The idea that women can be strong and independent is not actually something new. Actually, it dates back to Roman mythology, where there were goddesses who had certain skills that remind us of today's female action heroes. Minerva, who was one of the superior gods, was the goddess of wisdom. She was known for always keeping her promises and anything that she authorized to be done just by nodding her head had to be rigorously fulfilled. She had also invented writing, painting and embroidery. Moreover, when the god Neptune aspired to have the city that Cecrops had just built be named after him, which was exactly the same thing Minerva wanted, the gods decided that the one who created the one thing that would be more useful for the city would succeed in their aspiration. Neptune created the horse, symbol of war, while Minerva created the olive tree, symbol of peace. As a result, the goddess won. However, she is usually represented as a severe woman who holds a pike with her right hand, a shield with her left one, and a helmet on her head. Besides, she had fought in wars and combats. Therefore, she was both a warrior and a searcher of peace. Yet, her origin was extremely peculiar: the god Jupiter was suffering from a terrible headache and ordered someone to open his skull with an ax. When this was done, Minerva came out of Jupiter's head armed from head to toes.
We can find a correlation to the latter fact to what we see in the opening images of the Charlie's Angels DVD version. The first thing we see is the dark figure of a man walking towards the screen and from that man three women are formed: the Angels. Moreover, the fact that Minerva was both a fighter and a searcher of peace also reminds us of female action heroes. These women do not use violence unless absolutely necessary, which shows a contrast to what male action heroes do in practically every movie, and is also in connection to what the god Neptune did when he chose to create the horse. Moreover, she was also smart and handled different skills; we can also see these same attributes in female action heroes. Besides being extremely skilled in combat and martial arts, the three “Charlie's Angels” speak Japanese, German, know how to dismantle a bomb, can drive a race car, know how to scuba dive, and Natalie even knows how to recognize a bird from its singing, what helped them find the location where Bosley was being kept hostage. In “Alias,” Sidney Bristow has multiple skills; she also is remarkably skilled in hand to hand combat, she speaks several languages, knows how to operate multiple state-of-the-art technological gadgets, etc. Lara Croft from “Tomb Raider” can also fight anyone skillfully regardless the weapon of choice or chance, or even with her bare hands; she also speaks different languages, escapes from her enemies time and time again, even by falling down a waterfall and emerging unharmed, and much more.
Another goddess, Venus, was the goddess of beauty and love and was born full of charms, so much so that all the gods were fascinated with her and they all wanted her as their wife; another goddess yet, Diana, was the queen of hunting and therefore she was of a savage nature. The best example of this nature was how she caused the "death" of Actaeon: one day when Diana was bathing in a creek Actaeon was unfortunate enough to accidentally come close that place, what angered Diana so much so that she turned him into a deer.
We can see then two more attributes that these goddesses had and were passed on to female action heroes and, why not, to many women in general nowadays. In the case of Venus, she was so beautiful that men were captivated by her, which is reminiscent of how the public today accepts pretty action heroes (which constitutes the majority of them) much more than they do the ones that are not so. However, beauty is not the only thing that the public wants to see, although it certainly does not hurt. In movies like “Elektra” and “Catwoman” that star Jennifer Garner and Halle Berry respectively, both very beautiful women, the earnings and reviews for them were not good at all and so those movies were big flunks. However, if more attributes are added to beauty then the formula for success could be reached. What we find in the goddess Diana is one of the attributes: she is aggressive, and if a man crosses the line with her then she will make sure it will cost him dearly, which is a feature that we also find in female action heroes.
We could dare say that the female action hero icon did not enter the protagonist world of Hollywood and did not become so widely accepted simply over night, but it actually did so in steps. What seems to have been one of the steps was the introduction of women with secondary roles bearing female action hero characteristics in male action heroes' movies. This is the case, for example, of one of James Bond's movie, “Tomorrow Never Dies.” In this movie, the traditionally strong, solitary and famous for his many sexual conquests hero James Bond, in this instance played by Pierce Brosnan, ends up accomplishing his mission with the help of no one else but a woman named Wai Lin, played by Michelle Yeoh. Ironically enough, he could not have done it all by himself, like he had always done so in the past, and he needed the help of a woman. Another man in the same situation was Jackie Chan who is recognized for always portraying characters that are extremely skilled in martial arts, always works alone and always succeeds. However, in one of his latest movies he teamed up with a strong woman played by Claire Forlani, as was the case of “The Medallion.” Now women have moved on from the shadow of the male action hero and are doing the work all by themselves, having become the protagonists of their own adventures.
Humbert, Juan. 1984: 41, 42, 44.
Ibid. 45.
Ibid. 62, 63.
Elektra is a woman who was revived from a fatal wound by a master called Stick. He then becomes her trainer until it is time for her to leave; when she does she becomes an assassin. A criminal organization called The Order of The Hand hires her to seize a father and his daughter, Mark and Abby Miller. However, she becomes attached to them and decides to team up with them against the ones who hired her.
