The film Miss Representation began with a quote that read “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any” (Alice Walker). It immediately opened up my mind for what was coming and I knew it was going to get political. I had watched the film a long time ago, but I wasn’t really paying attention back then, not in the manner I was this time around. As I watched the film, I realized how different my intrapsychic reactions were to the gender norms being presented in comparison to what they had been years ago when I first watched it. I remember feeling angry at the material that was shown of women being objectified and sexualized, but when I look back, it almost feels like I was jumping on a band wagon. I say this …show more content…
Even now that I consider myself to be mature and make an effort to raise awareness about these issues, I still find myself getting caught up in this mentality. I know I am more than my looks and appearance, but yet I still strive to be thin, I pay to get my teeth whitened, I blow a lot of money on anti-aging make up and serums and I go to salons to have a certain image. I share this with my friends and encourage them to try certain beauty products or weight lost products because I want them to benefit from them also, yet we should be able to embrace who we are, no matter our age, size or color because I know we are beautiful regardless but we still voice our insecurities. I also find myself uninterested in politics because I tell myself I don’t understand it, it’s not my thing or it’s too complex to take the time to keep up with it. I have been that way about many challenges in life in the past, so instead of facing the truth, I found excuses or focused on the things that came to me more naturally. I have always been a slim girl and never really had a weight complex, but growing up as a teenager I got caught up with some things. Not only do I remember that I liked the way they made me feel, but I liked being so incredibly skinny. I remember feeling fat and gross for a long time after I stopped using and my body image was crap, I wanted to feel good, pretty and skinny again. It took a long time for me to regain my self-esteem and accept and love myself the way I was. Even today I can’t deny that when I see petite women or women with this unrealistic fabulous hour glass body, I think to myself, geez I wish I looked like that. Then I remind myself that I’m getting an education and I’m going to be a career woman and I’m making an effort to change things and my status as a woman. I am more than my physique and although I still try to
The documentary, “Miss Representation,” is a film about how women are perceived in the media. It is written, directed, and produced by Jennifer Siebel Newsom. She is an actress and a film maker who advocates for women. In the beginning of the documentary, Newsom discusses her struggles as a young woman surrounded by the pressures of looking a certain way. This film is targeting mainly women of all age that has experienced her struggles. Jennifer Siebel Newsom effectively convinces the audience of “Miss Representation” that the media has molded women in a negative way through statistics, celebrities’ and younger generation’s testimonies, and clips from the media.
The film “Think like a Man” directed by Tim Story, centres around four best friends whose lives are shaken up when the women they are pursuing buy the book “Act like a Lady, Think like a Man”, written by Steve Harvey, and start taking his advice to heart. When the men find out about the book, they conspire to use its information in order to turn the tables against the women (Rotten Tomatoes , 2012). While watching this film, I noticed that it continuously emphasised gender inequality, in relationships and in an economic sense, as a discourse of human nature. Throughout the film, the viewer is exposed to scenes where, for a woman, stating that you have a successful career and earn six figures is a turn off as opposed to the fact that if it were a man, it would be considered a good thing. Other scenes are of how men and women differ in how they perceive relationships to be. For example, when the main female character believes she is starting a relationship with a man, the man actually sees it as a one night stand. In this essay, it is important to understand that human nature is a set of assumptions about motives, in an emotional and mental capacity, and psychic mechanisms which are considered as universal traits and characteristics possessed by all individuals living in human societies, whether they are civilized or primitive, modern or ancient (Wrong, 1963). In other words, by human nature, I refer to traits and characteristics expressed by individuals which are purely natural to humanity in any given context (Turnbull, 1973). How this became human nature, gender inequality, can be explained through examining how gender differences and stereotyping was formed, through biological phenomenon, as well as external, cultural, factors. ...
We cannot deny the imperfection of the world today; poverty, violence, lack of education, and the general overwhelming deficiency of basic daily necessities are among some of the most troubling issues on the agenda. By carefully selecting our critical lens, we can gather that there are many aspects of today’s issues where we can focus our attention and begin the quest for solutions to these pervasive problems. Authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn (2009) utilize their book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide to emphasize the particular struggle of women in the world today and how by addressing three particular abuses of sex trafficking and forced prostitution, gender-based violence (including honor killings and mass rape), and maternal mortality, we may begin “unlocking an incipient women’s movement to emancipate women and fight global poverty” (p. xxii). However, we must first understand the difficulty of addressing such complex issues by a proposing a “one-size fits all” solution and take into consideration the varying feminist perspectives that currently contemplate the oppression of women in societies around the world. To be able to critically digest Kristof and WuDunn’s book we must explore the types of stories and evidence included and how they’re presented, and the generalized theories behind the insight and solutions regarding the women in need around the world. The authors alienate their audience by ignoring the complexity of building a singular feminist movement. Kristof and WuDunn’s book Half the Sky further contributes to the oppression of women because they objectify Third World women by portraying them as victims in need of outside rescue and suggest that an overarching solution...
When asking the question, “What are the differences between men and women?” what things come into mind? When asking friends what their thoughts were they stated things such as men are stronger, women are weaker, men are bigger, women are smaller, men make more money, etc. Due to the obvious assumptions that people have been making for centuries it is thought by some Americans that males are the dominant sex. Before watching Miss Representation I had always gotten so upset at certain men for the way they treated women or the things they would say to them. After this film I realized that their actions might have stemmed from “rules” that they were taught an early age; those rules being the rules of masculinity. After reviewing the rules it finally clicked to me why
AIn the movie, The Grudge (2004), a woman is used to play the four big roles, which are the main character, supporting character, victim who dies early, and the evil creature, which is the dead mother who is now a ghost. The main character, Karen Davis, is an exchange student who works at the same place as one of the supporting characters as a care-worker. Throughout the movie, she learns about the events that brought the ghost into existence, while simultaneously being followed by the ghost. In the end, she attempts to kill the ghost, but it survives and continues to follow her. One of the gender stereotypical characteristics of the main character was her job as a care-worker. Care-workers are people who care for others such as children,
Miss Representation is a documentary based on women in the media and how the media has affected women today. “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” This quote is from Alice Walker, a female, who realized that they e...
