This is what it means to fight like a girl.
"I'm a big haymaker in a title fight.
I'm a cute black kitten with a nasty bite.
I'm an action double-feature on a Friday night!
I'm me!"
I'm a cute black kitten with a nasty bite.
I'm an action double-feature on a Friday night!
I'm me!"
—"I'm Me",
Vanessa Doofenshmirtz, Phineas and Ferb
Vanessa Doofenshmirtz, Phineas and Ferb
An Action Girl is a female badass who is tough and kicks butt. Damsel in Distress? Not her (mostly). She's featured in far more than the Designated Girl Fight. She faces dangerous foes and deadly obstacles, and she wins. She's a fairly common character in the Action Genre.
For the longest time in many cultures, Double Standards in both fiction and Real Life meant that when it came to action and fighting, guys definitely outnumbered girls. Men Act, Women Are was the rule of thumb, which led to the Action Girl being a subversion of what was acceptable. As society has marched on, this view has faded in some media, leading to stories where Action Girls become the norm rather than the exception, such as stories set in a World of Badass, and especially a World of Action Girls.
The broad Action Girl concept can take many forms. Faux Action Girl is a case of presenting a character as this, only for them not to live up to the standards of this trope. Dark Action Girl is the villainous (or at least morally ambiguous) variety, and Affirmative Action Girl is a cast addition intended to balance out gender ratios that typically also falls under this trope. Less action-y versions include You Go, Girl!, Plucky Girl, and Passionate Sports Girl (although they can mix if her chosen sport is a combat sport).
This is somewhat of a Cyclic Trope, with Action Girls often having surges in popularity in the 1940s, 1970s, 1990s and 2010s, probably not coincidentally times when the women's movement increased in prominence. Action Girls are nigh-omnipresent in modern action films, especially as the love interest or sister of a male Action Hero. Of course, this doesn't mean lesbian Action Girls don't exist.
See below for even more sub-tropes and other variants.
For advice on how to write these types of characters, see Write an Action Girl.
Sub-Tropes:
- Action Fashionista: Action Girl version of The Fashionista
- Action Girlfriend: She either makes up the other half of a Battle Couple, or covers for her non-action boyfriend.
- Action Mom: An Action Girl (woman more likely) who has given birth and kicks ass.
- Amazon Brigade: A group of Action Girls who consistently work together with no male teammates.
- Amazonian Beauty: A female character that's portrayed as attractive because of or despite being muscular. This character is usually an Action Girl.
- The Baroness: A badass and dominant evil woman.
- Battle Harem: A group of action girls who fight with/for the same lover.
- Black Magician Girl: She's spunky and focuses on offensive magic.
- Brawn Hilda: An ugly, masculine woman. Don't laugh or she'll break you over her knee.
- Combat Stilettos: A woman fights in high heels.
- Cute Bruiser: When female - she might look small, sweet, and mostly harmless, but she hits like a freight train.
- Damsel out of Distress: Just because this lady was captured doesn't mean she's helpless; she does rescue herself.
- Dark Action Girl: An evil woman who kicks ass.
- Dragon Lady: She comes from East Asia, and is often associated with the Triads or the Yakuza. Very likely to be a Dark Action Girl.
- Female Fighter, Male Handler: The Action Girl has a Non-Action Guy who handles and/or supports her.
- Girls with Guns: An action genre focusing on badass girls with guns.
- Girly Bruiser: The Action Girl happens to be a Girly Girl. Can overlap with Action Fashionista above.
- Hates Wearing Dresses: Action girls often aren't fond of dresses, and the usual reasons are either because they're too girly or they get in the way of being action-y.
- Jeanne d'Archetype: Action girls modelled on Jeanne d'Arc.
- Jungle Princess: Lives in the jungle, often protecting native tribes and animals.
- Kick Chick: Not only fights unarmed, but doesn't even favor her arms.
- Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Fancy clothes won't get in her way.
- Lady of Black Magic: A sorceress who's graceful in appearance with dignified manner and wields immense magical power.
- Lady of War: A fine, elegant Action Girl who's just as composed as she is tough.
- Little Miss Badass: Very young Action Girls who are notable for skills and abilities other than, or in addition to, physical strength.
- Little Red Fighting Hood: An Action Girl version of Little Red Riding Hood.
- Lovely Angels: A pair of Action Girls who work together as a consistent team.
- Magical Girl Warrior: Where "Magical Girl" translates into "Kung-Fu Wizard or Magic Knight who wears Frills of Justice".
