Go Ahead, Make Her Day

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"I wanted the heroes to be strong, tough and cool," says Craig McCracken, the show's creator. "The juxtaposition of their being really cute and really strong seemed more interesting than if they had been muscley guys. People are starting to accept that girls are cool, and girlie things are cool." Schamus, who has daughters ages 4 and 8, thinks the Powerpuff Girls offer positive action role models: "My daughters are provided with more tools to gain confidence in the mastery of their own lives."

We will let others decide if this new trend is progressive or helpful to female viewers--let alone to unenlightened males, who have long appreciated the spectacle of women fighting (it used to be called mud wrestling). But the action woman is certainly a corrective to a zillion idiot action films and XFL games and episodes of Jackass. Women of any age hardly get a break in pop culture. So you go, girlie.