People are always complaining about how they aren’t as pretty as models on billboards, or how they aren’t as thin as that other girl. Why do we do this to ourselves? It’s benefitting absolutely nobody and it just makes us feel bad about ourselves. The answer is because society has engraved in our minds that we need to be someone we’re not in order to look beautiful.
The Representation of Women in Some Like It Hot and Alien 3 This essay will be about how women are and have been represented in films in the past and how they are represented nowadays. I will be looking at the roles and representations of women in 'Some Like It Hot and Alien 3. Some Like It Hot was made in 1958. Marilyn Monroe starts in the comedy as Sugar Cane, a very feminine musician.
Miss Representation, a documentary film produced by Jennifer Siebel Newsom released in 2011, presents a contemporary issue which is the misrepresentation of women’s portrayal in mass media. The media is powerful in shaping audience’s belief in how to be feminine. Women are expected to be beautiful, attractive, and even sexual on the media to attract audience’s attention. Also, the film points out the existence of social system in which men are considered more powerful and dominant than women. Finally, the film tries to increase the awareness of female real value including capability, educational achievement, and leadership. Consuming the media wisely to eliminate gendered stereotypes can help young women build their confidence and be successful.
The movie “Fried Green Tomatoes,” Evelyn Couch visits a nursing home with her husband to see an elderly relative from her husband’s side. However, Evelyn’s husband’s side of the family is not fond of Evelyn so she waits in the sitting room for her husband to finish his visit. While waiting for her husband to finish up his visit with his relative she meets an elderly woman named Ninny. Ninny begins to talk to Evelyn and starts to recount about her sister-in-law Idgie who changed her life around and became an owner of a small Alabama café. Also Ninny mentions that Idgie shared a strong bond with her friend Ruth, who was completely the opposite of Idgie. However, a lifelong friendship formed from the differences the two had. Evelyn becomes inspired to change her life for the better after hearing all of Ninny’s stories. In the movie “Fried Green Tomatoes,” there were a significant amount of gender stereotypes throughout the film that can offend women in today’s society.
The title Miss Representation emphasizes that the way we portray women in the media is a
Gender stereotypes are ideas simplified, but strongly assumed, on the characteristics of men and women, that translates into a series of tasks and activities that are assign in each culture. Along life, family, school, and environment, Society thought us what is right and what is not in being men or women. Starting with the form we dress, talk, express, behave, to what we can play or what sport to participate. The margin of the biological endowment differences males and females; the fact of being women or men implies a long process of learning and adaptation to the rules established starting with work, personality, love and desires. In the movie "The Ugly Truth." you can see different situations that reflect what society is teaching us for
Often, people of all ages, race, and gender catch themselves gazing into mirrors for hours, blaming themselves for the way they look, not realizing that the media is actually the one to blame for many people’s body image. Body image is the way people see themselves, or how they assume other people see them. It is not likely to see a plus sized model in a magazine or a model on the runway with blemishes on her face. A person’s negative perception of their own body is not because they think it is wrong to look and be healthy; it is because the media is telling them that being a size 2 with flawless skin is healthy and beautiful.
In today’s world, men and women are perceived equally by the society. In the past, authority and control define men while women are given the characteristic of helplessness. Men are able to get hold of high positions while women usually are subservient to them. In movies, we would usually see women portray roles that are degrading due to the stereotypical notions they associate with this gender group. Moulin Rouge, a movie set during the 1900s narrates the story of a courtesan woman, Satine, as she undergoes hardships to earn money, experiences love but unfortunately, due to her irrational choices, faces tragic consequences at the end. Satine is a symbol of how women are being treated by the society during the era before post-feminism, where men have superiority over women. As the plot develops, Satine transforms from a worthless prostitute to someone who is courageous and willing to face her fears in order to attain her aspirations. Psychoanalyst theory and feminist analysis are apparent throughout the film. The male gaze, fantasy and feminism are three topics that will be covered in depth in this essay through relating it to the movie.
Feminist theory was derived from the social movement of feminism where political women fight for the right of females in general and argue in depth about the unequality we face today. In the aspect of cinema, feminists notice the fictitious representations of females and also, machismo. In 1974, a book written by Molly Haskell "From Reverence to Rape: The treatment of Women in Movies" argues about how women almost always play only passive roles while men are always awarded with active, heroic roles. Moreover, how women are portrayed in movies are very important as it plays a big role to the audience on how to look at a woman and how to treat her in real life due to the illusionism that cinema offers. These images of women created in the cinema shapes what an ideal woman is. This can be further explained through an article 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' written by a feminist named Laura Mulvey in 1975. She uses psychoanalysis theories by Sigmund Freud to analyze 'Scopophilia' which is the desire to see. This explains how the audience is hooked to the screen when a sexy woman is present. In a bigger picture, where Scopophilia derives from, 'Voyeurism' is also known as feeling visual pleasure when looking at another. Narcissism on the other hand means identifying one's self with the role played. It is not hard to notice that in classical cinema, men often play the active role while the women are always the object of desire for the male leads, displayed as a sexual object and frequently the damsels in distress. Therefore, the obvious imbalance of power in classical cinema shows how men are accountable to moving the narratives along. Subconsciously, narcissism occurs in the audience as they ...