Miss Representation

[FrozNlite]

Finally got to see this amazing documentary tonight. Any other feminists out there will likely cry like I did at various moments of the trailer, and during the film if you get an opportunity to see it.

More information can be found at the film's site.

General springboard for discussion, taken from link above (though you'll glean MUCH more from watching the trailer, trust me):

Spoiler

Like drawing back a curtain to let bright light stream in, Miss Representation (90 min; TV-14 DL) uncovers a glaring reality we live with every day but fail to see. Written and directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the film exposes how mainstream media contribute to the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence in America. The film challenges the media’s limited and often disparaging portrayals of women and girls, which make it difficult for women to achieve leadership positions and for the average woman to feel powerful herself.

In a society where media is the most persuasive force shaping cultural norms, the collective message that our young women and men overwhelmingly receive is that a woman’s value and power lie in her youth, beauty, and sexuality, and not in her capacity as a leader. While women have made great strides in leadership over the past few decades, the United States is still 90th in the world for women in national legislatures, women hold only 3% of clout positions in mainstream media, and 65% of women and girls have disordered eating behaviors.

Stories from teenage girls and provocative interviews with politicians, journalists, entertainers, activists and academics, like Condoleezza Rice, Nancy Pelosi, Katie Couric, Rachel Maddow, Margaret Cho, Rosario Dawson and Gloria Steinem build momentum as Miss Representation accumulates startling facts and statistics that will leave the audience shaken and armed with a new perspective.

[Alley]

I just want to know how it escalated to what it is today. If you go back you'll see plenty of women leaders, but now today, you just can't see the same thing. At least in the U.S.

[Sardines]

Spoiler

"GROWING UP THERE WAS NO ONE LOOKING LIKE ME ON TELEVISION"

:|

[FrozNlite]

I just want to know how it escalated to what it is today. If you go back you'll see plenty of women leaders, but now today, you just can't see the same thing. At least in the U.S.

Yeah the film was VERY U.S. focused, which makes sense for some of the criticized industries, but definitely not all. For that reason I'm curious what the culture is like abroad; clearly other nations have stronger representations of women in power, but I'm wondering about the day-to-day media portrayals, too. Are women also objectified, hypersexualized, etc.?

[Rick]

While more women should be in power if they have the ability and intelligence for it, it also has to be that you're not putting more women in power just for the sake of having women in power, too. That's where I don't like some of these types of messages.

[Corn]

I think the "65% of women and girls have disordered eating behaviors" is a huge exaggeration.

[Flonne]

I think the "65% of women and girls have disordered eating behaviors" is a huge exaggeration.

It's just the article trying to make it look off by not listing the male statistic in this country as well. It's probably just as high if not higher. Almost everybody in MURRIKA has what is classified by the rest of the world as "an eating disorder". Which is to say, they can't afford food, so they get mad at us and call us fat (see I can do dramatization too!).