I’ve always had a fascination for strong powerful women. I think I understood quite early that power was a given to men with no questions asked and that they would never have to fight for it. That’s why male characters have always seemed lazy to me.
Females on the other hand were always outnumbered in the teams, always in the back and yet had so much more charisma and aura – I guess it’s because they were created to arouse straight cis males. So of course I wanted to be them!
Obviously, it all started with tv shows, first came Xena, and then Buffy, Charmed, Relic Hunter, Alias, … On tv women were allowed to have power, to take the lead, to fight, to change the odds.
Before the 00s, women in movies weren’t allowed their part of the action, except if they were in a horror film or a Luc Besson movie. It took a while for them to become the leads of action movies, and another while for those movies to be considered good.
So here’s a list of action women, from the early 00s to now, who shaped my cinematic universe.