Hollywood is full of stereotypes: Women are Weak, Men are Strong, Germans are Criminals, Native Americans are Gods, Geeks always get Hot Girls, the list goes on and on. For every new blockbuster movie, there is always conflict about what the movie "represents". If Hollywood creates a movie about a male hero who saves a "helpless" female character, there will be murmurs of sexism. If the movie is about a female hero, there will be rumors that she is only popular because she is hot. The soup always boils.
Yet, I don't think there is a problem with Hollywood. These are the same stereotypes present throughout our society. These movies only make money because people want to see this kind of relationship. In the TV and movie screen we seek justification of ourselves. Those movies that closely mirror our image of the world but add some shock, are likely to be successes. This has even gotten to the point where studios can use computers to predict the success or failure of a movie (SuperCrunchers also talks about this).
But the funny thing is that I don't think this is a bad thing. Yes, stereotypes are bad, but we will never get rid of them. They are simply part of being human. And every time those stereotypes are broadcast to the world, we are given a chance to look ourselves and our culture in the mirror.
Side Note: I wonder lately whether our somewhat mindless reinventing of the past comics, children's stories and popular books mixed with some pretty ground-breaking movies (i.e. Brokeback Mountain
