Initial Ideas: Women and Film

Why are women not commonly villains in film?

How do audiences react to female villains?

And could the reaction or expected reaction of audiences be the reason for minimal or few female villains?

I've been thinking about studying this topic for my critical research project, due to my interest in film and gender representation within media texts. I would find it very interesting to carry out audience research on this subject to see not only how women react to villainous female characters, but also how men react.

I've not yet decided on whether to use a specific genre, or to use films varying in time. I think a cross comparison of classic Black Narcissus (Powell and Pressburger, 1947) and the more contemporary Mean Girls (Mark Waters, 2004) could be useful as the narrative could be easily linked, and both have female 'villains' or antagonists, though I have not fully developed this idea yet. Another idea could be to use the female characters in James Bond films, and discuss their role narratively.

To research audience interpretation I would initially survey a number of both male and female students, preferably ones who are not studying Film or Media, to find out their general impression of films and how they treat women, who are the typical heroes and victims etc. Secondly, I would screen two or three films in their entirety, and either record and transcribe a conversation, or ask participants to fill out a well-planned survey.