ABSTRACT
Analysis of representations of race in the cinema suggested an implicit racism could be found (see Bogle, 1989). In the case of gender, innumerable studies have found demeaning images of women, and some have argued that it is possible to overturn these by substituting such negative representations with ‘positive images’ (see Artel and Wengraf, 1990). Clearly representations articulate with cultural power, but the demand for ‘positive images’ did not get far because of course not everyone would agree on what counted as a ‘negative’ or ‘positive’ representation. As Lumby (1997: 4) rightly asks: ‘Is a sexist or demeaning image something universal which anyone with the right feminist consciousness can spot?’ Are ‘bad girls’ positive or negative images? Seeking to redress the imbalance by producing more positive representations of women was also futile if the underlying material conditions went unreformed – negative images may be accurate, in other words.
