Tough broads in film

[Perd Hapley]

I thought some of you might like this read.

https://amgreatness.com/2019/07/02/scarlett-laughs/

The great irony is that strong, female characters were once a matter of course in Hollywood. Then in the late 1960s and early ’70s Hollywood itself destroyed her. As feminists marched and politicians bent to their demands, Hollywood began to treat female characters as extras in some imagined feminist dystopia.

It was Hollywood that turned women into pathetic stereotypes. Women were the gun molls in “Bonnie and Clyde” and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” They were enablers and victims in “The Godfather” movies. I can not think of a single strong or even memorable woman in any Scorsese or Coppola movie.

The great auteurs of the 1970s used women as props, either victims or vixens. The ’70s women were plot devices, not fully developed characters. I grew up in the ’70s, with only two kinds of Hollywood women. They were either murder victims or prostitutes; unless they were prostitutes getting murdered. With the exception of a certain princess from Alderaan, as a teenager, I never saw a strong woman on the big screen.

In contrast, when I’d watch movies on the old movie channel, there were reporters, businesswomen, army nurses, even scientists. I was told again and again, that women of the 1930s were oppressed and women of the 1970s were liberated. But the old movie channel told a very different story.

[230RN]

I remember in the book, but not in the movie, where Scarlett saw a Yankee coming up to her house. She got her husband's pistol (no details in the book) and hid it in the folds of her skirt.  When the yankee barged into the house and got threatening with her, she raised the pistol and shot him in the face.

She had a heck of a time convincing shy and retiring little Melanie to help her drag the messed-up body outside and bury it, along with the blood-soaked carpet on which the yankee's body had fallen.

No, she didn't always rely on the kindness of strangers.

I don't recall what she and Melanie did with the guy's horse and tack.

Terry

[brimic]

Weirdly, though not surprisingly, 'Sucker Punch' is a movie pretty much universally despised by feminists. It might be too difficult for them to figure out. 

[fifth_column]

There are many examples of strong female characters being portrayed today.  Lagatha in Vikings comes to mind: 

[zahc]

I always liked Ripley in Alien (1979). Perhaps a counter-example from the period?

[dogmush]

SciFi and Fantasy have been the places where strong women characters persisted after the rest of popular fiction got rid of them.  Ripley, Sarah Connor, Buffy, You can go on and on.

That's why the charge that folks didn't like The Last Jedi because of sexisim was so ludicrous.  Nerds are the group MOST likely to enjoy a strong female.

[BlueStarLizzard]

SciFi and Fantasy have been the places where strong women characters persisted after the rest of popular fiction got rid of them.  Ripley, Sarah Connor, Buffy, You can go on and on.

That's why the charge that folks didn't like The Last Jedi because of sexisim was so ludicrous.  Nerds are the group MOST likely to enjoy a strong female.

This in spades.

The nerds of the ScFi Fantasy world have been the haven of minority hero's (and artists and fans) since the beginning and they do not appreciate ignorant unread asshats telling them their genre is sexist, racist and homophobic.

I've been seriously tempted to start beating "feminists" who make the claim that their aren't enough female authors in the genre with a copy of Northwest of Earth.

[WLJ]

  Nerds are the group MOST likely to enjoy a strong female.

With really really big boobs

[BlueStarLizzard]

With really really big boobs

Meh. They don't really care that much. They'll settle for just about any size boobage as long as she kicks ass.

[Ben]

There are many examples of strong female characters being portrayed today.  Lagatha in Vikings comes to mind: 

She was awesome for the first three seasons - I mean first rate example of smart and tough. Then the writers started to ruin her in season 4, and I recently caught up on season 5 and was disappointed.

Also, for really tough broads that are kinda "just there" as in "what else would you expect but a tough woman?" I once again go back to one of my favorite films, The Big Trail (1930). John Wayne's first starring role about the Oregon Trail.  The "background women" in that film are all tough. You see them all chopping wood, both loading and shooting guns during the Indian attacks, and generally doing stuff that would make a modern, skinny jeans wearing male curl up and cry.

[WLJ]

When I think of nerds I think of the Dungeon and Dragons big boobed girl in skimpy armor that somehow can lift and swing 100lb swords types.
The girls above are for non-nerds IMHO

[dogmush]

When I think of nerds I think of the Dungeon and Dragons big boobed girl in skimpy armor that somehow can lift and swing 100lb swords types.
The girls above are for non-nerds IMHO

You don't know many actual nerds do you?

[WLJ]

You don't know many actual nerds do you?

I guess that depend on how you define nerds. My idea of what constitutes a nerd may be a bit more extreme than yours. Some consider a knowledgeable fan as a nerd, I consider a nerd as someone who take it a bit further than that.

[WLJ]

Nerd is really kind of a loose term open to a wide range of interpretations 

[dogmush]

I guess that depend on how you define nerds. My idea of what constitutes a nerd may be a bit more extreme than yours. Some consider a knowledgeable fan as a nerd, I consider a nerd as someone who take it a bit further than that.

I played D and D as well as Magic: the Gathering as late as college. I feel my definition is pretty extreme.

The two pictures in this thread are from mass media scifi/fantasy, so less nerdy.

The female Dragonriders of Pern, Meg Murry(from the book), Mara Jade, Honor Harrington, every female character Mercedes Lackey every wrote.  I seem to recall some badass girls in Shanarra not wearing steel bikinis.

There's also 90% of the current "urban fantasy" genre, which is basically romance books with magic.