I'm a girl (duh!) and I'm 31.

Here is my two cents' worth:

Having Bridget Jones in there is a bit unfair, I think, simply because it's a comedy. Yes, the women are mostly stereotypes, but then so are the men (the "nice guy" the "office wolf" etc). Comedy relies on the existance of certain sterotypes. What is comedy, after all, but an expansion and exaggeration of certain truths (or things that are perceived as true). The women aren't shown in a very flattering light - but they do contain a number of traits that other women recognise. Ditto the men.

Characters tend to get more or less "real" depending on genre as well. In addition to my note about comedy above, you are unlikely to find a true likeness of any actual person in, say, sci-fi or fantasy films. How Lara Croft would react is not a true representation of womanhood for the simple reason that she's a computer game - she's not meant to bear any relation to a real woman (apart from the *cough* obvious ones).

In terms of fairness to one gender, the question is rather sweeping. Asking if X character is a fair representaion of a gender is like asking if the "serving suggestion" is a fair reflection of the product. In works of popular fiction, no-one is respresented especially accurately - people tend to behave in ways that real people would not. How often do we find ourselves wondering "Why don't they just turn a light on/call the police/go home/dump him?"? More than enough to realise that movie behaviour =/= real life.

If you could make the question more specific - say about a single genre or character - it would be far easier to give a simple answer. Even then, the terms are somewhat vague - what is a fair representation of a woman? All women are different - some kick righteous ass - others are fraidy-cats. A fair representation of me and my values is not going to be a fair representation of all other women. Any generalisation is wrong.

Sorry for the long rambling reply - probably not what your were looking for, but I have too many thoughts

I'm male (more duh! ) and I'm 19. Hope this helps - but it's one of my patent-pending long winded rambles, so don't say I didn't warn you...

The representation of either gender is dependant in part to the genre and text you're looking at, not to mention the audience it's being 'sold' to and also the views/bias of the text's author, so there's no 'constant' representation throughout. I can't really comment on Bridget Jones, having not seen either of them - sorry!

For example, it can be argued that (Oh hell, all the official essay lingo's coming back already! However, contrasting evidence implies it never really went away... ) - and I apologise in advance for choice of example, folks - the Spice Girls movie represents women in a fairer light than for instance, Indiana Jones, because it shows, say, (insert random Spice Girl here) in a more empowered position than Indy's 'princess' (aka love interest, damsel in distress - see: Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Folk Tale, and it might be a good idea for anyone who can remember the name of the similar book written by Tzvetan Todorov to drop it here somewhere, that'd be quite nice ) Marion. Another good one of this is (cue another example of a crap movie ) Tomb Raider; it reverses Propp's story structure of the 'hero rescues princess/damsel from sneering bad guy' (typical fairytale plot stuff, which was basically the focus of Propp's theory) so that the female protagonist is rescuing the male love interest from the jaws of certainly cheesy death (sorry, but IMHO that film really sucked!)

Some examples of empowered female leads that you'd be deserving of a slap not to put on your answer include: Thelma and Louise, Terminator (Sarah Connor), Titanic, Aliens (Ripley - yet more duh), The Full Monty (men as sex objects), Buffy ("No! Really?" ) and X-Men (women as superheroes), among a truckload of others that other people posting here later can come up with... (*looks in particular at Sydney and Havoc *)

On the other hand (sorry, going on a slight tangent here), how do you define "fair" representation of a certain gender? I seriously doubt there's a text that I or anyone else can/will suggest that doesn't have implicit or explicit gender bias in favour of the text's author, whether intentional or not. For instance, how many films can you think of that have been called blatant cash-ins of feminism? (*cough* Barb Wire *cough*)

Hope that helps!

You're answers were fab...Roll on more people please

When is this exam? Rather, when's the deadline for attempts at helpful posts? I've got some textbooks and old media lecture notes I can dig out of mothballs (well, more like boxes in my attic) and see if there's anything useful in there, but the earliest I can get those out is tomorrow...

(Edited by Alan 22/04/2005 10:58)

It's not for 2 weeks or so...