The women in Thelma & Louise and Promising Young Woman seek their own justice because society won’t believe or listen to them. When the system fails, they fight back. The characters on this screen are part of that cinematic tradition, which stretches from exploitation films like Foxy Brown (1974) and Ms .45 (1982) to today. In that time, female characters have triumphed despite being disbelieved. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) could have avoided killing the queen in Aliens (1986) if the men in the first film had listened to her warnings. In Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991), Sarah Connor has to escape an asylum because no one believes she averted an AI apocalypse in the first film.
These future visions are grounded in the past and present. The women in The Nightingale (2018) and The Drover’s Wife (2021) arm themselves against male violence and racism in colonial Australia. But strength is more than physical. Law and Order: SVU’s Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) puts the “lights out” of her attacker but also fights for victims, while Once Were Warriors (1994) follows Beth (Rena Owen) learning she can “survive anything” after tragedy. In A Fantastic Woman (2017), a trans woman battles a legal system that discriminates against her and in Total Control (2019–) Senator Alex Irving (Deborah Mailman) stands up to her political opponents, knowing her push for social justice is “bigger” than their rivalry.
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xos-122041