From Damsels to Depth: Redefining the On-Screen Heroine

Image Credit: Anora (2024)

The on-screen heroine comes from turbulent beginnings - characters with shunted narratives, or damsels forced to act distressed. Is the narrative shifting? Is the future more promising?

In the century or so that cinema has existed, the portrayal of women on screen has undergone a radical transformation; damsels-in-distress, to powerful femme-fatales, to larger-than-life heroines like Ripley from Alien, and Uma Thurman's The Bride in Kill Bill, to the more subtle, realistic, everyday heroines which are becoming a fixture of modern media – Amelie, Anora, and Shelly from The Last Showgirl. In the television space, recent stand-outs include Vi and Powder from Arcane, Shogun's Lady Mariko, various members of the Stranger Things cast, and countless others.

Women were shunted to the back of narratives in order to give the men greater prominence in the plot – raising one up by diminishing the other

The most reductive of these portrayals, the damsel-in-distress trope, saw its heyday between the eras of the Silent Film and the Western; here, women were shunted to the back of narratives in order to give the men greater prominence in the plot – raising one up by diminishing the other. Reflective of a time where it was frowned upon if a woman worked outside the home, when they were expected to be – by and large – dependent on their husbands for a living. Think films like the 1933 King Kong, Clint Eastwood's A Fistful of Dollars in 1964, and the 1914 serial, The Perils of Pauline.

Femme-fatales followed the damsels; powerful, mysterious, clever, ruthless women, almost always portrayed as beautiful, with various proclivities for scheming, seduction, and the sparking of general mayhem … traits that, when found in male characters like James Bond, were considered laudable – worthy of a thousand movie posters. But in women? No dice. 

In this phase, screenwriters – ninety-nine percent of them – mirrored the views of a striking number of men, who didn't like that women were increasingly pushing for, and securing, greater prominence in society: in work, politics, the social realm, and countless other fields. Many scholars believe that they thus were influenced, both consciously and not, to write women as untrustworthy and dangerous, a half of society to be kept under the thumb. 

The next few decades, the late 70s into the 2010s, saw women emerge into the hitherto exclusively male dominated character genre of the larger-than-life hero. Sigourney Weaver's Ripley from Alien (1979) is widely considered the first on-screen heroine – in the same vein of household-name male characters from this era like Indiana Jones and Luke Skywalker.

While Ripley does fulfill certain questionable tropes, she is elevated beyond that by her distinct characterisation as a headstrong, capable character who manages to be both relatable, human, whilst growing over the course of the franchise. Ripley was succeeded by Princess Leia, Buffy the Vampire Slayer from the hit show of the same name, Jean Grey and Storm from the original X Men films, the ingenious witch Hermione Granger, the sword-swinging slayer Kill Bill, and countless others. 

The last ten years have seen the emergence of the most hit-or-miss version of heroines: the Strong Female Lead, or the Girl Boss. Typical qualities include: boundless talent, stubbornness, charm, assertiveness, independence, confident, determined, outspoken … qualities which are perfectly conducive to creating beloved characters in both the male and female sides of the equation, but which aren't generally viable unless they are paired with actual character arcs, growth, and complexity.

Modern-day ‘Girl Bosses’ who are considered to be well-written include Vi and Powder from Arcane, Emily Blunt's alien-destroying warrior in Edge of Tomorrow, Furiosa from Fury Road, Evelyn Wong from Everything Everywhere All At Once, and characters that are definitely Girl Bosses – without much relation to being a hero – Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, and the wronged daughter of the Falcone crime family, Sofia Falcone.

And now, we are seeing the film industry shift towards the portrayal of more grounded, plausible, everyday sorts of heroes

Girl Bosses who are considered to be poorly written include Captain Marvel from the MCU, Rey from Star Wars, or Galadriel from The Rings of Power. These characters share much the same qualities as the ones above, and yet audiences and critics reacted negatively to them, whilst praising the above.

Why? Good writing, and actual character growth.

Over the course of Arcane, Vi undergoes a journey which takes her from a self-serving thief to someone who uses their substantial abilities for the benefit of others instead of just their own good. Vi as a character is skilled, determined, stubborn, and strong-willed, but she also is impulsive and rash, flaws she wrestles with, overcomes, and learns from, thereby making her arc and character an interesting, and engaging one – as opposed to the likes of Rey, whose only problems are external: i.e., the plot of destroying another Death Star in another Star Wars film. 

And now, we are seeing the film industry shift towards the portrayal of more grounded, plausible, everyday sorts of heroes – Ani from Anora, Shelly from The Last Showgirl, Saoirse Ronan in Blitz, Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon. The kind of character one might see in their day to day lives.

And, arguably, the best kind of heroes.