After taking several classes revolving around media, I was
already pretty aware of the problems in the portrayal of women in our time...But
seeing this documentary really puts it right in front of your face, and puts
things into perspective. You don’t realize the avalanche effect that is created
from how women are portrayed in the media. It affects how women see themselves, and it affects their confidence, and this means these women have it set in their
heads that their jobs are to be mother’s and bear children, that all they are
good for is sex and mothering children. Women fall into all of this without
even realizing it!
I am a nanny for two young girls, right at the age where this stuff really starts to affect them, 11 and 13. Media constantly surrounds these girls. They are always on their phones or iPads on social media… or listening to music. Sometimes I will put the music on Spotify’s playlist, “Teen Party,” and I was appalled by some of the songs that came on. I don’t just mean in terms of the songs being explicit, but some of the messages in these songs, they were just reaffirming everything that this documentary said is the problem with media. It worries me how these girls are already starting to see the world.
One of the things in this documentary that I had not really thought about is how women in power are scrutinized so much for their appearance, love life, etc., when know one thinks twice about that kind of stuff when it’s a man that’s in power. No matter how hard a woman tries to be respected equally as a man is, her appearance or sexuality ends up getting in the way some how. You hear all these comments about women’s attractiveness in politics, but I don’t ever recall hearing about Obama’s attractiveness level… because men are respected and viewed in a light, where it becomes totally irrelevant. Hearing these men on Miss Representation that are jabbing at women politician’s looks, commenting on things like face lifts, Botox, using names like, “fat moron,” it’s disgusting. The fact that these men feel like they have to find something wrong with female politician’s appearances to make their statement in regards to that woman’s political views, is a little bit pathetic. With the way things are going, it scares me to think about how long it could take to reverse these issues.
I am a nanny for two young girls, right at the age where this stuff really starts to affect them, 11 and 13. Media constantly surrounds these girls. They are always on their phones or iPads on social media… or listening to music. Sometimes I will put the music on Spotify’s playlist, “Teen Party,” and I was appalled by some of the songs that came on. I don’t just mean in terms of the songs being explicit, but some of the messages in these songs, they were just reaffirming everything that this documentary said is the problem with media. It worries me how these girls are already starting to see the world.
One of the things in this documentary that I had not really thought about is how women in power are scrutinized so much for their appearance, love life, etc., when know one thinks twice about that kind of stuff when it’s a man that’s in power. No matter how hard a woman tries to be respected equally as a man is, her appearance or sexuality ends up getting in the way some how. You hear all these comments about women’s attractiveness in politics, but I don’t ever recall hearing about Obama’s attractiveness level… because men are respected and viewed in a light, where it becomes totally irrelevant. Hearing these men on Miss Representation that are jabbing at women politician’s looks, commenting on things like face lifts, Botox, using names like, “fat moron,” it’s disgusting. The fact that these men feel like they have to find something wrong with female politician’s appearances to make their statement in regards to that woman’s political views, is a little bit pathetic. With the way things are going, it scares me to think about how long it could take to reverse these issues.
I really do like this documentary because it really shows what is happening... and that nothing has changed.
ReplyDeleteHannah, unfortunately women are being scrutinized not just in government positions but all over the place. I feel that women are very smart. Obviously not all women are smart, just like not all men are neither. However, there are very smart women that have made a difference in our society. I really liked the girl in the video Devanshi who portrays a very confident personality and seems like she is in control of her life rather then the media driving what she feel or thinks. In my opinion all women are beautiful and men would not be here if it was not because God created women.
ReplyDeleteThe lack of attention of male appearance compared with those of women just exemplifies the objectification of women in media. As the documentary pointed out, there are women in power - they just need to be shown more in media. That's not to say that gender inequality in the workplace is nonexistent and that all that needs to be done is fix the media, but fixing the media is the best long-term solution. As you pointed out, the girls you nanny are listening to songs that teach them bad values...and they are barely teenagers. If we can mitigate the negative projection of the inferiority of women in the media, it will slowly heal the deep-rooted issues that are ingrained in modern society.
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