"I'm holding out for a damsel 'til the end of the night."
A spanking of the butt (yours and/or mine ;) ) to anyone who guesses who sang this classic song to which I have parodied and which movie it first appeared in.
I'll also throw in a hug and a kiss to whoever guesses two other movies the song was featured in. ^_^



Is it me or is the classic damsel in distress scenario in films and television a dying art? While it's not uncommon to see an attractive young woman in distress, waiting to be rescued by her hero, it's so rare to see said "damsel" in any kind of classic distress. Where's the deadly trap for the hero with the damsel as the bait? Where's the elaborate device or classic setup that puts the damsel in some kind of slowly progressing danger? More importantly: where the hell is the bondage?! Lois Lane must be pretty upset to see all these young damsels not having to earn their "stripes" (rope burns) the way she had to with of lots of binding ropes and mouth filling gags. I'd love to see a pic of Lois Lane putting some well known modern day heroines who've never been properly distressed through a kind of bondage boot camp. That would be wonderful! ^_^
It seems that villains of become PC when it comes to kidnapping their damsels and keeping them captive.

"Let's keep her unrestrained and free to move around and potentially make some kind of a daring escape."

It's like the joke in the first Austin Powers movie when Dr. Evil says something to the effect of, "I leave them in a slow building and overly elaborate trap that they can easily escape from and assume all goes according to plan." Of course if Dr. Evil had restrained the two the might not have escaped. ;P

You hardly ever see the heroine/hero's love interest tied up in any shape or form. One would think that she would be easier to handle if she can hardly fight back or resist her captors. And if it would hard for her to escape with the hero if she's thoroughly tied up. And with her restrained and potentially in some kind of peril it makes the hero's job much more difficult for now while dealing with the villain(s) he has to save her from certain doom. Plus the obligatory tossing of the damsel aside into some kind of peril usually allows the villain to escape and scheme another day as the hero must choose to either rescue her or take down the villain and we all know the hero isn't going to let her come to harm or even worse, die. Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for strong women. I'm actually turned on by strong and intelligent women. Being bound and gagged by one really gets my heart racing. ;)
I just hate the way the walking stereotype is rammed down out throats sometimes. One of the reasons I was so happy to not see Keira Knightly in the recent Pirates movie, just as an example. :P

Anyway, take Tron Legacy for example:
Yes, when Quorra gets captured she's restrained with a pair of futuristic handcuffs (which looked quite good on her BTW), but later on she was able to help Sam best Rinsler because her legs were free to kick him. Now who's to say the outcome would have been any different if she was properly restrained. It would have been more entertaining though, if not at least on a suspenseful level. And who says you can't have a strong, independent woman who gets all tied up at least once and either manages to escape or get rescued? Wonder Woman used to get tied up all the time, but managed to save the day by the last panel in the end.

It leaves me wondering what some "damsel" moments might have fared if the heroine had been properly restrained and was genuinely helpless.

So, I ask you: What non-damsel-in-distress "damsel-in-distress" moment or moments do you think would have been better if the damsel had been thoroughly bound and possibly gagged and possibly imperiled?