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Focus on feats over fashion for today's female action heroes

Katniss Everdeen doesn't dress to impress. The heroine of "The Hunger Games" movies is occasionally forced to don a pretty gown, but generally speaking Jennifer Lawrence's character doesn't make sartorial statements - she makes physical ones. She runs and hunts and shoots down planes with arrows, and in her earth-toned cargo pants and jackets, the feats are the focus.

That's not often the case with female action heroes, who are somehow supposed to take down bad guys while oozing sex appeal. Katniss wasn't the first femme-fighter to buck the trend, but when she first graced the big screen in 2012, she was the first in quite some time. And others seem to be following suit: In "Lucy," "Divergent" and the upcoming "Jupiter Ascending," the focus has shifted from the protagonist's skin to her skill.

How did we get here? Take a look at the (by no means exhaustive) evolution of the female action hero over the last 40 years.

<span class="x BTO fact box text bold">Foxy Brown, 1974: </span>Pam Grier played this vigilante a year after starring in another of Jack Hill's similarly plotted blaxploitation films, "Coffy." Foxy wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty - she even separated one villainous man from his most precious parts. But let's face it: Her name was Foxy. Even when beating up baddies, she was expected to look good in her skintight bell-bottoms.

<span class="x BTO fact box text bold">Wonder Woman (The Lynda Carter era), 1975-79: </span>You don't have to have superpowers to know that chasing evildoers in a strapless swimsuit is more effort than it's worth. No woman in her right mind would be sprinting, spinning and lassoing the way Carter did on this televised incarnation of the comic without the use of a sports bra. Of course, her appearance was as important as her abilities. She was expected to look just as perfectly coifed as Foxy, although her work wasn't nearly as brutal.

<span class="x BTO fact box text bold">Charlie's Angels (The originals), 1976-1981: </span>Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett (who was later replaced by Cheryl Ladd) and Jaclyn Smith weren't as vengeful as Foxy or as powerful as Wonder Woman. They were just a trio of really nice female detectives on TV with trendsetting hairdos and the latest in Melrose Avenue boutique-wear, who did whatever a disembodied voice told them to do.

<span class="x BTO fact box text bold">Princess Leia, 1977-1983: </span>Around the same time, Princess Leia was essentially an Angel of interplanetary travel, forced to go braless under that white gown ("There's no underwear in space," George Lucas maintained). Played by Carrie Fisher in the original "Star Wars" trilogy, she had a harder edge than "Charlie's Angels" and a decent aim, but when she tried strategizing she ended up enslaved in a metal bikini.

<span class="x BTO fact box text bold">Ellen Ripley, 1979-who knows?: </span>Sigourney Weaver's star turn in the "Alien" movies is often hailed as the first female action hero. That may not be precisely true, but she was probably the first really gritty one. Warrant Officer Ripley couldn't be bothered with perfect hair or sexy clothes. She shows up in her underwear at one point, which is a little gratituitous, but she's clearly not expecting any of that kind of action. (Two words: white cotton.) In sequels, Ripley's hair gets shorter and shorter until she finally shaves it entirely. She's also allowed to be sweaty, bloody and dirty.

<span class="x BTO fact box text bold">Sarah Connor (in "Terminator" and "Terminator 2: Judgement Day"), 1984 and 1991:</span> Linda Hamilton got increasingly Ripley-esque, from the first "Terminator" to the sequel, showing off her stronger side. We'll let her guns speak for themselves, and we're not talking about firearms: James Cameron's ex kicked off the toned-tricep revolution that reverberates to this day among rich ladies who favor sleeveless shifts.

<span class="x BTO fact box text bold">Nikita, 1990 and 1993: </span>Luc Besson has a history of creating memorable female action heroes. And long before "Lucy," there was "La Femme Nikita," starring Anne Parillaud as a convict-turned-assassin, who looked like a butt-kicking Holly Golightly in her little black dress and formidable handgun. The movie spawned a television show and was also remade into "The Point of No Return," featuring Bridget Fonda, who also looked a little small to be wielding a rifle that large.

