5. Serenity
Technically most of the feminist heavy lifting here was done by Firefly. Joss Whedons space cowboy drama, with its four diverse, useful female characters is a great example of feminism. Serenity managed to not drop the ball on this issue. Because they managed to do this, Serenity is a feminist movie. The great thing about the characters in Serenity is it shows that variations in strong female characters. We have Zoe, who is in essence a classic movie hard man or the muscle, except shes a woman. Zoe is a strong warrior and not overtly feminine. To be a strong female character does not mean you cannot have a relationship with a man or that you cannot show emotion. Whedon understood this. Zoe is a fighter and there is strength in her but that doesnt mean she has to be cold and unattached. She is married to Wash, the pilot, she loves him and the audience sees that. It does not diminish her. Whedon managed to sidestep most of the pitfalls involved in having a character who is a prostitute. Inara could have gone horribly wrong and ended up as eye candy or a simple love interest or a damsel in distress or any combination thereof. Luckily, she has a function in the story; for examples, the scene where Mal goes to rescue her, she ends up rescuing him. Inara is beautiful and feminine but she helps out and gets her hands dirty. Kaylee is a brilliant character because shes very girly which is something that is usually considered anti-feminist. Kaylee loves pretty things and fancy dresses and has a crush on the ships doctor, Simon. Shes also a completely genius mechanic. Kaylees crush on Simon is expertly handled. We see her desire for him, but that doesnt paralyze her or make her useless as a character, shes still essential. Finally, we have River who is essentially an inversion of the damsel in distress. Mentally unsound, frail and helpless looking, River ends up beating up pretty much everyone and saving the day. Serenity is a great feminist movie, building on the foundation laid out by Firefly. Thank God for Joss Whedon.