Strong female characters

"...Then came Alien with Sigourney Weaver. It wasn't until the next movie, Aliens, that strong women really began to show up on the screen. Everybody loved Sigourney Weaver's Ripley from the first movie, but it was the character of PFC Jenette Vasquez (played by Jenette Goldstein) that rocked our world. We all left the theater wanting to join the Marines, do one-armed pull-ups, and swing a really big gun. The only thing that stopped us was that marines didn't get to go on spaceships yet (or so we told ourselves--in all honesty, we would have made terrible marines).

After that, we forgot about the aliens and watched for Vasquez. The second time we saw the movie, we cheered whenever her character came on-screen. We loved her, because she wasn't just physically powerful, but she had a powerful soul. Marine honor wasn't a buzzword for the character, she acted with integrity right up to the end. She reached out to a man she loathed and helped him die with honor, even though it meant her own death.

And here is the kicker: she had no superpower (although I know some marines who would say being a marine is a superpower, but that's not exactly what I'm talking about here).

She wasn't a vampire, her only weapons were standard marine issue. Her intensity came from her self-esteem. Vasquez's strength lay in her principles and her integrity, and those two qualities dictated her actions..."

by tfrohock.com

Vasquez's character has become a symbol of feminism, has also been subject of a doctoral dissertation!