or It's Hard to be a Tough Girl if Your Butt is Pointed at the Enemy
by Bethany Maines
Last week TOR.com put out a blog about the proliferation of
movie posters and book covers of women prominently displaying their
backsides while pretending to look tough. Like this classic from Alias...
Someone else’s sudden explosion into
rage as the straw breaks the camel’s back is usually quite funny and this was
no exception – poor Emily Asher-Perrin has quite clearly had enough of the
hyper-sexualized caboose-first posing tough gals. But it got me to thinking –
how many tough girls are there… really?
I know it’s a gray area, but I’m kind of thinking that if you end up
with a butt shot on the poster, the odds are that you’re not all that
tough. Here’s my list of women I
think might be tough enough to survive the apocalypse and tell a PR dude where
he can stick his idea about a poster featuring her hind end.
Sarah Conner from Terminator 2 is the first to spring to
mind. And you know what happened to her, don’t you? That’s right, James Cameron
told her to buff up, get tough, and then left her for a softer, younger model
and so he could bring us overly long movies with the emotional depth of Petri
dishes. Life is not easy for a tough girl.
Sigourney Weaver looked tough, was tough, kicked ass, took
name and apparently learned from Sarah Conner that the secret to tough girl
stardom was holding a big ass gun.
Or then there’s Vasquez from Aliens! Oh, wait she died. Because… Vasquez Always Dies.
Hermione Granger. I know, she didn’t carry a gun, but she
was arguably the toughest and smartest person in the books and it was a relief
that Hollywood didn’t screw that up.
MMA fighter turned actor Gina Carano from the recent movie
Haywire managed to find a director who wanted to translate her power and skill
to film and all without a butt shot!
Franka Potente in Run Lola Run ran her ass off and contended
with gangsters to save her boyfriends life not once, but three times and looked
impossibly awesome in that red hair. Which is why it was such a disappointment when she died in
the first reel of Bourne 2. Why? Did it really add anything to the story? No, you
just wanted to free up Jason Bourne to date the CIA twinky? Yeah… ok,
whatever.
Milla Jojovich may be high on the sex appeal list, she’s
definitely a tough girl because… well… her list of movies (Fifth Element, .45,
Ultraviolet, Resident Evil, The Three Musketeers) speaks for itself and she’s
never had a shot of her rear end plastered all over the front of a movie theater.
Clearly the girl loves action flicks, and as an ex-super model, what’s a girl
supposed to do say, but… “Sure I can wear thigh-highs and kill zombies – that’s
just how tough I am.”
Does anyone else have any nominations for tough girls that
just said “NO!” to the derrière poster?
I’m always ready to add to the list!
Can we go way back? Emma Peel, played by Diana Riggs in the old BBS series, The Avengers - to me, the original tough girl.
ReplyDeleteOh, of course! Emma Peel should be at the top of the list! She's the only girl tough enough to have been Mrs. James Bond if nothing else. ;)
ReplyDeleteI love the Lara Croft, Tomb Raider movies. She can definitely kick ass, but it's too bad they had to give her that boobs-up-to-her-chin bra (tho' I guess they had to considering the video game inspiration). How about Lisbeth Salander in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?" I don't think she showed butt in any posters, but I know they showed boob in the poster for the American version. Not sure what the point of that was except for titillation (pun not intended). ;-)
ReplyDeleteI vote for Lisbeth Salander. For a tiny girl she sure could put the hurt on.
ReplyDelete