female characters in films

[Hobbit XIII]

I remember many years ago back in the 80s or 90s my grandmother was complaining about lack of women in strong parts of films.

Naturally I took it upon myself to inform of the great movies of the age and to basically say 'this is the 80s! women got empowered already '.

So who do you think is a strong female character ?

I am going to take one of the best chameleons in hollywood and upset everybody else for picking her first :

Vasquez from Aliens.

If you want to hunt rabbits or deer or people who have inferior weapons or preferably just want to depopulate civilians, you call on the Colonial Marines that work for the big terra forming company.

They probably would do well against similar armed soldiers too but i expect they would get some substantial losses because as tough as they are - there is no disputing that, they are tough, they sure do have a lot to be desired on discipline and how the company manipulates the personnel around them does not help.

Aliens, I won't go into spoilers of the bigger storylines of other films of the franchise.
Ripley a survivor from the film Alien (and pretty damn good horror film in its own right) is tasked to advise the marines on a creature that may be same as the one she came across.

One of those marines is Vasquez, the actress said herself that women and gay men for years came up to her and said how she inspired them.

I like Vasquez because she can stand up to anybody on that squad. It shows me that even if she was not a marine, if she was Vasquez the flower arranger on Earth, nobody no matter how big they were she would meet them as an equal and if they tried to get 'funny' with her she will put them in their place.

a male marine 'hey Vasquez, anyone ever mistake you for a man?'
Vasquez 'no, have you?'

Who do you pick and any reasons why ?

Quoting from Steven1mac :
Why do people assume female empowerment means the women need to be able to physical beat everyone up or everyone is dumb except the heroine. Gone With the Wind, the main character wasn't strong, nor smarter than anyone else, but Scarlet was able to not only survive but grow as a character and character her own destiny. I think she would be a good example of a strong female character.

good points made on his post and to illustrate this is not just for the Vasquez types.

[Neurotic Panda]

There have always been strong women in film/movies. what a farce.

the difference now is that we want to remove men or put them in the cuck/evil position and the female is always in the always right/dominate position.

comical analysis on your part and your 'grandmother'. you all need to watch more movies from the past which in-fact do have strong, well known females.

lol

[Hobbit XIII]

Originally posted by Neurotic Panda:

There have always been strong women in film/movies. what a farce.

the difference now is that we want to remove men or put them in the cuck/evil position and the female is always in the always right/dominate position.

comical analysis on your part and your 'grandmother'. you all need to watch more movies from the past which in-fact do have strong, well known females.

lol

yeah whatever you say.

[Hobbit XIII]

Originally posted by Neurotic Panda:

There have always been strong women in film/movies. what a farce.

the difference now is that we want to remove men or put them in the cuck/evil position and the female is always in the always right/dominate position.

comical analysis on your part and your 'grandmother'. you all need to watch more movies from the past which in-fact do have strong, well known females.

lol

I'll be a bit more productive than my previous comment.

1. this was a chat between myself and my grand mother years go in the 80/90s. to say she was a feminists is an understatement.

2. She was too busy serving in the RAF then raising grand children and breaking into military bases. So her world view of films was not always 'current'.

3. You could provide an example or two of your choices of characters of decades past say 40s 50s and so on.

[☎need4naiim☎]

Originally posted by Neurotic Panda:

the difference now is that we want to remove men or put them in the cuck/evil position and the female is always in the always right/dominate position.

This poster knows it. Thanks.

I am also adding that, at least for the last 15 years or so, those dominate females are almost always half black or half Asian.

If they make a film for Xena nowadays, she will be guaranteed to be of mixed race.

[AustrAlien2010]

Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada.

[Vinz Clortho]

Originally posted by Chaosolous:

I'm baffled you chose Vasquez and not Ripley. Vasquez was more the buff woman archetype than the strong woman archetype.

Most James Cameron films have strong female leads or characters in them. He's got a thing for powerful women, just look at all his ex-wives.

I've quoted this because I am going to say Linda Hamilton in T1 & 2. The cool thing about that is she goes from being a really resilient "normal" woman in the first movie to a stereotypical action hero in the second. She does both. The second movie mentions that she sleeps around with lots of military guys so that she can pump them for information and use it to train John lol. She's awesome.
Maternal instinct is what keeps her going more than the thought of saving the earth. I like the scene in the mental hospital where she hallucinates Reese and just for that moment you see her vulnerability again. I think that's only in the director's cut.

