Butt-Kicking Babes

In modern society, the portrayal of women ranges from representations of career driven women, to family driven women, to material focused women, to well-educated women and so on. There are multiple representations of different stereotypes or “kinds” of women. Susan Douglas touches on these different depictions in her book, Enlightened Sexism. Douglas discusses all sorts of stereotypical portrayals of women from 90210’s material focused teenagers to “warrior women in thongs”. In Douglas’ chapter titled, “warrior women in thongs”, she talks about the increasing popularity of women being portrayed as “action super hero chicks” who at the same time represented a feminine sexy side. After watching Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards, 2009, I came to the conclusion that he depicts the only two female leads as these powerful, brave women, who fall exactly into Susan Douglas’ “warrior women in thongs”.

The film is focused on a group of American soldiers who execute a plan to kill Hitler during World War II. The film has a mostly male cast, focusing on the group of male soldiers. Yet, two of the most pivotal and important characters in this movie are women. The two characters, Shoshanna Dreyfus and Bridget Von Hammersmark, represent brave, dedicated, “warrior” women.

Shoshanna Dreyfus, or Emmanuelle Mimieux, is the young Jewish girl whose family was killed by Nazis, but continues on to face her family’s murders and eventually takes revenge on them. Her plot to premier the German film in her movie theatre and burn it to the ground with all of the high ranking Nazi officials inside, including Hitler, shows the extreme amount of dedication and bravery she has. Her character gives the ultimate sacrifice, her life, in order to stand up for what she believes in and take stand against the enemy. In this way, Shoshanna depicts the strong, “brutal” minded character that Susan Douglas discusses in her “Warrior Women in Thongs” chapter. Douglas writes, “They were accomplished and powerful” (p. 77).

Like Shoshanna, Bridget Von Hammersmark is shown as a courageous, brave, female lead. She also stands up to the Nazis and puts herself in immense danger. Bridget teams up with the American soldiers and ends up helping them infiltrate a German bar, where she is nearly killed. She also attends the movie premier (enabling the American soldiers to attend - greatly helping their plans to kill Hitler) where she is confronted by Col. Hans Lada, who ends up killing her. Bridget is shown as a brave, clever character, whose heroic actions allow the American soldiers to succeed. Tarantino represents Bridget as a warrior woman threw her actions.

Yet, what truly makes these women “warrior women in thongs” is their sex appeal. Douglas writes, warrior women “were accomplished and powerful, but always, always, slim and beautiful” (p. 77). These warrior women “could make you swoon and kick your butt if you messed with them” (p.76). Both Shoshanna and Bridget are depicted as these sexy butt-kicking babes. Shoshanna is shown putting on her makeup before the movie premiere begins. She takes her blush and draws two redlines across her cheekbones that represent a battle like attitude. Yet, this warrior attitude is combined with the aspect of her clearly feminine and sexual side because this “battle paint” she is administering is in fact make up, an extremely feminine thing. Her characters sex appeal is also reaffirmed by other male characters attraction and lust for her.

Like Shoshanna, Bridget is also depicted as a sexy female role. Bridget is a popular film star in Germany and so is consequently always dressed attractively and has a mass number of male fans. Even in an advertisement for Inglorious Bastards, Bridget is shown as portraying both a commanding, soldier like appearance mixed with a more sexual attractive “female” appearance. In this specific advertisement, http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3353708544/ch0101643, Bridget is shown holding a small gun, symbolizing her braver, heroic side. But she is also shown wearing a sexy black dress that shows of her back and slim figure. She also has her makeup and hair done, while giving the camera a sexy grin looking over her shoulder- embodying her sexual “feminine” side. Her appearance exudes elegance, while she also clutches a gun, giving her a sexy, threatening depiction.

So, while both female characters embody a commanding, brave, and heroic role in the film; they also both embody Susan Douglas view of “warrior women in thongs”. Tarantino creates his female characters to have similar brutal and aggressive characteristics as male roles, but the female characters sex appeal and feminine side separate them. I think that Douglas’ depiction of warrior women in thongs is a perfect way to describe Tarantino’s representation of female roles in Inglorious Bastards. The two female roles, Shoshanna and Bridget, both illustrate the butt-kicking aggressive dominant characteristic, as well as the sexy, feminine, attractive characteristic, personifying and symbolizing Douglas’ warrior women in thongs.