| The Movie | Female Protagonist | Seminal Moment | Lesson |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pulp Fiction (1994) |
 Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) |
Mia witheringly sums up bad boy Vincent Vega and his cronies: "When you little scamps get together, you're worse than a sewing circle." | Fast-talking, pop-culture-reference-spewing gangsters are just talking to hear themselves talk. It's the women who know where all the bodies are buried. And they aren't telling. |
| Jackie Brown (1997) . |
 Jackie Brown (Pam Grier) |
Jackie manages to bolt to Spain with half a million bucks while the Feds gun down the man who plans to kill her. Thugs and G-men never see it coming. | Face it: Women are smarter. They think things through. So act tough all you want, Mr. Big Man With a Gun. You're toast. |
| Kill Bill, Volumes 1 and 2 (2003, 2004) |
 Beatrix Kiddo, a.k.a. the Bride ( Uma Thurman) |
The Bride, despite muscle atrophy, slices the Achilles tendon of the orderly who was raping her while she was in a coma, and repeatedly smashes a door into his skull. She then goes on to kill every male in the movie. | Do a woman wrong, and when the time is right, she will get her bloody revenge. Especially if she was trained by a ninja wizard. |
| Death Proof (2007) |
 Stuntwoman Zoë Bell and her band of fiery thrill-seekers. |
Beats the bejesus out of Kurt Russell after he tries to resolve his issues with the ladies by running them over in his car. | Women are not victims. In fact, they're kicking your ass right now. |
| Inglorious Basterds (2009) |
 Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) |
When the Basterds' plot to kill Nazi high-command in Dreyfus's theater hits a snag, she pulls off her own plan, rendering the Basterds almost unneccesary. | Men are unreliable screw-ups, which is why women have to do everything themselves. Brad Pitt's pitiful accent only makes things worse. |
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