It was a weird time for women in media.. we were being written for the first time as something other than a housewife... but most writers are men and have no idea how to do that.

So there was this idea early on that a housewife is "Normal" and any deviation is an oddity that needs to be explained.

In media for adults this tended to be rape in media for kids it was more subtle...

You had the "Dumbass In Distress" character, an evolution of the damsel where she is competant and badass in the first two acts but once we get to the third... "Time to forget everything I know about common sense and fighting prowress so that someone with a penis can save me!"

A great example of this is Sonya Blade in the 95 Mortal Kombat flick. Throughout most of it she is a badass hypercompetent take no prisoners character who even kills her rival Kano.. something she keeps trying to do and failing in the games.

But in the third act? Nope fuck that. Shang Tsung kidnaps her and takes her to Outworld so that Earthrealm will be tempted to give up to save her.... even though she's supposed to be just as good of a fighter as Johnny Cage..

This isn't even something you can blame on the games as Sonya only had the damsel role once, and it was in MK2 where not only was Kano also in the exact same predicament, but we got Mileena and Kitana neither of whom are damsels. Heck Mileena is even a rare example of a female villain that DOESN'T wind up joining the good guys (Until the most recent reboot, but basically everyone did a Heel Face Turn in that so it really isn't misogyny)