[Majestic Turkey]

Originally posted by Chaosolous:

I'm baffled you chose Vasquez and not Ripley. Vasquez was more the buff woman archetype than the strong woman archetype.

Most James Cameron films have strong female leads or characters in them. He's got a thing for powerful women, just look at all his ex-wives.

Its because you get more social credit points for citing Vasquez, its a tough woman, almost a man! She was a side character and so was passable as one dimensional cliche.

It was fine when it was an exception but now its turned into a cartoon. The truth is even if buffed up women are just weak men.

Ripley was a better written, normal person called to do heroic action by circumstance, not suddenly given magic powers like they are today.

We've seen the consequences of this demand for strong female characters result in netflix and theaters riddled with women talking...women talking the audience to death.

[Original Cast Recording]

Originally posted by Majestic Turkey:

Originally posted by Chaosolous:

I'm baffled you chose Vasquez and not Ripley. Vasquez was more the buff woman archetype than the strong woman archetype.

Most James Cameron films have strong female leads or characters in them. He's got a thing for powerful women, just look at all his ex-wives.

Its because you get more social credit points for citing Vasquez, its a tough woman, almost a man! She was a side character and so was passable as one dimensional cliche.

It was fine when it was an exception but now its turned into a cartoon. The truth is even if buffed up women are just weak men.

Ripley was a better written, normal person called to do heroic action by circumstance, not suddenly given magic powers like they are today.
...

Of course Ripley was written better---she was the main character.

And then of course she gets magic powers in Resurrection.

[Majestic Turkey]

Originally posted by NoMoreUnderscores():

Originally posted by Majestic Turkey:

Its because you get more social credit points for citing Vasquez, its a tough woman, almost a man! She was a side character and so was passable as one dimensional cliche.

It was fine when it was an exception but now its turned into a cartoon. The truth is even if buffed up women are just weak men.

Ripley was a better written, normal person called to do heroic action by circumstance, not suddenly given magic powers like they are today.
...

Of course Ripley was written better---she was the main character.

And then of course she gets magic powers in Resurrection.

Well yea everything got worse as time got on.

But people are really forgetting that Vasquez was written and understood as a joke by the audience of the time.

[Original Cast Recording]

Originally posted by Majestic Turkey:

Originally posted by NoMoreUnderscores():

Of course Ripley was written better---she was the main character.

And then of course she gets magic powers in Resurrection.

...

But people are really forgetting that Vasquez was written and understood as a joke by the audience of the time.

So was Hudson, but he's still a good character to have in the movie.

[Morkonan]

My favorite "female character" in movies is obviously Ripley from Alien. But, she's only a "female" for one scene... The rest of the time, she's a determined professional with a bit of an annoying streak for following protocols, which is what a Second in Command should be. She has rigorous "standards" that must be maintained and that translates to "morality," later.

But, I wanna mention some great movie-magic crafting for Corporal Ferro!

Pay attention to this scene. If you've seen the movie, you know this scene and you remember it and you know the capstone line by heart...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vESxCZe0HA

Ferro had some appearances and another line or two in scenes up to this, but nothing that was really more than background chatter. In this scene, what is this character? If you answered "bad @$$ in-charge pro-level combat pilot" you'd be right. That hand-flex before taking control is brilliant, btw. So very much communicated in one gesture.

For the supporting cast, it's pretty obvious who was built up for such impressions and few had archetypes built this well. Ferro got a heck of a lot of attention paid towards building up that character in this bit. Sure, it's entirely one-dimensional, but that's what it was supposed to be. She's a giant cardboard cut-out of "bad @$$ in-charge pro-level combat pilot". In contrast, her crewmate got to put his hand in some goo and... that's about it.

That capstone one-liner was so very impactful that it was ported to all the way to Starcraft. That's pretty darn epic.

(Last I recall, the actress was heading up a theater/performing arts company somewhere. I don't recall if she had much in the way of other work, but she did an excellent job with what she had. Kudos.)

[Hobbit XIII]

Originally posted by ☎need4naiim☎:

Originally posted by Neurotic Panda:

the difference now is that we want to remove men or put them in the cuck/evil position and the female is always in the always right/dominate position.

This poster knows it. Thanks.

