Example: Jodie Foster in True Detective: Night Country (61). She is not the victim; she is the solver. Her power comes from endurance, trauma metabolized into logic, and a refusal to be polite.
Historically, cinema leaned heavily on the "ingénue" archetype—young, often naive, and defined primarily by her relationship to a male lead. This narrow lens suggested that a woman’s story was only worth telling during her youth.