I'm in between jobs at the moment so I have a lot of time to waste look into things that I'd have otherwise never paid much attention to. Lately I've been watching a lot of films and have noted the Bechdel test - not to my surprise films have confirmed that women appearing together on screen will almost always have a conversation about a man.
Various types of women are portrayed in a certain light almost all of the time. If the actress in question is fat then she'll always be the funny/humorous one, if she's thin she'll most likely be the love interest that goes through a bit of toil to eventually 'win' the man. Black women are almost always sassy and aggressive. Even in a love story the man will almost always have another storyline that doesn't involve his love interest whereas the woman's sole focus will be about the man.
I read a good blog today about Scarlett Johansson's casting in Ghost in the Shell, based on the classic manga series by Masamune Shirow. Despite the fact that Scarlett is not suited to the role as set out by the author, DreamWorks decided that she'd most likely appeal to a bigger audience.
Do you notice these sort of things or not really care either way?