Moreover, some men continue to try and bring down female action heroes. One of these men is Don Feder, who wrote in his article “Wimps Whiners Weenies: Men in Movies Today,” that in female action heroes' movies women are “fearless and indomitable” which means men show no contrast to them. As a result, male characters end up playing the fool and being helpless. Feder believes that this is not what the public wants, even when these movies feature famous directors or actors, and therefore they do not do well in the box office. Notwithstanding, if we take a look at the box office earnings of “Tomb Raider, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Charlie's Angels,” for example, we can see that they passed the mark of 100 million dollars. These numbers prove patently that Feder was wrong in his assertion.

Then we have the statement from Elliot Lederman, Universal's Senior Director of Licensing, in 1999; he affirmed that despite the popularity that the television show “Xena the Warrior Princess” was obtaining back then, we should not expect “a rash of female Rambos anytime soon”. What is more, he added that “there hasn't been a successful female action hero since Wonder Woman. Other studios have tried to create them, but Xena is the first successful one and it's going to be tough to follow the trend.” As we have been able to experience or witness, this statement is highly inaccurate, because we could very well say that after Xena there has been a rash of female Rambos indeed, and it was not so tough to follow the trend. Nowadays there are numerous, and many successful, female action heroes and they just keep coming. However, not all of them are accepted by the public, but it is only the minority that goes through that process or problem.

Christina Larson has a theory as to why some female action heroes underwent this lack of acceptance. She states in her article “Seven Mistakes Superheroines Make: Why The Latest Action-Babe Flicks Flopped” that she believes that Hollywood overreached when dealing with this type of women since studios did not stop to think or analyze why exactly audiences loved female action heroes. What they did instead was to come up with a formula that they thought was the one that had brought about success to previous female action hero's movies: they placed beautiful women with well-shaped bodies wearing tight costumes and then they made them fight in them. Apparently, they thought that that was all it took to make a female action hero movie successful. They based movies on the protagonist's good looks and sex appeal, but, actually, that formula was virtually wrong, which was a fact proven by the low box office income that movies like these obtained. What Hollywood should have realized, adds Larson, is that the movies that feature female action heroes that did well in the box office, did not only show a pretty woman with a nice body and revealing clothes, but they also showed them as strong, witty and successful. She makes an excellent comparison between a female action hero who was accepted by the public and one who was not:

Lara Croft may have originated as pure male fantasy - but on the big screen, she became erudite, well-traveled, a working photojournalist, and went home at night to a house worthy of Architectural Digest. On the other hand, Elektra [...] might turn heads in her tight-laced scarlet bustier. But her personal magnetism doesn't measure up: she's a gloomy assassin who suffers from nightmares, insomnia, and OCD. Plus she hates her job but can't - or won't - figure out what to do with her life.

As we can see from this quote, Lara (“Tomb Raider”) is a successful, happy woman who has got her life under control, while Elektra is a woman who is not happy and has definitely no control over her life, she does not even knows what she wants. Lara emanates a positive feeling whereas Elektra does the opposite, and no one likes negative feelings especially coming from an action hero, so it is no wonder the audience rejected the latter.

What occurs in Hollywood's film industry is that it is always looking for something new. There is a time for everything and the time for the old male action heroes has passed. The new trend now is the female action heroes and it is still strong; however, it will also have its culmination eventually like it has happened to the former type of heroes and many other types of movies that have existed. Like Bou and Pérez explain in El tiempo del Héroe [The Time of the Hero] so clearly, “Hollywood's movie industry, as the producer of myths for people's consumption, needs to renovate its product in harmony with the times. Heroes become deteriorated with repetition [...] and their image has to be updated or refreshed.” Interestingly enough, these qualities are the ones that women are usually associated with, these are the characteristics that we can see in Lara Croft (Tomb Raider), Sidney Bristow (Alias) and Charlie's Angels, among others: they are smaller, slimmer, intelligent and do not look threatening if you do not know them.

These slimmer bodies, like Mencimer says, only make old big male action heroes with all their muscles “look like lumps of heavy, slow-moving steel.” Hence we have now female action heroes, who are the new updated or refreshed heroes (like "new Tarzans"). There seems to have been an indication of the rise of a new type of hero in the movie “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” Here, the new evil terminator played by Robert Patrick was visually the complete opposite to what the terminator that Arnold Schwarzenegger played in this movie and its prequel. The latter was a very big and muscular guy who at first sight gave the impression of a very strong person and looked even scary, whereas the former was a small, thin man who did not look threatening. However, he was indeed threatening and dangerous plus he was smarter and faster that Schwarzenegger's terminator.

