Women warriors in literature and culture

Another example in ancient British history is the historical Queen Boudica, who led a rebellion against the Roman Empire.

[5] Scythian culture touched on both Greece and India, both of whom have tales of warrior women in their histories and mythologies.

Satyabhama was a warrior wife of the god Krishna who led an army against Narakasura; she was an archer and expert in wartime tactics.

Shikhandini was a princess who learned "archery, martial arts, war-techniques" and fought to avenge herself for past wrongs in another life; she eventually became a man (through supernatural intervention).

Hind bint ‘Utbah was an Arab woman in the late 6th and early 7th centuries who converted to Islam.

Joan of Arc alleged that she had a connection to the saints of her church and that they communicated with her to tell her to join the war effort of the French in 1429.

She wore a masculine attire during her lifetime and by doing so, challenged patriarchy and started the debate around 'Role of Women' among Scholars and Philosophers.

Mulan's earliest records date back to the time of China's Northern and Southern Dynasties era (4th to 6th century AD).

[21] One example is A afilhada de São Pedro ("St. Peter's Goddaughter"), a Portuguese folktale collected by Consiglieri Pedroso.

The woman warrior is part of a long tradition in many different cultures including Chinese and Japanese martial arts films, but their reach and appeal to Western audiences is possibly much more recent, coinciding with the greatly increased number of female heroes in American media since 1990.

In the introduction to their text, Early and Kennedy discuss what they describe as a link between the image of women warriors and girl power.

[36] Others say that a violent heroine undermines the feminist ethics against male violence, even when she is posited as a defender of women, for example in films such as Hard Candy.

Often the violence is only implicit, or threatened, and exists in juxtaposition to the film's pastel colour palette and stereotypically feminine aesthetic.