Women and Film.
You say "are real representations given?" - The problem with this is that NO MEDIA REPRESENTATION IS REAL - it is a REPRESENTATION. So you need to reformulate what you mean. Also, you cannot possibly do all of cinema - all genres, countries, historical periods, etc. So you have to narrow your range right at the beginning. I would suggest, if you are interested in this area, you pick a traditional "male" genre, such as the action movie, and explore representations of women within that genre. What is your favourite genre, or a genre you watch a lot of films in?
If you decide to do this, you should choose a few central texts (recent ones) and see if the representations reinfoce stereotypes of and ideological assumptions about gender, or if they challenge them. So the first thing to do is to research about gender representations generally, then about reps within your chosen genre. For primary research you could explore how audience members respond to the gender reps on offer within your central texts.
Start your reading with Chapters 3 and 4 in Media Gender and Identity by David Gauntlett.
You have to decide quickly now!
Sean
