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Ever notice how writers often portray Action Hero characters and Action Girl characters in ways that often still emphasize gender stereotypes?
Men Act, Women Are -
Male badasses go out and beat up the enemy...female "badasses" sometimes do, but are often Chickified so the men can act and be awesome. Women can still get sympathy (or at least some people believe they can, though many hate Chickification like me for example) just by being women...or providing fanservice...which leads to...
Men Are Strong, Women Are Pretty -
Male badasses are clothed and in Western media, often buff or scarred or something emphasizing "masculinity". Female badasses are barely clothed and often are like supermodels. Even fighting styles are different: Men often have plausible (or semi-plausible styles)...women often have She-Fu.
Men Are Generic, Women Are Special -
Male badasses can be scarred, be a victim of Gorn or even die, and they'll probably die more often, but they at least usually get Heroic Sacrifices. Female badasses are not usually scarred, rarely victims of Gorn, and they don't die as often unless it is to motivate a male character.
Men use Violence, Women use Communication -
Male badasses use tons of violence, female badasses can too, hence Action Girl, but honestly...how many scenarios can you think of where the man is passive and tries to sort out the problem without violence while the woman charges into a fight guns blazing? Other than Black Lagoon, there aren't many series where this is common.
Never a Self-Made Woman -
Especially if she's the main character, an Action Girl's relationships with her (actual or surrogate) family will be an important part of her character (Xena and Gabrielle, Buffy and the Scoobies, etc.). Jennifer K. Stuller's Ink-Stained Amazons and Cinematic Warriors: Superwomen in Modern Mythology contains some detailed analysis of this.
I don't think these are always true...but they come up in a lot of Action Girl characters.
By the way, the above headings are tropes on the Gender Dynamics Index.
Anyone have any thoughts?
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