<span class="x BTO fact box text bold">Xena Warrior Princess, 1995-2001: </span>Unlike Nikita, the protagonist of this television series stood out because she looked like she could actually overpower people. Lucy Lawless had played an Amazon before taking on this role of a warlord-turned-vigilante. But as the heroine got buffer, her outfits got smaller: She, like Leia, also sported a metal bikini at times.

<span class="x BTO fact box text bold">Lara Croft and her sisters in black, 2001-present: </span>Lara Croft has been called the first sex symbol of video games, and Angelina Jolie brought all of her come-hither vibes to the action movies "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" and the follow-up, "The Cradle of Life." Costumes ranged from a skintight wet suit to shorts so little they were nearly undetectable. Yet you couldn't deny her incredible fighting skills and death-defying deeds. That portrayal seemed to usher in a period of heroines in tight, dark clothing, including Kate Beckinsale in the "Underworld" franchise and Milla Jovovich in the "Resident Evil" movies.

<span class="x BTO fact box text bold">The Bride, 2003 and 2004:</span> Uma Thurman in "Kill Bill" is a homicidal factotum who can murder with whatever happens to be at her disposal: samurai swords, guns, her bare hands. Given that this is Quentin Tarantino we're talking about, things get kind of gross (you can't erase the image of the Bride biting down on one guy's tongue) and like Ripley before her, the Bride tends to get beaten and bloodied. And that grubby yellow track suit is raffishly cool, but it's not particularly sexy.

<span class="x BTO fact box text bold">Agent Sydney Bristow and her sisters in leather, 2001-06: </span>As a grad student/double agent with a knack for going undercover as a French maid or dominatrix, Jennifer Garner never looked anything less than adorable in TV's "Alias." But the short-lived genre of crime-fighting gamines-in-leather that followed was embarrassingly uncool; not even the fact that Halle Berry (in "Catwoman") and Garner (in "Elektra") were outfitted in shrink wrap could save the movies from bombing.

<span class="x BTO fact box text bold">Katniss Everdeen, 2012-15: </span>"The Hunger Games" movie adaptations gave us a heroine who not only looked like she could fend for herself but actually served as the traditional knight in shining armor, coming to the aid of Peeta - one of her two love interests. But just because Katniss is part of a romantic triangle doesn't mean she's outfitted in skimpy get-ups. Instead, she wears what you'd expect from a hunter. As the series goes on, the clothes get tighter, but they look more like expensive apres-yoga gear than Wonder Woman's bustier.

<span class="x BTO fact box text bold">Lucy, 2014:</span> The surprise hit was another of Besson's creations. Scarlett Johansson plays a woman who can use more of her brain power than the average person. She's also a killing machine. And while she does use her feminine wiles - and some revealing clothes - to her advantage, she does a lot of fighting in jeans and a T-shirt. How practical!

<span class="x BTO fact box text bold">Tris, 2014-17: </span>Shailene Woodley had been up for the part of Katniss, and while she didn't get it, she got a do-over of sorts with "Divergent," another young-adult action franchise set in a dystopian world and based on a book series by Barrington native Veronica Roth. Tris is a 16-year-old knife-throwing martial artist and, fittingly, she dresses like she's headed to CrossFit.

In “Lucy,” Scarlett Johansson does a lot of dirty work in jeans and a T-shirt.
As TV's “Xena Warrior Princess,” Lucy Lawless' costumes seemed to get smaller as her character got buffer.
Lara Croft transitioned from video games to movies in the body of Angelina Jolie, who ushered in an era of tough women heroines in black.
Lynda Carter's “Wonder Woman” costume required far less fabric than her male superhero contemporaries. Associated Press
Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) got no support from her undergarments while saving the galaxy with Han and Luke in “Star Wars.”
The women of the original “Charlie's Angels” had a bigger impact on coifs than crime.
Foxy Brown (Pam Grier) fought bad guys but also lived up to her name with big hair and skintight bell bottoms in the '70s.
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