kali921 links to the following awesome YouTube video, and offers her own commentary on the same:

A Visual Exploration of Feminism: 1970's Heroines Kick Your Ass!



[...] I've long held the belief that feminism was reflected with an immediacy and intensity in pop culture way before it was reflected anywhere else - I think there's so much empirical evidence to support that belief that it hardly need be pointed out - and certainly before patriarchal Western society began to shift to accommodate the increasing demands of women for more mobility, opportunity, and legal autonomy.

Comics played a hugely important role in this embracing of a feminist sensibility, and went from being an oft patronizing medium to a medium where aggressive, confident, and actualized heroines were increasingly the norm than the exception. While women were still struggling to get the ERA passed, comics were exploding with new heroines, heroines that headlined their own books, heroines that were unabashedly engaged in changing the world around them, heroines that were unstoppable, uncowed, mouthy, and certainly not about to take any shit from anyone male.

Female heroines were empowered. They were empowered on an unprecedented scale. They were empowered before their readers were empowered. They reflected a shift in society's perception of the possibility of the feminine.

(The fact that most of these heroines in the 1970's were written by male creators is what 1) makes me sad that women were often written as stronger than they are now, and 2) makes me not give up on men completely.)

Her LiveJournal makes for fun and informative reading, so go check it out ...

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And I disagree with with the idea that pop culture sets the agenda for any social movement. Its more a reaction to it. True reform comes from grass roots movements, not the artist, and certainly not the artist who attempts to appeal to as wide a mainstram audience as possible.

The 70s was the time when comics were allowed to be sexualised. Romance was a big part of heroes' backstories, and sometimes that required "heroines". A lot of the characters the video shows were created or stayed around to be the romance interest of a make hero.

Apart from Wonder Woman, Supergirl, and the ultra-feminists Vampirella and Red Sonja did any other title starring a female lead make it to #10 in the 70s?