Didn't have breasts, did she? Ah, come on, and even after you saw “Kick Ass.”
Before Sigourney Weaver fought off the last of the “Alien” monstrosities, there was superbad Pam “Foxy Brown” Grier. But prior to '70s blaxploitation and 1979's “Alien,” most tough women in film delivered lashes with a tongue, not a whip.
Maybe it's chauvinism; maybe biology. Men do tend — on the whole — to be larger and more muscular. Maybe it's that adventure audiences have typically been adolescent male. Which suggests that they might not be against seeing a strong woman in action. As long as she's hot, anyway. I don't see the female equivalent of Danny Trejo popping up anytime soon.
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Some enjoy less-sporadic forays into violence.
Lucy Lawless may have been the first crossover female action hero on TV, wrapped in leather and rage for “Xena: Warrior Princess.” Guys watched that show. Girls watched that show. Lesbians really watched that show. She later became a key fuel in the mid-series boost for the re-imagined “Battlestar Galactica,” as a manipulative, charming Cylon.