Michael Allred said:
Making action or superhero movies for women starring women? There's no money in it ... rightly or wrongly, the perception is men just don't care about female heroes and seemingly neither do most women. It's just not a genre that appeals to most females.
Overall, that does seem to be true. That's why I'm saying the moviemakers should try to *change* this by being less formulaic.
As with education, eating patterns, and so many other things in life, this needs to start with things aimed at kids. Just about all of the action figures and other superhero things in the mainstream stores are aimed at the boys, and only at the boys.
My kids love Wonder Woman. One is into Batgirl and some other female superheroes all of a sudden. I went to Target to look for some action figures/fun sheets for them. In the entire action figure aisle, I found exactly ONE Wonder Woman figure (not several of that one, JUST that single package). Bought that one. I found exactly ONE Batgirl, and she was paired with a really ugly, lumpy, grey Batman. Didn't get that one. I found exactly ONE Supergirl comic paired with an action figure - but the figure was Lex Luthor! The back of the package showed that a Supergirl figure does exist, but she must be a modern incarnation - she was wearing a cropped tee and a miniskirt and not much else. The X-Men toys did have several boxes each of two women; I wasn't familiar with either, and neither are the kids, so I didn't buy those. The dozens of Superman Returns toys had no Loises (not that I liked the Lois in SR enough to buy these anyway, but I looked to see if they were there). [Were there ever Dean-and-Teri Superman and Lois figures, back in the 90s?] In the Lego/MegaBloks aisle, I found exactly ONE box with a Catwoman. Thing is, it came with a Batman in some big vehicle; didn't want that, so I didn't buy this either. Hot Wheels section: tons of superhero-themed cars, but none of the females - even though the backs of some packages showed that a few should exist. Bedding: Superman by himself, Batman by himself. No females, not even the Powerpuff Girls. No sign of any Spider-Girl or Spiderwoman or anything like that in any of those sections of the store.
It's not much different from other types of integration - quite a bit is cultural, not just genetic. When little girls grow up with 99% male superhero toys/role models AND the movies follow suit, it's no surprise that grown women aren't as interested in superhero movies as they could be. Change all of this, and a lot will change. But we can't wait a whole generation - we need to work across the age spectrum, starting NOW.
The Bride is definitely kick-@$$, but she's too violent for the younger kids (QT is in general). Aeon Flux and Elektra - don't know much about either heroine; couldn't say. Tank Girl was fun, but long ago and short-lived. On current/recent shows, the strong women are... The Cylon women (robots/hive) and President Laura, Seven (programmed/hive), ... Fine for older kids, but Galactica is way too adult for starter-heroine-worship. The Powerpuff Girls are amusing and are fine for the young set, but they're limited - and manufactured, so there's not a lot of human growth & development in their story. Even Leela on Futurama is out (she's not a superheroine, but she's a kick-@$$ female), as most of those eps are NOT appropriate for the younger kids.
As for the superheroines - Bat*girl*, Super*girl*, Spider*whatever*... all sidekicks to or offshoots of stronger, main male characters. Wonder Woman stands alone, thankfully. She was the first that I can think of. Storm is powerful in ability but hasn't been played up well in the X-Men comics and movies I've seen. Ariel (X-Men) - cool ability; in the movies, she didn't do much. Rogue is cool, but she gave up her abilities... Never liked Jean Grey/Phoenix much - *too* many problems. At least X-Men have several women to choose from. Yet nearly all of these have the fetishized outfits. Maybe it's too much to ask to have both...?