Ever since the beginning of the female action hero rebirth, which according to Stephanie Mencimer took place in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” with the character played by Linda Hamilton, Sarah Connor, we could see how some of those characters have undergone some sort of transformation. To Sarah Connor the transformation took place in the second installment of the Terminator trilogy. In the first part she was, as Susan Jeffords explains so well in her book mentioned before, “uncertain, frightened, and weak; in her rebirth she is toughminded, fearless, and strong [...]. She wears fatigues, totes heavy weapons, and has a mission to perform.” We can also see transformations in “Catwoman,” where Patience goes through a drastic change after she is revived. Before that happened she was a pushover, she did not stand up for herself and was very insecure; however, when she is revived by the cat she becomes the complete opposite. In “Charlie's Angels” we are told about the girls' transformations: Natalie is shown taking a driving course wearing braces and with a silly hairdo, Alex used to ride horses apparently professionally and Dylan is shown as having been a “bad” girl at school. When they became Charlie's Angels their appearance and self assurance changed, plus they became specialized crime fighters.

This change was the recipe of success for Hollywood especially as regards the female audience. Seeing a woman in control, a woman who can defy gravity and/or overpower men, is like a fantasy for many women nowadays when male chauvinism is still strong. However, no woman likes to see a heroine complaining about irrelevant things such as a mid-life career crisis. In other words, women like female action heroes because they represent all they would like to be: they are strong, fearless and do not let anyone step over them, and at the same time they accomplish incredible missions. Moreover, practically all of the movies and television shows that portray an aggressive or strong female character provide the viewers with an answer or an explanation as to why the character acts that way. Sometimes it is the death of a loved one, something that has been done to her like a betrayal, or an attack on her life, or something stolen from her, etc.

Finally, there is yet another reason why female action heroes came about and received such recognition at this specific time in history in the United States. As Gina Arnold explains in “Badass Girls on Film - Is it a Good Thing When Women Beat the Crap Out of Men at the Movies?,” the roles women played in movies in the late twentieth century were mostly about the woman “terrorized, menaced, raped and sometimes even killed for viewing pleasure.” A theory would explain this as a result to what was known as the “angry white male” phenomenon that took place at that time. This phenomenon was apparently a direct result of feminism, sexual liberation, closed factories and farms in the country, and the stricter penalties imposed on sexual harassment and domestic violence, all of which seemed to have made many men angry. This anger was portrayed in movies by putting men taking their anger out on women. Therefore, the emergence of female action heroes in movies and television series in the last few years is also a response to a social situation, this being exactly what the movies just mentioned were doing with women not so long ago. Moreover, the fact that women in real life have been occupying positions of power in many different areas such as sports, business, politics, and even in Hollywood, has also acted as an influence in the creation of the female action hero figure, since, as we have seen, movies reflect society. But there is more to that, because society also reacts to what it sees happening in movies and it is the one that decides trough acceptance or rejection what movies will and will not be successful. In other words, society is the real ruler of the movie and television industries.

But he believed her and that is where the beauty of that weapon lies: she used her mind to see in which way he would do what she wanted him to do and she found the way without resorting to violence. Moreover, in “Charlie's Angels” the girls figured out a way to gain access to the fingerprints and retina scan from the two only men who had access to the restricted area where they needed to go, in that way being able to go into that restricted area themselves. The Angels usually use their sex appeal to obtain what they need, but that is because they know that that is a very effective way to do so. Therefore, what they do in the movie is first use their mind or intelligence to formulate a plan and then they use their sex appeal as a resource. So, basically, even though these female heroes have the ability of using force or physical strength to confront their enemies, they do not necessarily use that as the one and only resource or even as a first choice, but they only use it as a last resource or when absolutely necessary. As a matter of fact, according to an investigation that the Henry J. Kaiser Foundation has carried out, only 19% of female characters in films used physical force while the male did in 53% of the times.

