PRIMARY RESEARCH

1. Analysis of reps of "dumb" femininity and stronger women in some recent movies - 50 First Dates; Mean Girls; Bridget Jones's Diary, Charlie's Angels.

2. Questionnaire - emailed pictures of a range of reps of femininity - to get a large sample of who seems to prefer which look. (Limited info as will focus on looks and perhaps previous knowledge of characters).

3. Focus group discussions with group of women to explore in more detail these reps - personalities, behaviours, role in narrative etc.

Modern rom com heroines are kind of shit

http://www.thevine.com.au/entertainment/articles/modern-rom_com-heroines-are-kind-of-shit.aspx

Women and rom coms
female representation

Do women audiences like the ditzy way in which females are represented in modern rom coms?
(ie why do women audiences seem to like rather weak reps of femininity when one would expect them to like stronger women?)

For

Mean Girls
Lindsay lohan- plays a 'social retard' as she has never been to high school
character Karen- is 'stupid'

50 first dates
drew barrymore- dipsy because she has memory loss-always forgets.

Against

Brigit jones
Renee zellweger- has a job and appartement. Is independant just unlucky in lovE

Charlies angels
Cameron Diaz- very intelligent

Female hating chick flicks

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/women-continue-to-flock-to-hollywoods-female-hating-chick-flicks

Why are women heroines always so ditzy now???
http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/film/goodbye-girls/2009/03/06/1235842638241.html

50 first dates- brief Plot

Henry Roth (Adam Sandler), a womanising marine-life veterinarian living in Hawaii, meets Lucy Whitmore (Drew Barrymore), an art teacher, in a café one morning. They hit it off and agree to meet in the café the next morning. The following day, however, Lucy claims not to know Henry. The café owner pulls Henry aside and explains that Lucy suffers from anterograde amnesia (called 'Goldfield Syndrome' in the movie) as a result of a car accident she was in a year earlier. Her condition has left her with no memory of anything between the day of the accident At the beginning of each day, she loses all memory of the past day. She innocently believes every day to be October 13, 2002. Her father, Marlin (Blake Clarke), and brother, Doug (Sean Astin), attempt to re-enact the activities of October 13, her father's birthday, every day, to prevent her from suffering from learning about the accident.
Realizing that he is beginning to fall in love with Lucy, Henry sheds his philandering ways and begins devising new ways to ‘meet’ her again every day, hoping that one day she will retain her memories- and feelings- for him.