Xena, Buffy, Lara Croft. WWF, The Sopranos, Witchblade, La Femme Nikita. "Action Chicks" is a collection highlighting the heroines we've grown to worship. It provides fans with a new look at their favorite icons and their relationship to the popular media machine.

Xena, Buffy, Lara Croft. WWF, The Sopranos, Witchblade, La Femme Nikita. The women of pop culture are center stage and as tough as ever. "Action Chicks" is a collection highlighting the heroines we've grown to worship. What can they tell us about women in the 21st century? What can they tell us about how popular culture depicts women? Do the characters escape traditional gender role expectations? Or do they adhere to sexual, racial, ethnic and class stereotypes? The essays in "Action Chicks" provide fans with a new look at their favorite icons and their relationship to the popular media machine.

"Boxing gloves and bustiers" - new images of tough women, S.A. Inness
Lara's lethal and loaded mission - transposing reproduction and destruction, C. Herbst
gender, sexuality, and toughness - the bad girls of action film and comic books, J.A. Brown
"It's a Girl Thing" - tough female action figures in the toy store, S.A. Inness
embodying an image - gender, race, and sexuality in "La Femme Nikita", C.Tung
throwing down the gauntlet - defiant women, decadent men, objects of power, and witchblade, D. Greven
the cruelest season - female heroes snapped into sacrificial heroines, S. Crosby
can no cage hold her rage? gender, transgression, and the World Wrestling Federation, C.D. Heinecken
tough love - mamas, molls, and mob wives, M. Yaquinto
"tough enough" - female friendship and heroism in "Xena" and "Buffy", S. Ross
Little Miss Tough Chick of the Universe - "Farscape's" inverted sexual dynamics, R. Christopher.