Powerful women on screen have long been treated as dangerous, difficult… or even not quite human. From the classic femme fatale to the so-called “difficult woman” to the fembot, film and TV have repeatedly framed female power as something that needs to be controlled, punished, and often stripped of agency.

We’re diving back into some of our Takes breaking down these three enduring tropes to explore what they reveal about Hollywood’s discomfort with female autonomy. From Gilda to To Die For, Carrie Bradshaw to Miranda Priestly, and The Stepford Wives to Ex Machina, let’s examine how women who are ambitious, assertive, or sexually confident are often turned into villains, threats, or fantasies — and how recent portrayals are beginning to challenge those patterns.