[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by DanaC

Or because filmmakers assume that for the threat to be credible it has to come from a male source. Facing and beating a male super villain grants status to the hero - besting a woman is just to be expected because she's only a woman. It doesn't grant status - if the hero has to really struggle to overcome the male villain it increases his status further - but if he has to really struggle to overcome the female villain it actively reduces his status.

Yes that was pretty much where I was going with the 5 questions I wrote under the graph.

Woman are allowed to be heroes and villains as long as the primary weapons they employ are sex and cunning.

Using their Cun... nevermind

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

I'd like to see those stats broken down by just kid movies. Lots of kid movies have female villains.

No kiddie movies...

To see, we compiled demographic data on the villains in the ten highest-grossing action films (domestically) from each of the last 30 years, looking at age, race, gender, occupation, motivation, and much more. (Excluded were sci-fantasy movies set in other worlds, though ones set on contemporary Earth were included. Period pieces were also excluded.) From Lethal Weapon to Jason Bourne, from Speed to Spectre, these graphs represent 300 of the past three decades’ most high-profile baddies. Note to Hollywood: Women can commit crimes, too.