Editing Russ Meyer (section)

== Female empowerment ==
Film historian and Meyer biographer [[Jimmy McDonough]] posits that Russ Meyer's usage of physically and sexually overwhelming female characters places him in his own separate genre.<ref name=mcdonough/> He argues that despite portraying women as sex objects, Meyer nonetheless depicts them as more powerful than men and is therefore an inadvertent [[feminist]] filmmaker.

In many of Meyer's films, women eventually defeat men, winning sexual fulfillment as their reward, e.g., Super Vixen (''[[Supervixens]]''), Margo Winchester (''[[Up! (1976 film)|Up!]]'') and Lavonia Shedd (''[[Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens]]'').<ref name=paulwoods/> Even in the 1950s and 1960s, his films were sometimes centered on a woman's need and struggle for sexual satisfaction (''[[Lorna (film)|Lorna]]'', ''[[Good Morning and... Goodbye!]]'' and ''[[Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens]]'').<ref name=paulwoods/> Additionally, Russ Meyer's female characters were often allowed to express anger and violence towards men (''[[Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!]]'' and ''[[Supervixens]]'').<ref name=mcdonough/>

Yet in his research, McDonough also notes that Meyer's female characters were limited in how powerful they could appear;<ref name=chap8p305>McDonough 2004, Chapter 8, p. 305.</ref> often the female lead is raped (''[[Up! (1976 film)|Up!]]'' and ''[[Lorna (film)|Lorna]]'') or brutally murdered (''[[Beyond the Valley of the Dolls]]'', ''[[Supervixens]]'', ''[[Lorna (film)|Lorna]]'' and ''[[Black Snake (film)|Blacksnake]]''). While Russ Meyer may have championed powerful woman characters, he also forced them into violent and terrifying situations, making them prove their physical and mental strength against tremendous odds.<ref name=chap8p305/> He also ensured that women's breasts were at least semi-exposed during these ordeals for comic or erotic effect.<ref>McDonough 2004, p. 238.</ref> Furthermore, according to frequent collaborator and longtime companion Kitten Natividad, Meyer's love of dominant women extended to his personal life, and he was almost always in a tumultuous relationship.<ref>McDonough 2004, chapters 14–16.</ref><ref>Sullivan, Steve, "Kitten Natividad: Russ Meyer's Most Bodacious Babe", ''Glamour Girls Then and Now'', number 11, 4-5/86, 8/17/90.</ref>