strong female leads

I am–because I’m sick of being fat and wish to put together a collage of inspiring shapes–looking for suggestions for actresses* whose biceps make you go RAWR. Physically strong female characters, but not Buffy-style strong: Buffy kicks ass, absolutely, but she’s tiny. Scarlett Johannsen looked terrific in a black leather catsuit in IM2, but I wouldn’t actually be all that worried if she threatened to punch me, and I dunno, Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider maybe but there’s a difference between visible muscle because you’re buff and visible muscle because you’re too goddamned skinny, and she’s on the too skinny end at this point. I’m thinking Linda Hamilton in T2, Sigourney Weaver in the Aliens films, Jada Pinkett-Smith in Matrix Reloaded.

Twitter’s come up with a great list of suggestions already, many of whom are people I can’t believe I didn’t think of: Gina Torres, who is one of the hottest women on earth as far as I’m concerned (and oh *god* I wish they had cast her as Wonder Woman) in general; Angela Bassett in Strange Days; Dina Meyer** particularly in Starship Troopers but also in general; Tilda Swinton particularly as the White Witch; Renee O’Connor and Lucy Lawless from Xena; Claudia Black as Aeryn Sunn; Katee Sackhoff as Starbuck & Grace Park as Boomer; Geena Davis in Long Kiss Goodnight.

(Why, I asked in despair, are so many of these examples from the 90s? There are others which aren’t: Jessica Biel in Blade/Stealth/etc, Jennifer Garner, Peta Wilson who crossed from the 90s into the Oughts, Michelle Rodriguez, but still. I guess strong was sexier immediately after T2.)

Anyway, so who are some of your physical ideals, the women whose biceps make you go RAWR?

*Actresses rather than athletes, because (neverminding the improbable physique of most film actresses) part of the idea is to look at people who have gone through a physical transformation to reach buffitude rather than at people whose job, basically, is to be buff.

**I love Dina Meyer. I somewhat irrationally believe that Dina Meyer is what Cassandra from the Highlander TV show actually looks like, rather than looking like Tracey Scoggins, who played her.