From post-World War 2 society to today, Miss Representation gives an analysis of women's roles in media. As a male, this was especially informative; many points that they were focusing on were subjects I would never have considered to be an issue. While many were more obvious (such as the sexualization of women in advertising), the one that hit me the hardest was the portrayal of women in the news.
I was surprised when several female news anchors pointed out how many networks had women news casters wearing low-cut shirts and revealing clothing. I'm not saying that I have never seen this before, but rather that it never stood out to me as odd. Perhaps this is because I consume most of the news via internet articles, and not some form of video on the internet or television. As I think more about it, however, perhaps the real reason I never noticed this is because, as the documentary pointed out, society has become so ingrained - so desensitized - to the sexualization of women in the media that it went right past me.
The strongest part of the documentary, in my opinion, was the struggle women have with positions of power in the United States. Pat Mitchell stated that, "a woman in power is often seen as a negative thing...we associate all the worst aspects of power, and we translate those to a woman seeking to achieve power" (Miss Representation). Even in the titles of news articles, they showed how women in politics tend to be associated with negative forms of verbs rather than a neutral form. One example showed how an article used "complains" for a female politician instead of "stated," which trivializes the claims the female politician. Unfortunately, this pattern would be very difficult to miss in media today.
Miss Representation does a fantastic job at revealing the deep-rooted problems of the portrayal of women in mass media, and how it affects women today. Although I was aware of small sections of this argument in the past, I had no idea the negative effects were as serious as they are. Seeing the number of high school kids giving accounts of depression and cutting because they wanted to fit in was heartbreaking. One thing that was also sadly apparent is that this fight has a long way to go before more positive changes take effect.
Source used:
Miss Representation. Dir. Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Netflix. N.p., 2011. Web. 23 June 2015.
I was also surprised that I never noticed how many women in the news are dressed in such a revealing manner. It is crazy that we are so accustomed to seeing these things that they slip right under our noses.
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