When we first see Amelia in the film, she is breaking off a relationship with a boyfriend, stating that she s not ready for a commitment yet. Usually when we think of someone being afraid of commitment, we think of the male in a relationship. But our first glimpse of Amelia proves her to be different from the traditional woman. She is headstrong and at times refuses to take orders from her superiors that she doesn t agree with. That is uncommon if you believe the social stereotype that women are the more submissive sex.
Amelia is also brave and at times physically aggressive.
She is the one who goes in first to investigate a crime scene, instead of allowing the male officers to protect her from whatever atrocities might be present. Our lead male character Rhyme seems to generally be the one in control and the director of Amelia, just like the traditional men should be the head of the household train of thought. Also, they play on the idea that men are critical thinkers, while women tend to rely on emotion and natural instinct. Amelia is the instinctual detective, and Rhyme continually tells her to rely on what she feels at the crime scenes. So, while The Bone Collector breaks away from racial and gender stereotypes, it also returns to rely on them in other scenes and characters.