Katniss latest in long line of feminine heroes

Katniss Everdeen doesn’t dress to impress. The heroine of “The Hunger Games” movies is occasionally forced to don a pretty gown, but generally speaking Jennifer Lawrence’s character doesn’t make sartorial statements — she makes physical ones. She runs and hunts and shoots down planes with arrows, and in her earth-toned cargo pants and jackets, the feats are the focus.

That’s not often the case with female action heroes, who are somehow supposed to take down bad guys while oozing sex appeal. Katniss wasn’t the first femme-fighter to buck the trend, but when she first graced the big screen in 2012, she was the first in quite some time. And others seem to be following suit: In “Lucy,” “Divergent” and the upcoming “Jupiter Ascending,” the focus has shifted from the protagonist’s skin to her skill.

How did we get here? Take a look at the (by no means exhaustive) evolution of the female action hero over the last 40 years.

• Heroine: Foxy Brown

Year: 1974

Pam Grier played this vigilante a year after starring in another of Jack Hill’s similarly plotted blaxploitation films, “Coffy.” Foxy wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty — she even separated one villainous man from his most precious parts. But let’s face it: Her name was Foxy. Even when beating up baddies, she was expected to look good in her skin-tight bell-bottoms.

• Heroine: Wonder Woman (The Lynda Carter era)

Years: 1975-1979

You don’t have to have superpowers to know that chasing evildoers in a strapless swimsuit is more effort than it’s worth. No woman in her right mind would be sprinting, spinning and lassoing the way Carter did on this televised incarnation of the comic without the use of a sports bra. Of course, her appearance was as important as her abilities. She was expected to look just as perfectly-coiffed as Foxy, although her work wasn’t nearly as brutal.

• Heroines: Charlie’s Angels (The originals)

Years: 1976-1981

Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett (who was later replaced by Cheryl Ladd) and Jaclyn Smith weren’t as vengeful as Foxy or as powerful as Wonder Woman. They were just a trio of really nice ladies with trend-setting hairdos and the latest in Melrose Avenue boutique-wear, who did whatever a disembodied voice told them to do.

• Heroine: Princess Leia

Years: 1977-1983

Around the same time, Princess Leia was essentially an Angel of interplanetary travel, forced to go braless under that white gown (“There’s no underwear in space,” George Lucas maintained). She had a harder edge than Bosley’s teammates and a decent aim, but when she tried strategizing, she ended up enslaved in a metal bikini.

• Heroine: Ellen Ripley

Years: 1979-who knows?

Sigourney Weaver’s star turn in the “Alien” movies is often hailed as the first female action hero. That may not be precisely true, but she was probably the first really gritty one. Warrant Officer Ripley couldn’t be bothered with perfect hair or sexy clothes. She shows up in her underwear at one point, which is a little gratuitous, but she’s clearly not expecting any of that kind of action. (Two words: white cotton.) In sequels, Ripley’s hair gets shorter and shorter until she finally shaves it entirely. She’s also allowed to be sweaty, bloody and dirty.

• Heroine: Sarah Connor (in “Terminator” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”)

Year: 1984 and 1991

Linda Hamilton got increasingly Ripley-esque, from the first “Terminator” to the sequel, showing off her stronger side. We’ll let her guns speak for themselves, and we’re not talking about firearms: James Cameron’s ex kicked off the toned-tricep revolution that reverberates to this day among rich ladies who favor sleeveless shifts.

• Heroine: Nikita

Year: 1990 and 1993

Luc Besson has a history of creating memorable female action heroes. And long before “Lucy,” there was “La Femme Nikita,” starring Anne Parillaud as a convict-turned-assassin who looked like a butt-kicking Holly Golightly in her little black dress and formidable handgun. The movie spawned a television show and was also remade into “The Point of No Return,” featuring Bridget Fonda, who also looked a little small to be wielding a rifle that large.

• Heroine: Xena Warrior Princess

Years: 1995-2001

Unlike Nikita, the protagonist of this television series stood out because she looked like she could actually overpower people. Lucy Lawless had played an Amazon before taking on this role of a warlord-turned-vigilante. But as the heroine got buffer, her outfits got smaller: She, like Leia, also sported a metal bikini at times.

• Heroine: Lara Croft and her sisters in black

Years: 2001-present

Lara Croft has been called the first sex symbol of video games, and Angelina Jolie brought all of her come-hither vibes to the action movies “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” and the follow-up, “The Cradle of Life.” Costumes ranged from a skin-tight wetsuit to shorts so little they were nearly undetectable. Yet you couldn’t deny her incredible fighting skills and death-defying deeds. That portrayal seemed to usher in a period of heroines in tight, dark clothing, including Kate Beckinsale in the “Underworld” franchise and Milla Jovovich in the “Resident Evil” movies.

• Heroine: The Bride

Years: 2003 and 2004

Uma Thurman in “Kill Bill” is a homicidal factotum who can murder with whatever happens to be at her disposal: samurai swords, guns, her bare hands. Given that this is Quentin Tarantino we’re talking about, things get kind of gross (you can’t erase the image of the Bride biting down on one guy’s tongue), and like Ripley before her, the Bride tends to get beaten and bloodied. And that grubby yellow track suit is raffishly cool, but it’s not particularly sexy.

• Heroines: Agent Sydney Bristow and her sisters in leather

Years: 2001-2006

As a grad student/double agent with a knack for going undercover as a French maid or dominatrix, Jennifer Garner never looked anything less than adorable in TV’s “Alias.” But the short-lived genre of crime-fighting gamines-in-leather that followed was embarrassingly uncool; not even the fact that Halle Berry (in “Catwoman”) and Garner (in “Elektra”) were outfitted in shrink-wrap could save the movies from bombing.

• Heroine: Katniss Everdeen

Years: 2012-2015

“The Hunger Games” movie adaptations gave us a heroine who not only looked like she could fend for herself but actually served as the traditional knight in shining armor, coming to the aid of Peeta — one of her two love interests. But just because Katniss is part of a romantic triangle doesn’t mean she’s outfitted in skimpy get-ups. Instead, she wears what you’d expect from a hunter. As the series goes on, the clothes get tighter, but they look more like expensive apres-yoga gear than Wonder Woman’s bustier.

• Heroine: Lucy

Year: 2014

The surprise hit was another of Besson’s creations. Scarlett Johansson plays a woman who can use more of her brain power than the average person. She’s also a killing machine. And while she does use her feminine wiles — and some revealing clothes — to her advantage, she does a lot of fighting in jeans and a T-shirt. How practical!

• Heroine: Tris

Years: 2014-2017

Shailene Woodley had been up for the part of Katniss, and while she didn’t get it, she got a do-over of sorts with “Divergent,” another young-adult action franchise set in a dystopian world. Tris is a 16-year-old knife-throwing martial artist and, fittingly, she dresses like she’s headed to CrossFit.