Not so long ago, however, a change came about. Admittedly a small change, but everything must start somewhere. Here we saw a female led release, going up against superheroes and Orcs, and telling a tale of horror from a uniquely female perspective.
While I am by no means a fan, it is very hard to deny the cultural shift that has come about through the Twilight Saga films. While Bella Swan may be a character defined entirely by her relationships with men (her Father, both of her potential lovers), she is at least a female character, written by a woman and portrayed on the big screen for other young women to go and see.
She was created and marketed for a group that has been overlooked, ignored and very often derided by the film industry at large. Finally, here was a film that was being made for young women. It might not be your cup of tea, but that’s fine, it was never designed to be.
A much more powerful example is Katniss Everdeen, from The Hunger Games franchise. Here, we find a leading female protagonist who defines herself on her own terms, who has flaws, who makes mistakes and who, while she may have relationships with men, is not solely defined by those men and how they view her. There is much more to her than how she is perceived by men. She can handle herself in combat but, unlike many so-called “strong female characters” she treats death and violence in a touchingly human, all too real way. She is often let down by those around her, and she is allowed to be a character capable of weakness and of errors. She is more than just a killing machine, which is the stereotypical male fantasy within this genre.
Once again, it has been horror and science-fiction showing the way, but this time it is packaged for an audience that will not only pour to the cinema in droves, but will be directly influenced by the role models they have on screen.
More importantly, these films smash through the insane prejudice that summer blockbusters are purely the domain of adolescent boys and the adolescent men they turn into. What we have started to see is a move towards female led stories, even if the marketing team sometimes falls down on delivering that message (anyone casually viewing a poster for Divergent may have thought it was a film about Theo James, featuring Shailene Woodley’s backside).