others feel and relate to them based on the character work and related narrative elements. Not just “is man/woman, please relate.”
They’re doubting why that part is important in the first place.