There is yet another element that makes female action heroes unique in comparison to their male counterparts. These women are not afraid to show their feelings, although they do not do it in the traditionally female way. We do not usually see a male action hero crying or showing his vulnerable sides. They may, however, show tears of anger, but not tears of sadness. Bou and Pérez explain in their book El tiempo del Héroe [The Time of the Hero] that if the male hero does indeed cry it will only be an isolated event that will launch the action or the beginning of a quest. These tears are the new launchers like in the past it used to be love at first sight, that is to say, that before in movies the launching factor was love at first sight what would trigger the hero to go on a quest for his loved one (Bou and Pérez, 2000: 32). In movies nowadays these tears in some of the male heroes work the same way in which love at first sight used to work in the past, they have the same power. Furthermore, male action heroes do not show open feelings about the women they love or have a sentimental interest in. Perhaps the reason why they do not cry or show their feelings towards others is because they do not want to show vulnerability, they are big machos who do not cry or crack under pressure. Of course we do not see any of the Angels or Lara cry under pressure either, but we do see Lara crying when visiting her father's grave or Sidney Bristow, from the tv series “Alias,” both screaming in pain and crying. But the fact that women do this more than men it does not make them weaker, but instead it makes them fuller, richer character and more compassionate, since they do not fear showing their emotions.

Bou and Pérez give us yet another meaningful explanation or theory about the uncrying male hero: the full release of emotions through tears is not an option for the male action hero, since it is an experience that the male dominant movie business does not allow beyond the insight of every man, something that should not escape to the exterior. Therefore, since pain is not allowed to exit the man's body through tears, it should do so some other way, and the procedure that was chosen to portray this was one which would make the whole body cry: through blood and wounds (Bou and Pérez, 2000: 64). Hence, we find here a connection to the fact that the male action hero's body seems to get more hurt in action movies than the female's one.

Furthermore, right now male action heroes are beginning to display a new characteristic which has been for ever attributed to women: they are starting to actually talk. Bou and Pérez tell us about a man who in an interview expressed that in Quentin Tarantino's movie Pulp Fiction the male heroes talked much more than they were expected to, given their violent nature. Therefore, one explanation could be that the extreme violent world that we find in male action heroes' movies needed a break, and doing more talking than customary seems to be one of the answers (Bou and Pérez, 2000: 215). This way, we could say that male heroes are beginning to turn towards characteristics often displayed by female action heroes which have proven to be successful. What is more, another reason why male action heroes had to change was because of the previously mentioned fact that they were becoming obsolete. As a matter of fact, the conclusion that Calvert et al. reached in their study was that

the most effective formula for presenting heroic female portrayals is one in which female characters embody traditionally valued feminine characteristics, such as physical attractiveness, nurturance, compassion, and using the mind over the sword. Using your mind and being compassionate are integral cultural expectations for female heroes, and perhaps should be emphasized more in our male heroes as well.

What the authors of the research are suggesting is that since female action heroes have become so successful, perhaps male action heroes should imitate some of the characteristics that the former present.

The secret of the fascination for heroes that Hollywood has been able to create lies in a secret: the stories in those movies have the power to take us to another place where we are both ourselves and at the same time we are somebody else, somebody stronger, since heroes possess all of the human attributes only amplified. This characteristic is what turns them into role models and archetypes, in which the values of intelligence, loyalty, courage, beauty and goodness reach their highest point. Umberto Eco, an Italian semiologist, once wrote that “the positive hero must embody, besides all of the imaginable limits, the strength exigencies that the regular citizen feeds on and cannot satisfy” This would be the simplest explanation, or maybe just one, of why people like action heroes. But what we must find out is why people like female action heroes.

Let us then examine Wittmier's lines and what movies have fulfilled them, which ones did not, and finally what seems to be the ultimate result. The lines that Wittmier proposes are mentioned below, each one followed by a possible explanation as to how they apply to a few movies and television shows featuring female action heroes:

1. The hero usually suffers a great loss, which makes him [or her] set off on a quest.

In “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” we learn that her father had died several years ago, which is an episode that deeply affects Lara. He had died in the battlefield and she never had a chance to say goodbye, which is what makes her feel worse. So when she learns about the Triangle of Light, she goes on the quest of trying to acquire it before anybody else can, namely Manfred Powell, so that she can get her chance of seeing her father one more time and saying good bye.

In “Charlie's Angels” the loss and/or the knowledge of a future loss is what sets them off on their quest. Eric Knox and Vivian Wood had teamed up to find Charlie and kill him. Even though the Angels had never seen Charlie, he was like a father to them. Besides, the former two had kidnapped Bosley, the girls' friend and “boss,” to use him as bait to find Charlie, so that was a loss they had already experienced. These two losses triggered their going after the bad guys and stop them.

