Where the Women Have Agency
Several posts in the SF/F corner of the internet this morning on the topic of Women in Refrigerators.
Marie Brennan talks about it here, discussing the concept of women having agency, that is, taking action as independent people.
kateelliott has a related post here, wherein she discusses one of the most notable movies in SF wherein a woman is an action hero, but makes the point that there seems to be less opportunity for women to be action-oriented[1] unless they are protecting children.
Now, it's easy to find a million examples of Movies And Books That Got It Wrong, where the women are either useless, helpless, or mere props to motivate the male protagonist. My two favorite example of that are both Nick Cage movies: The Rock, which would have been greatly improved by removing the girlfriend character all together[2]; and Con Air, where his mannequin blond wife and daughter are his inspiration, but he's going to delay returning to them--indeed, risk never seeing them again--because the female guard on the plane full of max-security male prisoners is in danger of being raped and killed.[3] (Yes, also to save his dying buddy. You need multiple reasons to stay on a plane full of psychotics when you have the Perfect Wife and Child waiting for you.)
But anyway, I find that for learning purposes, examples of something being done right are very educational. So I thought I'd start a small list. These are not movies of femmy goodness, just movies where a female character has agency beyond protecting her young.
First, let's go with The Quick and the Dead. The movie doesn't move along as fast as I would like, but ultimately, the story is all about a woman getting revenge for the death of her father. I have some slight objections in that Ellen (Sharon Stone) is a lot more trepidatious about the prospect than I suspect a male character would have been written, but she is definitely the hero of the picture, despite the presence of many interesting male characters.
Next, the original Alien. The beauty of this film is that Ripley was supposed to be a man. I'm not sure how Sigourney Weaver ended up in the role, but the role wasn't rewritten to fem it up. (Though of course I wonder if they would have had a male character strip down to his skivvies at the end.) Her character is hard-nosed and businesslike, an officer on the ship, and treated as I have seen women in real life be treated: as a colleague there to do a job.
Subtle one here: Die Hard. I love this movie for many reasons, but one of the main ones is that Holly McClane (Bonnie Bedelia) is an independent human being. Her character is necessarily writ small, since the movie is primarily about the dynamic between John McClane and Hans Gruber. She gets at least one snarky line (Hans: "What idiot put you in charge?" Holly: "You did, when you murdered my boss."), and although she spends the bulk of the movie as a hostage, able only to witness events, she stays calm and takes what action she can. When Hans calls her "Mrs. --?" she replies, "Gennaro. Miss Gennaro." There's subplot strife between her and John over exactly that point, but in context the reply is clearly calculated to keep information from Hans, to imply that she has no ties to anyone. She's protecting both John and herself, very intelligently.
There are a good many more, but I'm at work and can't really take more time. Please contribute more examples of fully-realized, action-taking female characters in the comments. My one requirement: They can't be in a "chick flick." I want examples that men might actually go and see, voluntarily.
[1] For values of "action" that do not necessarily equal picking up weapons.
[2] Her only purpose is to (a) establish that he is a "normal guy" with a normal home life, and (b) to be pregnant so that when she goes to San Francisco, it adds an extra layer of "Oh noes! My woman and my unborn baby are IN DANGER!" as if the threat to hundreds of thousands of people isn't enough. Darn those strangers, they just ain't motivating enough.
[3] Which in a way is the exact opposite of the motivation in The Rock.