Emma Peel (Excerpts from “Emma Peel - feminist icon” by Elizabeth Eggleston)

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The widely held view of Emma Peel is that she is the ultimate embodiment of woman. She is strong, sensual, intelligent and devastatingly beautiful. Modern feminists have adopted her as a modern Amazonian and she has apparently inspired contemporary feminist icons from Lara Croft to Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

The Avengers was an essentially middle to upper class program based in the spy genre with a strong sense of humor. Some categorize Emma Peel as a high kicking, leather sporting sex Goddess女神 — a woman treated as divine in the same vein as Catwoman. Modern culture seems to only identify strength in a woman when we see such stimulus as leather, high heels and stunning physical features. The main point behind Emma Peel is that her strength lies not only in her sexuality but also in her fantastic intelligence, athletic prowess and razor-sharp wit. Emma Peel is still an icon for her sexuality that is displayed in her clothes (either the popular kinky leather image or the op-art mini-skirted mod image). But Emma is also a female role model for her groundbreaking strength of character, mind and body.