- Mama Bear: Don't mess with her or her kids, or she will kick your ass out.
- More Deadly Than the Male: If she wins fights by looking like the exact opposite of an Action Girl, and then being cunning and cutthroat.
- Never Mess with Granny: Sweet little senior citizen who can still kick your ass; may also be an Old Master.
- Ninja Maid: Her official job is as a household servant or employee: maid, butler, babysitter or nanny are the most common.
- Pirate Girl: She's a pirate.
- Pregnant Badass: If she's capable of fighting while pregnant. If she's extra ferocious because of said bun in the oven, this overlaps with Mama Bear, above.
- Pretty Princess Powerhouse: Looks like a delicate princess but can fight better than her guards.
- She-Fu: Action Girls tend to use lots of flips and cartwheels in fight scenes.
- Silk Hiding Steel: She's gentle and lady-like, but she'll cut you to ribbons if need be.
- Small Girl, Big Gun: Prefers a BFG to make up with her small size.
- The Squadette: The only female in an otherwise all-male unit.
- Strong Girl, Smart Guy: When she's part of a Brains and Brawn duo with a guy.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: When a woman disguises herself as a male soldier in order to go fight in a war.
- Undercover Model: She's a police detective going undercover in a beautiful-woman-related job to investigate a crime.
- Valkyries: Work for Odin as choosers of the slain. They have an awesome theme tune.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: Don't dare to mess with her lover, or else she'll make you sorry.
- Waif-Fu: For when a small woman has to fight a much larger man.
- Warrior Princess: She's royalty and she fights for her country.
- World of Action Girls: For works dominated by this character type.
- Xenafication: The harmless damsel of the novel becomes an Action Girl in the film adaptation.
Examples of Action Girls who don't fit into any of the sub-tropes above:
- Anime & Manga
- Comic Books
- Fan Works
- Films – Animation
- Films – Live-Action
- Literature
- Live-Action TV
- Music
- Myths & Religion
- Pinball
- Podcasts
- Pro Wrestling
- Theatre
- Video Games
- Visual Novels
- Web Animation
- Webcomics
- Web Original
- Western Animation
open/close all folders
Asian Animation
- Happy Heroes: Sweet S. is a downplayed example. Her main superpower is creating bubbles rather than an actual attack, and she's nowhere near as strong as the other Supermen, but she's still a heroine who can and will help the other Supermen fight evil whenever it's needed.
Tabletop Games
- Special note should go out to the granddaddy of most Table Top Role Playing Games, Dungeons & Dragons. Fair for Its Day in the seventies, it allowed females in all roles. There was a problematic limitation on female characters' Strength scores in the earliest editions, but as early as 1989's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition, the rules made males and females entirely equal with females completely able to take on any Action Girl role without limits.
- BattleTech: A LOT of them throughout the setting. Unsurprising given that mechanized warfare is king, although many women are quite formidable even without; a standout is female Clan Elementals, who due to the Clans' genetic engineering and breeding programs are just as much hulking masses of Powered Armor-combat-optimized muscle as their male counterparts.
- In Chess, the Queen is the most powerful of all pieces.
- Psionics: The Next Stage in Human Evolution: The Scream in Tomorrow’s Starlight is a necrokinetic martial artist that mixes both skill sets. She charges head on into hand to hand combat with enemies, despite being seemingly outgunned and at a physical disadvantage, and is highly capable with telekinesis.
- In Unicornus Knights, Princess Cornelia, Donia, Mirza and Fara are all capable combatants. On The Empire's side, Lyla is the best example, being a famous general, but Marianne and Rozie are no slouches either.
- The entire organization of the Sisters of Battle in Warhammer 40,000, as well as the Eldar Howling Banshees. Howling Banshees have only female models, but the entire Aspect is only described as majority female.
- More Specifically, the Tau Empire's military Commander Shadowsun and the Farsight Enclave's Commander Torchstar are two of the few non-Sisters of Battle female special characters.
- The Tau also feature plenty of female rank-and-file troops in the current (early 2016) books, and there are female Tau heads in the current (early 2016) model kits. Tau wear enough armor that a male and female Tau do not look any different when suited up, and no special mention is made of Tau females in their cadres. Likewise, no mention is made of Shadowsun's gender being unusual for a supreme commander personally leading combat. This suggests that half of the entire Tau Empire military are Action Girls.
- Poptropica: If you play as a girl, your character can defintely count as one. She takes on Zeus himself. Twice. And beats him both times. She also defeats a bunch of other villains, and is a superhero, a pirate, a cowgirl, etc.
