The New Imperator

In the late 19th century, a new ideal that promoted strong, educated,
independent career women appeared in American culture. This ideal went on to
influence feminism well into the 20th century and is still studied today. This female
personality was called the New Woman. The New Woman described the changing
ideas regarding womans roles in society.
The New Woman set out to deconstruct the male-dominated society and this
movement especially impacted art and media. Art forms have historically been very
male-dominated, so any influential woman works to arise in any art scene was big
news for the feminist movement. At the dawn of the New Woman movement, art
made by woman was seen as inferior and for much of the 20 th century, women were
hardly seen in media such as art, literature, and film.
In the modern film industry, figures with New Woman-like traits are few and
far between. In a study of the top 100 grossing films of 2014, Its a Mans
(Celluloid) World by Martha Lauzen, it was shown that females comprised only 12%
of protagonists featured those films. Females also only accounted for 29% of major
characters in those films, and even then, those character were very likely to be
under traditional female gender stereotypes, such as being identified by a personal
life goal such as getting married or being a mother (58% of female characters fell
under this stereotype). Action films in particular are often scrutinized for being
sexist, often seen to only feature women for sex appeal to a male audience or as
stereotypes such as the damsel in distress.
However, George Millers 2015 action film Mad Max: Fury Road has recently
garnered great attention for not only being a standout piece of work (it grossed
$378 million dollars, received ten Academy Award nominations, and won six), but
for also being a movie that treated its female characters with as much dignity and
fairness as its male ones. This was mostly apparent in its female lead Imperator
Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron. In an industry full of gender inequality and
misrepresentation, the character of Furiosa stood out with several New Woman-like
traits and was a crucial part of why Mad Max: Fury Road was so successful.
Mad Max: Fury Road is a film set in a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland
controlled by a tyrant named Immortan Joe. The film follows Max Rockatansky
(played by Tom Hardy) on an escape plan from the tyrant, but much of the plot is
driven by one of Immortan Joes soldiers, Imperator Furiosa, who goes rogue in
order to free Joes female sex slaves and subsequently break his hierarchy. As
mentioned earlier, in the current film industry main characters who drive the plot
are hardly ever female, so Imperator Furiosa being the main story-progressive is
substantial in its own right. The plot is also one of the biggest reasons why Furiosa
can be considered a feminist character, as it mirrors the New Woman goal of
breaking down the male-dominated society.

The parallels between