QUESTION

Are women action heroes (heroines) a positive representation of femininity? Do they challenge feminine stereotypes or reinforce them?

AT first glance they challenge them - they move women from the role of victim to be rescued, love interest etc into the position of main protagonist. But is this the whole story? Are there ways in which, under the surface, they are not such positive, assertive role models?

And also, what do real audiences actually DO with these representations. Do men change their viewing relationship away from a simple, male gaze objectification of them? ie Do they IDENTIFY with them? Do women relate to the characters as subjects they identify with or as objects they want to look like?

PRIMARY RESEARCH
1. TEXTUAL ANALYSIS - of Alien (for older reps); TOMB RAIDER, KILL BILL, and a MALE ACTION HERO SEQUENCE. To what extent are the reps strong, independent, challenging gender reps, and taking the main protagonist position so that audiences identify with them? And to what extent can you find more traditional, stereotyped elements still in their representations and roles in the narratives?

2. Screenings of extracts to group of male viewers to test out THEIR relationship to the characters - identification or objectification. A good idea might be to compare a similar sequence from a movie with a MALE main protagonist (like a James Bond sequence compared to a Lara Croft one, for example?).

Women and film - first ideas

Reps of women in action movies. Lara Croft and Kill Bill - females as main protagonists. Perhaps compare them to earlier female action protagonists (Alien for example), then explore how a real audience (male or female) respond to them. In terms of Mulvey's theory about the male gaze, are they objectified and oppressed despite their status as protagonist, or are they somehow a convergence of subject-protagonist and objectified body? It would be useful to see how women themseves respond to this idea.

Are the new female protagonist a step back in terms of gender representsation for women, or does the modern woman want to have the right to be both subject and object?

Sean