Something horrible has happened to my beloved action heroines.

Just a few years ago, they seemed poised to take over the world — at least in movies and in television. Female warriors were pummeling the forces of evil, all the while balancing strength and grace with a sharp wit and keen fashion sense.

I’m thinking Buffy. I’m thinking Charlie’s Angels, circa 2000.

But the butt-kicking babes of today have gone bonkers. Powerful, complex and stylish heroines like Buffy the Vampire Slayer have slipped away, replaced by a horde of dysfunctional dominatrixes stalking around in bondage gear.

Did you see Catwoman and Elektra? The doms may kick and punch like heroines, but they’re really victims. They’re caricatures struggling with bad clothes, worse patter and awful mood swings — not to mention bad hair days.

The dysfunctional doms struggle to kill, conquer and take control, sometimes just for kicks. Both Catwoman (Halle Berry) and Elektra (Jennifer Garner) actually had to die and come back to life to work through their deep psychological issues.

"The day that I died was also the day I started to live," Berry tells the audience.

Isn’t that a little extreme? Modern women need role models who can enjoy life while they’re still living it. (I hope to work through my emotional baggage while I’m still breathing, thank you very much.)

Remember the glory days? In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Chosen One, Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar), managed to stake vampires and slaughter demons while navigating what can be even scarier situations: high school cliques and boy troubles.

The first Charlie’s Angels movie featured powerful female friends who karate-chopped villains into submission rather than cat-fighting among themselves.

Rarely did they even smudge their lip gloss.

From the beautiful warrior women of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to Trinity in The Matrix to The Powerpuff Girls, butt-kicking babes had it all.

These women weren’t fearless, but they fought through their fears, confusion and emotional baggage. They had power, beauty and (in many cases) sex appeal. (Not to mention great taste in shoes and healthy doses of well-placed anger.)

Audiences everywhere watched the littlest girls defending themselves and saw women who weren’t afraid to be both fighters and lovers.

"You can attack me, you can send assassins after me, that’s fine," Buffy warned one villain. "But nobody messes with my boyfriend."

Hollywood raked in the profits. But the high cash flow may have triggered the beginning of the end, as studios raced to produce butt-kicking babe films.

The heroines started to fade.

It’s time to get the butt-kicking babes back on track. And fast — before Hollywood studios start planning Catwoman Scratches Back or Elektra II.

We need to see powerful heroines who may take some serious hits, whether sparring or dating, but always get back up.

Audiences need a return of the true action heroines who can battle the forces of evil — both real and supernatural — and inevitably slay all of their demons.