Kill Bill's Twist on the Catfight

The number of women who fight in TV shows and movies pales in comparison to the amount of fighting men who have been featured. Does this mean that the women featured are less strong, less capable of fighting, and perhaps even less exciting to watch than men? Quite the contrary, actually, for it seems that "fighting girls" are such a novelty compared to "fighting guys" that girls who brawl in hit shows and films get a significant amount of attention due to their typically flashier moves and more graceful actions. The audiences love--and are awed by--watching girls fight ("I can't believe she just did that!") and scriptwriters love to include these fight scenes since they know the audiences will eat them up. The problem that frequently pops up, though, is that these supposedly strong women are also depicted as sex symbols who never seem to get more than a scratch on them.




The fight scene above is from the movie Kill Bill Volume 2 and it features The Bride (the film's main protagonist) facing off with one of her revenge targets, Elle Driver. First of all, there are several things that immediately separate this particular fight from other popular fight scenes:

1) Woman vs. woman
2) Both women are fully and modestly clothed.

As the scene unfolds, several other things happen that make it clear that this isn't your average catfight:

1) Both women punch hard, kick hard...and fight hard.
2) Both women love their swords.
3) Both women become quite bloody.
4) Both women remain fully clothed.

Even though there is still some of the hair-pulling and name-calling found in typical catfights, Kill Bill basically overthrows the accepted meaning of the word "catfight," as the fight scene between the women overlaps with much of a fight scene commonly seen between men. Who says women can't be sexy when they're fully clothed and bloody while fighting? Violence shouldn't have to be overly sexualized just because women are involved, and Kill Bill shows that perfectly.