editoress:

rainbow-femme:

So whenever i would watch movies and see The Badass Female Character fighting in various ways, something about it always bugged me. I just assumed it was internalized misogyny that made me dislike characters like black widow and Tauriel and tried to make myself like them.

Then I was rewatching Mad Max Fury Road the other day and I noticed that nothing bothered me about watching Furiosa fight and I realized the problem wasn’t watching women fight in movies that got on my nerves.

Watching the stereotypical Badass Female Character she always has these effortless moves and a cocky, sexy smirk on her face as everything is easy. Watching Furiosa, she grunted and bared her teeth. Her fighting was hard and it took effort and it hurt like fighting is supposed to. For once her fighting style wasn’t supposed to seduce the audience it was to be effective.

I wasn’t disliking these characters because they were women I was disliking that their fighting was meant to remind me they were women. High heels and shapely outfits and not showing effort or discomfort because it’s more attractive to effortlessly lift a long leather clad leg over your head rather than rugby tackle someone.

It’s the same with the Wonder Woman movie too. Fighting is hard and it takes effort, blocking bombs and bullets with a shield makes her grimace and bare her teeth with the effort it takes. She’s not flip kicking bombs she’s yelling and straining, not because she’s weak or bad at fighting but because that’s what it would be like.

I really hope we’re moving into an era of women having fighting styles designed for realism and not how hot it looks for the men in the audience.

I’ve taken martial arts most of my life, and the way women fight in action movies has always bothered me.  They overreach; they swivel too much; and their hair is always down.  For a long time I wondered whether this was an effect of stage choreography.  As a kid I briefly wondered (with horror) whether that was what women just looked like when they used martial arts.  It doesn’t feel that way.  It feels short, sharp, and forceful.  You stay grounded.  You control the distance between you and your opponent so you don’t have to lean way out.  It’s practical, not pretty.

But then I finally (only recently!) saw a couple of examples of Action Women who looked like they actually knew how to fight, and it has healed me.