Sidney Bristow, the main character from the television show “Alias,” suffered several losses in the duration of the series: the first one was her fiancé's murder, then came her friend Francie's murder, her friend Will Tippin's having to go to witness protection program, her mother's betrayal, Dixon's wife's murder, and many more. All of these losses led to her trying to find the ones responsible for all of that and either take them in custody or kill them. Moreover, when she finds out that she had a sister, which was in a way also a loss because she had lost the opportunity of sharing her life with her, she sets on a quest to go and find her.

If we take a look at “Catwoman,” for example, her quest differs from the previous three. She was killed by order of Laurel Hedare, the owner of the company she was designing for. After a cat mysteriously revives her, she sets on a quest to try and find who killed her, and take revenge. However, she did not really lose anything because after all she is alive now. They did take her life however, but she came back much stronger than before and in the end she likes it, so she gained more than she lost.

2. The hero generally has a mentor or helper who helps him [or her] on his quest.

Lara Croft requires the help of Mr. Wilson, a friend of the family and archaeologist, so that he can explain to her what the clock that she had found was for. Moreover, she has Bryce, the computer and technological expert, to provide her with gadgets of all kinds to both help her train and to make her quests easier.

The Angels have Bosley who helps them whenever they need him. He does so by communicating then with Charlie, working undercover with them, and basically helping them however he can, like he did for example at the end of the movie when he found the means of transport.

Sidney Bristow counts on Marshall's help, the software experts of the CIA. He is also in charge of inventing state-of-the-art devices that help her in her missions. Moreover, her father, who works with her at the agency, functions as a mentor to her.

Patience Phillips discovers a sort of mentor after she becomes Catwoman. This person is the woman who owns Midnight, the cat that revived and converted Patience. The woman gives her information about what exactly happened to her and what the story behind catwomen really is. After Patience collected all this knowledge she decides how to go on with her new life.

3. The hero must face a set of trials, which allow him [or her] to overcome “evil”.

Lara Croft faces, among other obstacles, stone monkey soldiers, a giant stone goddess, and most of all Manfred Powell who, she learns, had killed her father. After she fights him especially, she overcomes evil, that is to say, she is relieved of that calamity that surrounded her, and moves on triumphant.

Dylan, Natalie and Alex faced a bombing terrorist, men who were hired to kill them, and Knox and Wood whom they had to defeat. They had success in every one of these tasks, and in this way they not only faced but also vanquish the malevolence of their enemies.

Sidney Bristow had to face her fiancé's death, her mother's betrayal, and having to work undercover for an organization the CIA was investigating, among other tasks. Despite of those calamitous experiences, she could work out the situation victoriously.

Catwoman does not seem to undergo any trials. We could say that when she was acting as Patience she had to lie to the man she liked, police officer Tom Lone, not to reveal her other identity, since there was an order issued by the force to catch Catwoman. In the end, he finds out who she is and then understands that she was not guilty of what she had been accused. However, this trial does not seem to be on the same level and the previous three.

4. The hero narrowly escapes death, usually more than once.

Lara escapes from death many times: from the robot at the beginning of the movie, from the men that break into her house to steal the clock, from the stone creatures in Cambodia, and from Manfred Powell.

The Angels evade death from two bombs, a shoot out, many different men that intended to kill them, and of course from Eric Knox and Vivian Wood.

Sidney Bristow is probably the one who faced death the most. She was even once captured by the North Koreans and was about to be executed when someone saved her. Moreover, she faced many shoot-outs, had to dismantle bombs with Marshall's help, engaged in serious physical combat repeatedly, besides the fact that she is constantly working undercover and that alone puts her in considerable danger if she is ever to be caught.

In “Catwoman,” the hero-to-be Patience actually dies before she transforms from the regular woman into Catwoman. After that episode, even though she is under attack in several occasions she does not seem to think she is in any danger, she became fearless so she does not believe she is facing death. However, she does become frightened once at the end of the movie after Laurel Hedare stabs her, but she quickly recovers from it and wins the fight.

5. The hero escapes the “evil villain's” stronghold or destroys him [or her].

When Lara is fighting Manfred Powell, the evil villain, she ends up killing him.

All of the Angels escape the attacks of the villains, included the attacks by the main villain, Knox, who dies due to the Angels' intelligence and expertise.

Sidney Bristow, even though sometimes she is kept hostage or caught by the villains, always ends up being rescued or escapes by her own means. Furthermore, she sometimes also destroys the villains, like she did with Lauren, one of the most evil villains in the show.

Catwoman fights the movie's evil villain Laurel Hedare at the end of the movie, which concludes with the latter's accidental death.

