Actual strong women characters

Obviously not any women in movies today, especially super hero movies but also pretty much any action/fantasy/whatever franchise, the only way they can make themselves strong is to belittle men and be completely flawless, they don't have to start from step one to get where they are, they're all like second generation Super Saiyans that can turn it on/off like a light switch when their parents had to be pushed to near death in battle to achieve the same status. And they can't just SHOW us they're good at whatever they do, everyone around them has to sing their praises that they're wonderful, strong, amazing, funny, etc. Sorry, people who deal in hypocrites know how this works, like if somebody beats their breast telling everyone they're a good Christian, no, if you are, your ACTIONS show it, you don't beat people over the head that you are.

So what are some ACTUAL strong women characters in movies that actually define that character genre?

Ripley obviously takes the crown, we could talk about her all day in itself. What are others?

For my list, Coffy and Foxy Brown take the top. Jack Hill said it best himself, Coffy is not a female James Bond or Supergirl, she's a normal woman who uses her brains and her street smarts. Add to the fact Pam Grier herself came up with Coffy hiding razor blades in her Afro and sharpening a bobby pin into a murder weapon, etc., that was her own contribution to her character. They're amazing, kickass characters, but definitely not infallible, they get caught, they get tortured, raped, and have to use their wits to escape with their lives intact. What happens to them would never happen to any leading lady we have to be told 100x how amazing and strong and powerful she is.

Susy Hendrix in Wait Until Dark. She is the anti-perfect woman, she's adjusting to life as a blind woman, and being forced by her husband to learn total self-sufficiency, which makes him out to be a heartless prick especially at the end, but regardless, she goes from flying into a panic and calling the police/fire department every time she smells something burning, to realizing she's in a cat and mouse game with 3 criminals who will kill her to get the doll full of heroin, she's alone in an empty apartment building, she can't call for help, she can't even SEE the men who are trying to kill her, she has to rely on her own instincts, her heightened senses, and even though she has a brilliant plan to level the playing field, it's not a perfect plan, she didn't think of everything, and she's fighting for her life against a man who has killed people who could actually see him coming, she should be a perfect victim, but she's a braver, stronger character than all the female super heroes put together, and one look at Audrey Hepburn, you can forget ANY woke notions about she can beat up a man 3 times her size.

Nancy in Nightmare on Elm Street. Figuring out she can pull this killer out of a dream, figuring out how to do it, risking her life every time she closes her eyes, the booby traps she sets up, etc., not bad for a 15 year old high school girl. Especially given by her parents hiding the facts of Fred Krueger from her, she is essentially dropped into the middle of a jigsaw puzzle where half of the pieces aren't even there and she has to try and figure out the picture for herself from scratch.

Laurie Strode in Halloween, even if we only stay in the first movie, just a regular, brainy, wall flower teenage girl, who is terrified out of her mind by finding her friends dead and being attacked herself, but her first instinct is to protect the kids she's watching, only using whatever's at her disposal, knitting needles, a coat hanger, etc. she was 100x smarter than all teen girls today.

Billy's mom in Gremlins. We don't know her background but we know she's not an expert in self defense, she's just a regular mom and housewife. She has absolutely ZERO idea what she's dealing with but she knows how to fight back against these murderous little creatures. When my brother and I first saw the movie my brother said to my mom 'a mom wouldn't really know how to do all that, would she?' My mom replied, 'Oh yeah, she would'. LOL.

 

See for years my thing has been the people complaining about men want to keep women in the kitchen have it backwards...anybody who spends a good deal of time in the kitchen knows EVERYTHING in there that can be used as a murder weapon, and a kitchen has plenty of them. Even more if you're dealing in little green monsters that fit in a microwave or a Cuisinart.