Miss Representation

Miss Representation.

The statistics in the documentary were very shocking and eye opening. I knew it was bad, but I didn't know it was this bad. Miss Representation was released in 2011, but from what I see in the media today, not much has changed. Sure there are more activists and mentions about feminism due to big celebrities, but there hasn't been much change in the government roles and corporation memberships. (At least I don't think there has been.)



There were a few quotes by the women that were interviewed that stood out to me. These two were some of them:


Katie Couric's quote is really true because the media can be used for both ways. It can be used to lift and change the way women are percieved and what they are assumed to be, or they can worsen the value of women and their capabilities.

Carol Jenkins' quote was my overall favorite. Women make up 51% of the USA population (from 2011) yet represent a whole lot less than that. So when Carol Jenkins says that what you know about yourself and your country and even your world comes from the male perspective, she is right on point. The media affects our behavior, speech, thoughts, everything. And males dominate the media (well, at least are more represented than females), so that gives them a huge advantage in business, law, everything you can name. I love that she says it's not wrong, but just not democracy. In this way, she is not denying males of their perspectives, but just saying that there is an unbalance in representation.



The other thing I wanted to point out from the documentary was the photo shopped images of models. The left is a photo of the actual model, and the right is the model photo shopped. Personally, the picture of the right is kind of uncomfortable to look at... but that's not the point I want to make. The point is that the documentary said, "The media makes unrealistic expectations for women." Or something along those lines.

We are creating an impossible image that we cannot achieve naturally, and then hate on others and ourselves for not achieving it. I think it's kind of ironic because a lot of people look at these images of models and then strive to be like them: skinny and tall and pretty. But the fact that these visuals are not achievable completely destroys the process.

I'm not sure if my thoughts are being explained in a comprehensible way, but it just seems like a sad ironic tale that doesn't seem to have an end.