Action Chicks: New Images of Tough Women in Popular Culture

by Sherrie A. Inness

Xena, Buffy, Lara Croft. WWF, The Sopranos, Witchblade, La Femme Nikita. The women of pop culture are center stage and as tough as ever. Action Chicks is a groundbreaking collection highlighting the heroines we've grown to worship. What can they tell us about women in the Twent-first-century? What can they tell us about how popular culture depicts women? Do the characters escape traditional gender role expectations? Or do they adhere to sexual, racial, ethnic, and class stereotypes? The essays in Action Chicks provide fans with a new look at their favourite icons and their relationship to the popular media machine. A fascinating collection that's bound to stir up some excitement.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, Pop Culture, Philosophy, Anthologies

302 pages, Paperback

First published January 17, 2004

Reviews

[Emma Gerts · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really interesting read. Though a little outdated now (was published in 2004) it provided some really good discussions of how toughness and femininity intersect and how masculinity is preventing the rise of truly tough women who are allowed to be both tough and feminine. It's definitely worth taking those ideas that are presented in these essays and applying them to more modern source material, such as Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman and Jessica Jones and other new tough females in movies and on tv.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the whole, the chapters were clearly argued, on interesting topics with insightful points. Most of the chapters felt accessible to me (as a non academic) and many included information in notes that added to my understanding.

A handful of chapters seemed somewhat lacking in novel arguments, and instead reiterated their initial point, resulting in them feeling a little repetitive.

The two chapters that I enjoyed most were the ones on La Femme Nikita and sacrificial heroines. Despite never having seen La Femme Nikita, the chapter was very engaging. It explained everything well and made interesting points - particularly about the difficulty for women of colour in transgressing gender expectations in action roles. My favourite chapter on sacrificial heroines was amazingly well argued and evidenced, and drew my attention to patterns I'd not seen before. It also had a lot of praise for Buffy, which will always win me over!

[Nico · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. Only two essays (Charlene Tung's "Embodying an Image: Gender, Race, and Sexuality in La Femme Nikita, and Marilyn Yaquinto's "Mamas, Molls, and Mob Wives") displayed any awareness of intersectional feminism, and actually critiqued social structures. All other essays were hung up on essentializing gender performance to an almost comical level. Guns are objects, not penises, and anyone can fire one. That guns are more commonly associated with displays of male violence and aggression has nothing to do with the object itself, but the power over that guns represent. Etc. Sigh.

[Georgie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly an interesting read, however there were several essays where I disagreed with the author on major points, felt that they were contradicting themselves, or didn't go far enough in their exploration of the subject.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of essays on feminism in popular culture, again focusing on action and science fiction genres. A more detailed review is forthcoming.

[Luke Parr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poses quite a few questions and has a lot of valid points and theories! Pleasure studying this book :)

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the essays are great. Some, not so much. Overall an interesting book that will be a great resource for my research.