Portrayal of Heroines in TV/Movies - Essentialism?

I'm not sure but I would suggest Google Scholar - https://scholar.google.com/

Would say part of how this should be done is using the same terms for female-versions as male ones, as with "heroes." Not "heroines," or "comediennes," or "actresses." If women and men wish to be equal refer to them as equals. Just as in the military you refer to female officers as "Sir" just like any male officer because it's the rank you're respecting, not the individual.

Style of dress needs to match up as well. If women wish to be equal to men quit wearing skirts, dresses, and top that show off your female characteristics. No man wears a business suit that shows off his chest or legs. When women do so they are no where close to their male equals because they've chosen not to be. They've chosen instead to remind everyone they're different from men and here's my legs and breasts in case you forget.

For sexual equality to happen, women need to quit opting to highlight their differences first and foremost. I don't regard a woman in a skirt showing her clevage as my equal in a business enviroment. Can dress like a woman on your days off to your heart's content. But if you wanna be my equal and be treated as such, look the part.

Sorry, but I don't agree with you at all on that. Women can dress however they prefer and it shouldn't diminish anyone's respect for them. If seeing a womans cleveage during a business meeting diminishes your respect for her, then that's your problem, not hers. Not to mention that you are basically saying women need to "bow down" to men's standards and make themselves seem more masculine so we can't distinguish any differences between the genders. Which in my opinion is a completely wrong approach. And why should women do that and not men? How is feminism an issue that has to only be tackled by men? Your argument is really flawed.

Your argument also doesn't help my issues at all either:

I need a way to argue that female representation has gotten better or, at the very least, is something feminism tries to change. And as "better" I chose to define "more realistic".
But I can't argue that female characteristics were being subdued in 80s/90s action movies in favour of making heroines more masculine and "strong" because that would imply women have - de facto - always patriarchical stereotypical female characteristics.