Document Type
Article
Abstract
Lt. Ellen Ripley of the Alien series of films, Sarah Connor of the Terminator series, and Lindsey Brigman of The Abyss are examples of a special category of female role in Hollywood – the female action hero. To varying degrees of success, the three characters mentioned above defy the principal dilemma filmmakers seem to have in creating a character that can reconcile the presumably mutually exclusive aspects of "cast iron bitch" and traditional patriarchal societal views of femininity. Ripley, Connor, and Brigman infiltrate the male-dominated category of the action hero, but they are not "a direct feminine challenge" to the condition of feminine subordination which "means demanding to speak as a (masculine) 'subject,'" (Irigaray, "Power of Discourse" 76), for, to some extent, they defer to the men in more authoritative positions in their worlds. They each also deliberately embrace traditional feminine characteristics, thereby establishing a clear difference with male action hero counterparts. I argue that Ripley's and Connor's characters only achieve a limited success at maintaining sexual difference, for they each eventually repudiate the feminine, becoming, in effect, sexless and less "human" mirrors of male action heroes. Brigman, however, significantly embraces the traditional feminine qualities of wife and nurturer while maintaining her "cast iron bitch" personality and actions, serving as the model of a female action hero that most approaches the reality of women's own active qualities.
Repository Citation
Dominguez, Diana. ""It's Not Easy Being a Cast Iron Bitch": Sexual Difference and the Female Action Hero." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 5, no. 4, 2005, pp. 1–23. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol5/iss4/2