Fighting It: The Supergirl

Abstract

“Action heroines are a new breed of …female protagonists”, Elizabeth Hills notes, emphasizing the transgressive and transformative nature of female characters who confound the masculine/feminine dualism (38). The modern-day action heroine does not adhere to the stereotypical “men act and women appear” polarization but she problematizes the critical framework that constructs the notions of passive femininity and active masculinity in terms of diametrical opposition and mutual exclusivity (Berger 46). As Yvonne Tasker reveals, at the most fundamental level, images of the active heroine disrupt “any clear set of critical distinctions between passivity, femininity and women on the one hand and activity, masculinity and men on the other” (77). This new type of heroine is far from being immobile and passive: she fights, she shoots, she kills, solves crimes and rescues herself and others from dangerous situations. She has been described as a “sheroe” who is “in full command of the narrative, carrying the action in ways that have normally been reserved for male protagonists” (Matrix 1; Brown 56). In effect, she adopts a number of characteristics and attitudes that have been deemed masculine or male and she challenges the essentialist dichotomy that denies women recourse to action and strength as means to empowerment.