Tough Love: Mamas, Molls, and Mob Wives

Abstract

The label “tough” is routinely linked to women who “act” like men, which usually means waving a gun around. Ironically, women as police officers and soldiers, despite their increasing numbers in actuality, remain rare onscreen. The gun-toting “toughness” of Demi Moore’s G.I. Jane or Halle Berry’s secret agent (and latest Bond girl) in Die Another Day is often chided for being too fantastic (as compared to the “realism” of John McClane, returning soon in Die Hard IV). Moreover, the toughness of pistol-packing women is frequently linked to an ascribed maternal instinct, which does not destabilize traditional gender roles but reaffirms them. As Yvonne Tasker notes, “The maternal recurs as a motivating factor, with female heroes acting to protect their children, whether biological or adoptive (Terminator 2, Aliens, Strange Days) or in memory of them (Fatal Beauty).”¹ Even the more complex heroine in The Long Kiss Goodnight is split in two, emphasized “through the codes of costume and behaviour”: the tough, cross-dressing Charly who kicks ass and the “feminine” Samantha who is “defined by her motherhood, community role, and thence by the needs of others.”² Aside from this kind of marauding mom or Berry’s sultry assassin, contemporary cinema limits its run of tough gals with guns (smoking or symbolic) and leaves it to the boys with toys to portray toughness as gun play.