“The action heroes of our youth were hard, noble men with no patience for authority....men were not subtle. Masculinity was not ambiguous. Those ideas, however, have been progressively worn away in pop culture in the years since our icons filled screens. ...The classic male archetype of the eighties has been so thoroughly lampooned, twisted, and mangled with irony (Ed: often by the icons themselves) that most of the cool leading men to emerge this decade aren't even men anymore - literally. Buffy, Rogue, Lara Croft, Kill Bill's the Bride, Serenity's River Tam, and Underworld's vampire/assassin Selene all illustrate what we expect from our latest action stars: sleek, uncompromising, impossible beauty. These killer ladies are certainly more compelling than their male counterparts. Ben Affleck, Jude Law, orlando Bloom? ”