I am also adding that, at least for the last 15 years or so, those dominate females are almost always half black or half Asian.

If they make a film for Xena nowadays, she will be guaranteed to be of mixed race.

This is not about that.
A rant is a rant and this discussion is not about a rant.

Same for other people here in the future.
If you really have to comment on yet another thing griping about whatever at least add a character of your own choice to do with the discussion OR make another discussion about your rants, where the forums will light up to your sounds of music and commit to audience participation.

Originally posted by Morkonan:

My favorite "female character" in movies is obviously Ripley from Alien. But, she's only a "female" for one scene... The rest of the time, she's a determined professional with a bit of an annoying streak for following protocols, which is what a Second in Command should be. She has rigorous "standards" that must be maintained and that translates to "morality," later.

But, I wanna mention some great movie-magic crafting for Corporal Ferro!

Pay attention to this scene. If you've seen the movie, you know this scene and you remember it and you know the capstone line by heart...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vESxCZe0HA

Ferro had some appearances and another line or two in scenes up to this, but nothing that was really more than background chatter. In this scene, what is this character? If you answered "bad @$$ in-charge pro-level combat pilot" you'd be right. That hand-flex before taking control is brilliant, btw. So very much communicated in one gesture.

snipped for scrolling sake

It was not until now I realised where I recognised a nurse from. From the many misadventures on this occasion had my neck bleeding out and the nurse was from New York keeping things in place, that pilot is so very close to her.

One of life's odd little mystery's solved. She just reminded me of that pilot.

Good call on her she was a strong character in her own right.

[Shiro♌]

Selene from Underworld would be one of my picks.. But I'm not sure just how much of a character development she have had there, as it's been over five years since I watched the movies.

If I'm not wrong and my memories aren't off, then it's very clear that she was a no match in regards to the physical strength in comparison to the other vampires, let alone lycans in their wild form, but the agility, experiences, and just how skilled she was in combat and thinking things through over the physical strength has been making her special.. On top of what has been the source of her character, her past.
It's a shame, she's no longer in her prime young years, so the odds of another sequel of Selene and Michael are.. Way too low to be given any hope.

[Stingray_tm]

Originally posted by steven1mac:

Originally posted by Stingray_tm:

If Aliens was released today unchanged, conservative people would cry "woke".

I doubt it, it is lacking a overly diverse cast and your not hammered with a political message throughout the shot. The main character still has flaws and weaknesses in the movie, which is against woke messaging as well.

Really? REALLY?

I will now wear my "anti-woke" hat and comment on those things:

"Aliens is woke! There is a lot of forced diversity. There is latin-american woman in it, more badass than all the men, and she might even be gay. Also there are several black people and on top of it all, the lead is a woman, who doesn't take ♥♥♥♥ from any man. The men largely are potrayed as incompetent morons, whose hypermasulinity leads them into trouble, where they have to be saved by the heroine, who is more competent than the all the men. In the end it is even a fight between two mothers with the men all being useless.."

This is pretty much how such people would react to it.

We can also take Terminator 2 as a example, where Sarah Connor explicitly is blaming men for Judgment Day and most men other then Miles Dison are sexist ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[Hobbit XIII]

Originally posted by Stingray_tm:

Originally posted by steven1mac:

I doubt it, it is lacking a overly diverse cast and your not hammered with a political message throughout the shot. The main character still has flaws and weaknesses in the movie, which is against woke messaging as well.

Really? REALLY?

I will now wear my "anti-woke" hat and comment on those things:

"Aliens is woke! There is a lot of forced diversity. There is latin-american woman in it, more badass than all the men, and she that might even be gay. Also there are several black people and on top of it all, the lead is a woman, who doesn't take ♥♥♥♥ from any man. The men largely are potrayed as incompetent morons, whose hypermasulinity leads them into trouble, where they have to be saved by the heroine, who is more competent than the all the men. In the end it is even a fight between two mothers with the men all being useless.."

This is pretty much how such people would react to it.

We can also take Terminator 2 as a example, where Sarah Connor explicitly is blaming men for Judgment Day and most men other then Miles Dison are sexist ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

then there are people who watched the interview of her talking about her interview for the part.
Unfortunately i cannot find that interview now.

But here is some meta information interview of the squad and newt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQXKJdjFPF4

yes i forgot to post the link.

aaand note what they say about Sigourney if you will.