women and anime

[melanin]

hi, i'm doing a project concerning female characters in anime. can anyone comment on the changes they have noticed on the representations of women (like how they dress, act, treated etc)over the past few decades of anime? do you think it depends on the genre/ age range etc? can anyone think of any good examples? (im not sure if this was a good part of the forum to post this but i panicked! hehe)

[Gjallarhorn]

It is all based on genre. It romance anime, girls will tend to be very feminate. In action anime, girls will be more masculine. In a harem series, girls will be viewed as funny and objects of desire. In shounen series, girls are the damsel-in-distress quite often. In a shojo series, they are the heroine.
In anime as a whole, I suppose girls have become less defined by the typical roles given to them by society(stereotypes), over the past decade or so.