Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Violent Female Action Characters in Contemporary American Cinema

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Sex Roles Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This research is a content analysis of violent female action characters (“VFAC”) shown in American action films from 1991 through 2005. The analysis focused on three aspects of VFACs: (1) gender stereotypes, (2) demographics, and (3) quantity and type of violence. Findings showed that 58.6% of VFACs were portrayed in a submissive role to the male hero in the film, and 42% were romantically linked to him. The average VFAC was young, white, highly educated, and unmarried. VFACs engaged in masculine types of violence yet retained feminine stereotypes due to their submissive role and romantic involvement with a dominant male hero character. The findings suggest continued gender stereotypes set within a violent framework of contemporary American cinema.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blumer, H., & Hauser, P. (1933). Movies, delinquency, and crime. New York: MacMillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, J. (1996). Gender and the action heroine: Hardbodies and the “Point of No Return”. Cinema Journal, 35(3), 52–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, J. (2005). Gender, sexuality, and toughness: The bad girls of action film and comic books. In S. Inness (Ed.), Action chicks (pp. 47–74). New York: Palgrave MacMillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. (1999). Gender is burning. In S. Thornham (Ed.), Feminist film theory (pp. 336–349). New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calvert, S. L., Kondla, T. A., Ertel, K. A., & Meisel, D. S. (2001). Young adults’ perception and memories of a televised woman hero. Sex Roles, 45, 31–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Children Now. (2004). Prime time diversity report. Retrieved from http://www.childrennow.com.

  • Clover, C. J. (1992). Men, women, and chain saws: Gender in the modern horror film. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crosby, S. (2005). Female heroes snapped into sacrificial heroines. In S. Inness (Ed.), Action chicks (pp. 153–178). New York: Palgrave MacMillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dietz, T. L. (1998). An examination of violence and gender role portrayals in video games: Implications for gender socialization and aggressive behavior. Sex Roles, 38, 425–442.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dill, K. E., & Thill, K. P. (2007). Video game characters and the socialization of gender roles: Young people’s perceptions mirror sexist media depictions. Sex Roles, 57, 851–864.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dyer, R. (2002). The matter of images: Essays on representation. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elasmer, M., Hasegawa, K., & Brain, M. (1999). The portrayal of women in U.S. prime time television. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 44, 20–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eschholz, S., & Bufkin, J. (2001). Crime in the movies: Investigating the efficacy of measures of both sex and gender for predicting victimization and offending in film. Sociological Forum, 16, 655–676.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eschholz, S., Bufkin, J., & Long, J. (2002). Symbolic reality bites: Women and racial/ethnic minorities in modern film. Sociological Spectrum, 22, 299–334.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gerbner, G. (1970). Cultural indicators: The case of violence in television drama. The Annuls of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 388, 69–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gerbner, G. (1994). Making a killing. Psychology Today, 27(4), 18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerbner, G. (1998). Cultivation analysis: An overview. Mass Communication & Society, 1(3/4), 175–194.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glascock, J. (2001). Gender, roles on prime-time network television: Demographics and behaviors. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 45, 656–669.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glascock, J. (2003). Gender, race, and aggression in newer TV networks’ primetime programming. Communication Quarterly, 51, 90–100.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenberg, H. R., Clover, C. J., Johnson, A., Chumo, P. N., Henderson, B., Williams, L., et al. (1991). The many faces of “Thelma & Louise”. Film Quarterly, 4(2), 20–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hall, S. (Ed.). (1997). Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haskell, M. (1974). From reverence to rape: The treatment of women in the movies. New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hills, E. (1999). From figurative males to action heroines: Further thoughts on active women in cinema. Screen, 40(1), 38–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hooks, B. (1996). Reel to real: Race, sex, and class at the movies. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huesmann, L. R. (1999). The effects of childhood aggression and exposure to media violence on adult behaviors, attitudes and mood: Evidence from a 15-year cross-national longitudinal study. Aggressive Behavior, 25, 18–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Inness, S. (Ed.). (2004). Action chicks: New images of tough women in popular culture. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Internet Movie Data Base (“IMDB”). (2008). Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/.

