Contemporary American Cinema - Linda Ruth Williams & Michael Hammond

Contemporary American Cinema - Linda Ruth Williams & Michael Hammond Pg. 410 onwards Chapter 21

"Contemporary action and adventure cinema celebrates the physicality and capacity for violence embodied in the (typically lithe) body of an action heroine, while reassuring audiences as to her sexual desirability/availability."

"At a rudimentary level the action heroine is interesting for feminism to the extent that she troubles mainstream cinema's routine configuration of women in terms of tropes such as hysteria, passivity, monstrous maternity or sexualised threat. Thus the fact that female protagonists in action might be accorded even limited amounts of narrative agency represents something of a departure from the norms of Hollywood representation."

"The late 1990s emergence of the action heroine as a figure associated primarily with glamour and sexuality seems to be both backward- and forward-looking, with the high-profile cinematic reworking of 'Charlie's Angels' (2000) an indicative example."

"In a series of high profile US releases, spectacular action sequences that stage celebratory performance of an already-achieved female athleticism and physical power serve as a driving aesthetic element."

Female action stars of the 1980s and early 1990s negotiated a perceptible tension between the kind of body considered suitable for glamorous display and that geared up for action. It is in this context that feminist critics have commented on the androgynous, even masculine appearance of certain iconic female figures in films such as 'Alien' 1979 and 'Blue Steel' 1990"

"'Charlie's Angels presents its sexy female protagonists as girlish women skilled in martial arts. It presents smart, fit (and typically affluent) young women who are either in search of adventure or who happen to live adventurous and glamorous lives. These women are typically free from responsibilities; depicted as forceful figures, their presentation as sexual spectacle is seemingly a choice, one that we are encouraged to read as empowering."