I won't comment on traditional portrayals or anything, but this reminded me of an article on the OKCupid Stats Blog (http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/the-4-big-myths-of-profile-pictures/) (which is great reading regardless of how interested you are in OKC and similar sites) which says, among other things, that pictures of men do better if they're looking away from the camera, and pictures of women tend to do better if they're looking right at the camera.