[Prudence]

I think the problem with the unrealistic portrayals of women is that it recalls the not-to-distant past when sex was, essentially, the main job description for women. Well, sex and dusting.

For example, for my mom, college was considered a place for her to look and behave fetching enough to get her Mrs. degree. Her function was to land a husband with a good job and start pumping out babies. Yes, things have improved a great deal since then, but it's recent enough that it's a bad habit into which society slips fairly easily. The time where men were judged on their ability to kill some hairy animal with large fangs is sufficiently distant that I don't think the sexy = competent equation affects men to the same degree that it does women.