6. The hero is then reintegrated into society with a new status, wealth, or marriage to the princess.

This point, even though it seems more to apply to a medieval novel, may apply on these movies as well if we take the basic meaning of the line, which is that after the hero has finished his or her quest there is a change or a reward for them.

In the case of Lara Croft, after she undergoes her quest and returns home, she seems happier and satisfied. So much so that she decides to put on a dress to visit her father's grave, like a sort of homage to him since she had flatly refused to wear that same dress before when Hillary the buttler offered - which, judging by the way she answered him when he did, it made us believe that she always refuses because that is not her style.

The Angels, after escaping death, rescuing Bosley and saving Charlie seem to be more appreciated by him and they are given well deserved vacations, therefore enjoying some kind of new status.

As for Sidney Bristow, one of her many quests, one of the most significant ones for her, was to save her love interest Michael Vaughn from his wife's clutches, Lauren, who was a traitor. She pretended to be a CIA agent when she actually worked for a criminal organization. She married Vaughn to obtain extra information from the agency that was of great importance for the organization she worked for. When Sidney finally defeats her and saves Vaughn, she gains him back (they used to be a couple) and starts a new chapter in her life as regards her relationship with him.

In “Catwoman,” after Patience dies and is revived she returns to society with a completely new status: as a catwoman.

7. There has to be a happy ending.

In “Tomb Raider,” Lara achieves her goal of seeing her father one more time and she also destroys the man who killed him, to then return to her normal life.

In “Charlie's Angels,” the girls save Charlie and they go on well-deserved vacations.

In “Alias” Sydney and Vaughn live happily ever after.

In “Catwoman,” Patience takes revenge on the woman who tried to kill her, and her reputation is cleared. She decides to go on saving other people who may need her help, although by doing so she leaves her boyfriend because she prefers to focus on saving other people. That ending is not so happy for him.

As we can see, “Catwoman” did not fulfill all of these rules established by Wittmier, and incidentally it is the one of the movies that did not receive a good acceptance neither by the critics nor the audience. Wittmier adds that “heroes must strictly follow the pattern of hero archetype in order to receive acceptance. Any deviation from this pattern leads to undermining the character's familiarity and acceptability.” This is exactly what happened to “Catwoman:” since the main character did not follow the archetype she was not accepted too well.

However, this list is not the only one that has been created or researchers have come up with; Christina Larson presented her own list in her article “Seven Mistakes Superheroines Make: Why the Latest Action-babe Flicks Flopped.” According to her, every female action hero that has broken at least one of the rules she mentions has failed to receive a positive reception by the audience. Those rules are:

• Do fight demons. Don't fight only inner demons.
• Do play well with others. Don't shun human society.
• Do exhibit self-control. Don't exhibit mental disorders.
• Do wear trendy clothes. Don't wear fetish clothes.
• Do embrace girl power. Don't cling to man hatred.
• Do help hapless men. Don't try to kill your boyfriend.
• Do toss off witty remarks. Don't look perpetually sullen.

Let us analyze two of the movies featuring female action heroes that have failed to be accepted by the majority of society, and check if what Larson claims is true. In “Catwoman,” Patience Phillips ends up shunning human society when she decides to leave all of her life behind, including her boyfriend, to save people in danger. Moreover, she does wear fetish clothes. “Elektra” also wears fetish clothes, she does exhibit mental disorders and is sullen rather than witty. Moreover, she seems to struggle too much with her inner demons, and at least at the beginning she did shun human society. We do not see any of these rules broken neither in “Tomb Raider” nor in “Charlie's Angels,” or even in “Alias,” even when Alex from “Charlie's Angels” and Sidney from “Alias” have been shown wearing fetish clothes, but that was only as a cover in a mission, not because that is what they had chosen to wear emblematically. We can conclude, then, that Larson was indeed right: if a female action hero breaks any of the rules mentioned above, the audience, that is to say society, will not accept them or the movie or television show will flop.

Moreover, there is also a key to a good action movie, as Stephanie Mencimer states in her article “Violent Femmes.” She assures that there should be “an inverse relationship between the amount of special effects and the amount of dialogue. Talk too much and the heroine loses her mystique and starts to remind men of their ex-wives.” Here lies another mistake that “Catwoman” made. Patience talks too much in comparison to Lara Croft or Charlie's Angels. In addition, the movie puts a lot of emphasis on the sentimental relationship between Patience and Tom Lone, and also on what happens within Patience herself as she undergoes and tries to cope with the changes that turned her into Catwoman.After including this entire dilemma there is not a lot of action in the movie, not as much as in other action movies which have been successful.