Are Movie Heroines the Current Trend or Are They Here to Stay?
The BBC has published an article about the influx of female protagonists this year at the box-office and asks the question: are heroines a fad or are they a progression and a trend that will last? 2012 has already seen four female-led action movies top the box-office with The Hunger Games, Prometheus, Snow White and the Huntsman and Brave. Which may not seem odd until “you examine the end-of-year charts for the rest of the 21st Century, only two female-fronted films have ever broached the top 10, and both were comedies: My Big Fat Greek Wedding in 2002, and Mamma Mia in 2008.”
The article talks about the long gap between the “very significant” casting of Sigourney Weaver in Alien and the contemporary wave of female action heroes like our very own Katniss, who is defined by much more than the male characters around her:
“… The Hunger Games’ Katniss Everdeen, is protective of her sister, whose place she takes in a televised death match. But she shows notably little desire to become a parent herself. Even her romance is partly for show.”
The BBC also sites Black Widow in The Avengers and Selina Kyle in The Dark Knight Rises as having more depth, ingenuity and strength than female characters would in previous years. However will this last?
“But progress could just as easily slip back: Hollywood is always desperate for something new to sell, and while female action heroes are this year’s trend, next year it could be talking monkeys or CGI bicycles.”
What do you think: are heroines here to stay or will next year see something different? And from Dorothy Gale to Hermione Granger, Sarah Connor to Beatrix Kiddo, who is your favourite cinema heroine?
You can read the entire article over at BBC News
Wow I was so happy you wrote Dorothy I love her. But in order I like: Katniss, Dorothy, Hermiony, and sketter from The Help.
(I think I spelled her name wrong（−＿−；) ).
Hermione! She is my all time favourite! My second would have to be Katniss. I love them both!
Hermione and Katniss, probably. Though i’m kind of annoyed that they call female heroines a ‘trend’. Kind of sexist, in my opinion. But intersting article nonetheless.
@OM, that’s kind of the whole point of the article! It’s questioning whether this is a progression for more empowering female-led tentpole films, or will the balance fall once again in the favour of male-centric heroes if it is a fad that will fizzle out? Hopefully it’s the former
As much as I love Katniss, Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff/Natalia Alianovna Romanova is my favourite. I’ve always been a fan om superheroes and, well, she’s awesome! Natasha has been through a lot but she still stands strong and fights for whats right. I also love Katniss, (of course!) Hermione, Selina and Ororo Munroe.
Let’s just hope Hollywood takes this as proof that -gasp- people do watch movies with female leads.
Hopefully, as the younger generations mature and enter the entertainment business, female and POC leads will become more and more prominent.
I would like to believe that this year is only a beginning of such trend.
I’d want my kids, 15 or 20 years, to have a lot more awesome heroes to look up to other than your regular male, white variety. Maybe there will be people who had Katniss as their heroine of their youth, and grow up to write/create more interesting heroines, who will again influence their own audience.
I would love to see more movies with female leads.
I hope things would change, but I doubt that will happen. The problem is layered. Not only do stories about women not get green lit due to BS conventional wisdom that says that movies about women don’t sell, but also since Hollywood is an all (white) boys club, many writers and directors wouldn’t even know how to handle a female character if they had one. That’s why people make a big deal over how there should be more female writers/directors in Hollywood!
I think that what will happen is that Hollywood might notice the trend and they’ll try out an original piece about a woman protagonist and give us what they think we want instead of what we actually want and if that does poorly, then they’ll just assume that The Hunger Games was an exception to the rule and they’ll keep making movies about men.
Or they’ll just say that it’s a YA thing. (I’ve already read something that said that YA books are basically the new comic books when it comes to really successful movie adaptations.) Right now my only hope for Hollywood is that they’ll adapt enough YA books so that those heroines at least give girls something to look up to in the movies.
Hermione and Katniss are definitely my favorites, I can’t decide who I like better though…
as interesting as the article is, and as much as i hope the idea of giving females the empowerment to be leading characters in film is more than just a trend, i find there’s really not much of a choice in which one would be my favorite, because there is a huge difference between a female lead, a heroine, and a protagonist.
for example: i love hermione granger as much as the next potterhead, and she was a great leading female, but in the hierarchy of the series she was secondary to harry the whole time. black widow from the avengers was part of an ensemble cast, and while she was awesome and certainly a heroine, she’s not even getting her own solo movie– so much for being a lead character. catwoman i’m not sure i would call a heroine… anti-hero more like, though i definitely appreciated all the layers there were to her personality in TDKR, but much like black widow, she was a leading character, but hardly a protagonist. they were all great characters, but i don’t know that i’d count them as groundbreaking.
strong female characters have been on the rise in recent years, and i have to praise hollywood for that. it’s certainly something that should be encouraged. there are plenty heroines out there. the instances of movies with leading females (one step up from heroines) have increased a lot in recent years, which should be encouraged. but there’s still a long ways to go before we can actually say female protagonists have become a “trend.” in that case, katniss is really the only one so far that could come close to comparing to sarah connor or ellen ripley.