  • Jansz, J., & Martis, R. G. (2007). The Lara phenomenon: Powerful female characters in video games. Sex Roles, 56, 141–148.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King, G. (2002). New Hollywood cinema, an introduction. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, N. (2008). Generic womanhood: Gendered depictions in cop action cinema. Gender & Society, 22, 238–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krippendorff, K. (2004a). Reliability in content analysis: Some common misconceptions and recommendations. Human Communications Research, 30, 411–433.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krippendorff, K. (2004b). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazarsfeld, P. F., & Merton, R. K. (1948). Mass communication, popular taste, and organized social action. In L. Bryson (Ed.), The communication of ideas (pp. 95–118). New York: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Linz, D., & Donnerstein, E. (1994). Dialogue: Sex and violence in slasher films: a reinterpretation. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 38, 243–246.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lorber, J. (1999). Embattled terrain: Gender and sexuality. In M. M. Ferree, J. Lorber, & B. B. Hess (Eds.), Revisioning gender (pp. 416–48). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lueptow, L. B., Garovich-Szabo, L., & Lueptow, M. B. (2001). Social change and the persistence of sex typing: 1974–1997. Social Forces, 80, 1–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Magoulick, M. (2006). Frustrating female heroism: Mixed messages in Xena, Nikita, and Buffy. The Journal of Popular Culture, 39, 729–747.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mastro, D. E., & Greenberg, B. S. (2000). The portrayal of racial minorities on prime time television. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 44, 690–703.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCaughey, M., & King, N. (Eds.). (2001). Reel knockouts: Violent women in the movies. Austin: University of Texas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McRobbie, A. (2004). Post-feminism and popular culture. Feminist Media Studies, 4(3), 235–264.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Metz, C. (2006, May). Hollywood reboots. PC Magazine, 62–74.

  • Modleski, T. (1991). Feminism without women: Culture and criticism in a ‘postfeminist age’. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Motion Picture Association (2005). U.S. entertainment industry: 2005 MPA market statistics. Retrieved from http://www.mpaa.org/InternationalTheatricalMarket.pdf.

  • Motion Picture Association (2007). U.S. movie attendance study. Retrieved from http://www.mpaa.org/MovieAttendanceStudy.pdf.

  • Mulvey, L. (1975). Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. Screen, 16(3), 6–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pfeil, F. (1995). White guys: Studies in postmodern domination and difference. New York: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Powers, M. A. (1991). The heroine in western literature. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, M. (1973). Popcorn Venus: Women, movies, and the American dream. New York: Coward, McCann and Geoghegan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rowe-Karlyn, K. (2003). Scream, popular culture, and feminism’s third wave: “I’m not my mother.” Genders, 38. Retrieved from http://www.genders.org/g38/g38_rowe_karlyn.html.

  • Sapolsky, B. S., Molitor, F., & Luque, S. (2003). Sex and violence in slasher films: Re-examining the assumptions. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 80(1), 28–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Signorielli, N. (2003). Prime-time violence 1993–2001: Has the picture really changed? Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 47, 36–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Signorielli, N., & Bacue, A. (1999). Recognition and respect: A content analysis of prime-time television characters across three decades. Sex Roles, 41, 527–544.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Signorielli, N., & Kahlenberg, S. (2001). Television’s world of work in the nineties. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 45, 4–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sklar, R. (1994). Movie-made America. New York: Vintage Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, S. L., Wilson, B. J., Kunkel, D., Linz, D., Potter, J., Colvin, C. M., et al. (1998). Violence in television programming overall: University of California, Santa Barbara study. In National television violence study: Vol. 3 (pp. 5–220). Newbury Park: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stacey, J. (2000). Desperately seeking difference. In A. E. Kaplan (Ed.), Feminism and film (pp. 456–465). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steinke, J. (2005). Cultural representations of gender and science. Science Communication, 27, 27–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tasker, Y. (1993). Spectacular bodies: Gender, genre, and the action cinema. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tasker, Y. (1998). Working girls: Gender and sexuality in popular cinema. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tasker, Y., & Negra, D. (Eds.). (2007). Interrogating postfeminism: Gender and the politics of popular culture. Durham: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trinh, T. M. (1991). When the moon waxes red: Representation, gender, and cultural politics. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Twenge, J. (1997). Changes in masculine and feminine traits over time: A meta-analysis. Sex Roles, 36, 305–325.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. (1999). Women offenders. Retrieved from http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/wo.pdf.

  • U.S. Census Bureau. (2006). American community survey. Retrieved from http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ACSSAFFPeople?_submenuId=people_0&_sse=on.

  • U.S. Census Bureau. (2007). Educational attainment. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/education/cps2007/Table1-01.xls.

  • U.S. Census Bureau. (2008). Minority links. Data set 10—resident population by race, Hispanic origin, and single years of age: 2008. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/population.html.

  • U.S. Department of Justice. (2007). FBI crime report: Expanded homicide data table 3. Retrieved from http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2007/offenses/expanded_information/data/shrtable_03.html.

  • U.S. Department of Labor. (2008). Women’s bureau: Quick stats of women workers, 2008. Retrieved from http://www.dol.gov/wb/stats/main.htm.

  • Williams, L. R. (1991). Film bodies: Gender, genre, and excess. Film Quarterly, 44(4), 2–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wootton, B. (1997, April). Gender differences in occupational employment. Monthly Labor Review, 23–33.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Sciences, Kaplan University, 6301 Kaplan University Lane, Fort Lauderdale, FL, 33309, USA

    Katy Gilpatric

Authors
  1. Katy Gilpatric
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katy Gilpatric.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Gilpatric, K. Violent Female Action Characters in Contemporary American Cinema. Sex Roles 62, 734–746 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-010-9757-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-010-9757-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation