Where have all the action heroines gone? Hollywood has replaced complex, witty women (who kick butt) with dysfunctional caricatures (who kick butt). BUFFY: Smart and stylish. She battles raging demons and raging hormones. ELEKTRA: Domineering and dysfunctional. She’s really a victim with great abs. ANGELS: Lucy Liu, Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. This sequel relied more on baring butt than kicking it.

CROUCHING TIGER: Zhang Ziyi in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Real warrior women fight through their fears, confusion and emotional baggage.

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.)

The babes mastered weaponry while throwing roundhouse kicks in the sassiest of stilettoes. Beyonce Knowles in Austin Powers in Goldmember, for one, struck a perfect blend of funny, sexy and classy as Foxxy Cleopatra. (Who could forget the Shazam! she shouted with each blow?)

These ladies battled with a ferocity not seen since Pam Grier in Foxy Brown or Sigourney Weaver in Alien.

They taught countless life lessons: Face your own demons; strong women can love; pretty and powerful are not mutually exclusive.

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."

She was a true role model for protective girlfriends everywhere.

Buffy and the babes taught women to be strong and courageous, whether battling satanic bosses or fighting for the right man.

And audiences loved them. Tired of seeing whimpering wimpettes and damsels in distress, men and women of all ages filled the theaters.

Television shows like Buffy and the Powerpuff Girls developed cult followings.

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, upstaged by weak caricatures.

The decline seemed to begin somewhere around the time of Lara Croft Tomb Raider: the Cradle of Life, also known as Tomb Raider 2 (not that the first one was a masterpiece.) The sequel featured Angelina Jolie as the buxom, tough, video-game heroine. Sure, she pursed her plump lips a lot, and mastered the art of firing two guns at once. But she was more of a male fantasy struggling with father-abandonment issues than a true role model for women.

Then along came Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, starring (as the original did) Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz. But the sequel relied far more than the first film did on cleavage, Diaz’s backside and bikinis.

The doms have even tested the patience of some of the most devoted fans of strong women.

Bettina Aptheker, a professor of women’s studies at the University of California at Santa Cruz and a self-confessed fan of Xena: Warrior Princess, said she has avoided the recent rash of bad heroine films.

"I have no interest in that sort of paradigm," Aptheker said. "It’s like a failure of the imagination. People can’t imagine strong women who don’t dominate. That’s the problem."

She said Hollywood needs to understand that you can have strong women while still having equality between the sexes.

Besides, the doms really need to get their priorities straight. For example, Catwoman uses her superpowers to steal a necklace that caught her eye.

"Time to accessorize," she snarls, shattering its glass container.

Elektra and Catwoman have severed ties to the world. Elektra, a tormented assassin, exists only for her next assignment even though she seems to hate her job. (Just what modern women need - more examples of female workaholics trapped in unsatisfying careers.)

Berry and Garner may have the muscles to pull off midriff-baring bondage look, but nice abs are just not enough to carry a film.

Audiences seem to agree. Catwoman and Elektra bombed. Catwoman took the prize for worst picture at the 25th annual Razzie awards, an Oscar spoof that trashes Hollywood’s low points, and Berry "won" worst actress.

Even some pretty good films send twisted messages. Hero featured a strong female warrior played by Maggie Cheung. Trouble was, she stabbed her true love through the heart simply because he was trying to prove how much he loved her.

"Why didn’t you block my sword?" she asks him as he winces in agony.

Shouldn’t strong women be able to have happy endings?

At least The Incredibles featured ladies like Elastigirl. But alas, she was animated.

I need to believe that powerful women don’t need to prove their strength by slaughtering their loved ones. I do not want to watch faux heroines with serious anger-management issues dominating everyone around them. And I have no interest in going to a theater to see ladies in humiliating leather outfits.

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.

As a black belt in Taekwondo, I want the young girls at my dojang to have strong role models again on the big and little screens.

We need to see powerful heroines who may take some serious hits, whether sparring or dating, but always get back up. Women who can channel their well-placed anger to fight for what is good and right - without impaling their boyfriends along the way.

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.