Cynthia Rothrock : China O' Brien the forgotten feminist hero

China O' Brien the forgotten feminist hero

China O' Brien is a B grade martial arts film and there's no getting away from that but what folk seem to miss is that it ticks a LOT of boxes for the feminist movement and was way ahead of it's time in that regard. (Proper feminists that is, not the raging SJW trigger squad who get offended by everything!)

Here we have a strong, college educated professional woman working in law enforcement. Not only is she AN authority but she's THE authority in the film. Not only that, she has two lead men working under her as well as all her deputies.

Add to the fact that the producers could have so easily used sex or sleaze as a fallback selling point but didn't is really cool and she is never seen wearing anything lewd or revealing yet still retains her femininity by wearing basically whatever she wants including heels, skirts, jeans and trainers. Even then it's all about her and her skill rather than what she's wearing.

Examples of sexual harassment, groping and condescending talk which China herself has to put up with show an awareness of social problems (without driving it home too hard) and the scenes of abuse towards the women in the film by creator Sandra Weintraub only amplify the fact that this is a female driven film yet it's not one which was born out of agenda, it just happened which makes it even better.

It's also refreshing that Cynthia got top billing above her male co-stars in both the opening and closing credits in both films yet there is no man bashing as her and her co-stars all work as a team. Being the inspiration for Sonya Blade in Mortal Kombat isn't a bad thing either.

The fact that all this happened in the late 80s is actually rather remarkable and young girls could do a lot worse then have China O' Brien as a role model.
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