(all the more reason for linda hamilton or sigourney weaver to be cast as coin– hinthint, lionsgate…)
so in my head, if i had to pick one out of the “recent” female leads to best exemplify the direction hollywood has to take to, it would HAVE to be katniss. she’s the only one that’s truly a female protagonist. (well, and merida i guess, but i haven’t seen brave yet… and it’s, y’know, a film for kids. hardly a better example than both comedies mentioned in the article).
moreover, not only the fact that a movie with a strong female protagonist got made and was a hit, but the fact that it was a hit with older audiences AND male audiences (even involving no overt sexualization at all, too!), THAT’S what’s really groundbreaking about katniss’s story being taken to the big screen. THAT’S where hollywood needs to go, and i hope the hunger games franchise is the first step toward that destination.
@Carla- exactly. Well put. And, as you say, because Katniss is really the only true protagonist here, that is why THG is getting so much critical attention for having a female PROTAGONIST- and the other films, like the Avengers, is, well, not getting that critical attention. (which is not to knock Avengers or say it isn’t getting critical attention. It is, just not for that.) Hunger Games was really the only film to take a female and make her the center of the story-not just a part of it, however important that part may be- and therefore in by all logic THG should be in a category of its own as far as this subject is concerned.
Anyway, I completely agree with everyone else. I hope Katniss inspire other authors/screenwriters to write strong female protagonists. Hollywood could certainly use more.
*inspires*
@carla Ya I agree it would be nice if Hollywood takes in account of the succes of the Hunger games and including more female lead roles. Being an Alien fan I also think Ellen Ripley is definitely a great lead character praised by male and female audience is also what Hollywood should pay attention to.
Even the new Prometheus having Elizabeth Shaw as the main star of the movie (also loved Prometheus to) was a succes even being for a more adult movie.
@Carla What about Brave being a film for kids?
Female protagonists are important in ALL genres (including comedies as well. For some reason people think that only men are the funny ones). It’s a film that adults can see as well but even so it’s really important to for little girls to have someone like Merida to look up to. She isn’t someone who is saved in the end by a prince because of her beauty and sexuality. It’s one of the few Disney Princess movies that you’d actually want a little girl to watch and fall in love with.
That is if you were dismissing Brave based just on its genre and age group. People do the exact same thing with YA.
Regarding Brave, to me Merida was an amazing female heroine whose story taught girls about the value of the mother-daughter relationship and also showed girls that they didn’t need to be stereotypical princesses saved by a man to live a happy ending. She’s definitely NOT someone to be dismissed.
@carla, I loved your comment, especially the fact that Katniss was a lead character who appealed to all ages and both genders without being overtly sexualized.
I also love the fact that Katniss is not “the most” anything. She’s not the smartest, not the prettiest, not the most popular. She’s a very real heroine that we admire for characteristics like loyalty, bravery, and her love for her family (including the family she chooses for herself).
Omg!!!!! I LOVE my big fat Greek wedding!!!! Well my whole family loves it, we will randomly say a quote from that movie and then fall over laughing!!!! (bunt cake!) Even in the Olympics this year we have seen girl power!!!!!! Oh yeah! Girls rule!!!!
But yeah, Katniss is defiantly my favorite!!!!:)
Katniss, Black Widow, and Alice from Alice in wonderland are my favorites. I really hope female leads are here to stay but if the next trend are talking monkeys then, o well, I won’t get in the way
P.S. and for non leads Luna Lovegood is my favorite
hard one but I’ll stick with Black widow she is simply amazing then it will be Katniss and of course Hermione!! And I think heroines r here to stay! I mean people love them they simply rock!
@brieana–
oh, no, i wasn’t putting down brave (which, again, i haven’t seen, so i don’t really have an opinion on it), or even films for kids! that wasn’t what i meant at all! so sorry if it came across that way. i know first-hand how important it is for movies for children to have strong female characters to give girls good role models– i grew up with the disney renaissance and i know i wouldn’t be half the person i am right now if i wasn’t such a big disney fan. even now that i’m in my late twenties with no kids, i still plan to go see brave (it just hasn’t premiered yet where i live).
what i meant meant was, brave being a movie very focused on one certain target audience (kids, mostly… and their guardians by extension) makes it easier for people to say “oh, but that doesn’t count because it’s for kids,” just like the article basically dismissed the success of my big fat greek wedding or mamma mia– because they’re romantic comedies and they’re for “chicks.”
it’s true, people do the same with YA, and believe me, i’d be the first one to be defensive about that. i disagree with that easy dismissal– there’s always more to a movie than just its genre– but i was just pointing out that it DOES happen. and that’s the impressive thing about THG: audience demographics show that it was a success with MORE than just the intended YA audience, in a way MBFGW, mamma mia or even brave weren’t. that doesn’t make THG better than any of those movies, not at all, but it DOES make it a better example of the idea that female-led films CAN be just as profitable, while at the same time appealing to audiences just as wide, as male-led films are.
Hermoine ( or any other female potter character like ginny, luna, mrs. weasley) than Katniss!
Black Widow is almost like a career tribute in a way. She was born and bred to kill, but she found a way to overcome it and become a true hero(ine?)