Super Bitches and Action Babes

With actress Pam Grier''s breakthrough in Coffy and Foxy Brown, women entered action, science fiction, war, westerns and martial arts films--genres that had previously been considered the domain of male protagonists. This ground-breaking cinema, however, was--and still is--viewed with ambivalence.

While women were cast in new and exciting roles, they did not always arrive with their feminini...