"All of them were treading new territory, as women began infiltrating what Danish scholar Rikke Schubart calls the "male" genres of action, adventure, and martial arts films in the early 1970s. But Kaji and Grier were the most visible and mainstream of these performers. And each approached the figure of the gun-toting, knife-wielding badass from her own point of view, creating archetypes that are still in use today."
"These '70s action goddesses are favorites of Quentin Tarantino, who wrote "Jackie Brown" for Grier and paid tribute to Kaji in his "Kill Bill" saga, both chapters of which end with Kaji singing the theme songs to two of her most famous films. (Grier performed the theme to her 1971 film "The Big Doll House," one of several things these women have in common.)"
Women have starred in action pictures since the silent era, performing their own stunts. Cheng Pei-Pei emerged as Hong Kong's first major female action star in Come Drink with Me. The 1970s produced two defining figures, Meiko Kaji and Pam Grier, who shaped modern action heroines. Kaji emerged from Japanese genres including pinky violence, while Grier led blaxploitation films alongside contemporaries like Tamara Dobson. Both created distinct archetypes of gun-toting, knife-wielding heroines and influenced later filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino, who spotlighted them in Jackie Brown and Kill Bill. Their prominence tied to women's liberation and broader genre shifts.
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