The film ‘Miss Representation’ is an insightful documentary, directed by Kimberlee Acquaro and Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The documentary showcases the shocking reality of female representation in the media, and the resulting image of women in modern society. The documentary draws attention to the hyper-sexualized images of women, especially when compared to the very few positive role models that young women are given, based on women of great substance, leadership and character. More specifically, the film ‘Miss Representation’ focuses on gender misrepresentation in contemporary society and how that impacts the way that society views, and performs within, gender roles.
‘Miss Representation’ demonstrates the way that media directly effects the
In her interview, she expressed that she and her classmates see in the media is focused on physical appearance, and has nothing to do with the intellectual capacity. According to “Miss Representation”, the image offered by the media stimulates insecurity and anxiety in relation to appearance (Dines and Humez 15). More specifically, up to sixty-five percent of women suffer from eating disorders as a direct result of comparing their own physical appearance, including weight and body shape, to airbrushed models. This negative impression in the symbolic realm, of media, ensures that teenage girls have a skewed perception of their body image as it relates to what “beautiful” is, and a difficult time envisioning themselves in top leadership positions.
The reality is the media prepares young women for a life of menial labor and mid-grade pay, rather than pushing her to pursue leadership and executive success. Women are presented in position of power less than five percent of the time, as it relates to the media depiction of women in business. Girls are, essentially taught that female employees are controlled by, or answer to, male bosses, in nearly every case. This further strengthens the separation between gender role and equality, as it relates to core areas of life, including political representation, and professional
The documentary Miss Representation describes the struggle of female leadership. It is based on the way the women look, the way they carry themselves, and the way they brutalize themselves to fit in with others. This documentation allow different women to tell their ways that the media have slashed them, and allow others to stand up for women. Women portray themselves to fit as the image that has been altered with to get it to look that way. Margaret Cho explains that her show All American Girl was cancelled because she had problems with the network who aired the show because they constantly said was not thin enough. That is a prime example of today's problems with pursuing your dreams as an actor or pursuing your dreams as a model. You have to change your physical features to fit in, and if you do not you won’t get in.
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.
Gender dictates various components of American life: political quarrels, typical company employee hierarchies, social norms, the list continues. This year’s presidential election proves this statement to be true; as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump bump heads against notions of foreign policy and tax reform, American voters have divided themselves into a category of either for or against women’s equality. Trump’s recent rape allegations has portrayed him as sexist, allowing Clinton to make arguments against him and advocate for women’s rights. Besides politics, gender guides child development, teaching children what “roles” both men and women must play in order to be deemed acceptable. This is why the term “CEO”
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...
In Miss Representation movie, Jennifer Siebel Newsom determined how the society and media affected to women these days. There are many countries which judge women that they are not important in society such as Vietnam, China, and even the United States. The media play an important role in society because it helps us to receive the news every day and entertains. But, the ways media portrayed are completely making the negative effects for women. People usually use the media to illustrate that women are weak and they should not be in the same level with men. Also, women couldn’t get into the high position in government because nobody would listen to them. Jennifer Siebel Newsom made this move because she was fearful that her unborn daughter will grow up in the
Looking at the 2011 American film, Miss Representation, written, and directed, by Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The film explores the behaviors in which mainstream media has given and remains to give a widespread of under-representations of women, whose negative images on screen, keep women in a position of weakness, being a constant target of labeling, but worst of all, victims of violent acts. The documentary raises important issues such as women having no voice in today’s society because of the constant emphasis on their body, and body parts, which constantly dehumanizes them and sends out the message that they do not matter as a whole, in their complexity. Furthermore, the effect of their constant and ubiquitous dehumanization that exists in
“97% of everything you know about yourself and about your country comes from the male perspective” (“Miss Representation”).That is according to NBC news anchor Carol Jenkins. This is an indirect example of sexism in our society. Sexism has changed since the 20th century. We’ve gone from women strictly being classified as housewives to women being discriminated against in leadership positions. Much of the discrimination that women face is closely related to issues surrounding body image. What we cannot forget in the year 2014 is who control the ideas that we have about women and leadership: the media. The misrepresentation of women’s power and influence in the media cause many women to have low self-esteem about and can cause them to feel as though they do not deserve a spot at the decision-making tables. Sexism has been around since the beginning of America, in many different forms, but the impacts have increased with the power of the media. One of the ways the media has discriminated against women, is the way they portray women in the workplace.
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 media is a fascinating tool; it can deliver entertainment, self-help, intellectual knowledge, information, and a variety of other positive influences; however, despite its advances for the good of our society is has a particular blemish in its physique that targets young women. This blemish is seen in the unrealistic body images that it presents, and the inconsiderate method of delivery that forces its audience into interest and attendance. Women are bombarded with messages from every media source to change their bodies, buy specific products and redefine their opinion of beauty to the point where it becomes not only a psychological disease, but a physical one as well.
The title Miss Representation emphasizes that the way we portray women in the media is a
The film Missrepresentation, by Jennifer Newsom, is about the underrepresentation of women by the media (2011). The film challenges the viewpoints of media that are constantly depicting females as to being dependent on males. Furthermore, even when females are displayed as lead characters, the plot will ensure that their life’s will surround the life of a male. Examples of these include, a lead female falling in love with her “prince charming” as he saved her from great dangers. We rarely see a female character saving a male in the media (2011). According to the film the media continues to encourage the ideology that a women’s power is associated with her youth, beauty and sexuality, instead of her knowledge and intelligence (2011). The film also provides starling statistics, for instance by the age to 18 78% of females are unhappy with how the look. Also of the 8 million people with eating disord...
For many decades, women have faced inequalities in the workforce. At one point, they were not allowed to work at all. Although women's rights have improved and are now able to work alongside men, they are still treated unfairly. According to the 2012 U.S. Census, women’s earnings were “76.5 percent of men’s” (1). In 2012, men, on average, earned $47,398 and women earned only $35,791. This is when comparing employees where both gender spend the same amount of time working. Not only do women encounter unfairness in work pay, they also face a “glass ceiling” on a promotional basis. This glass ceiling is a “promotion barrier that prevents woman’s upward ability” (2). For example, if a woman is able to enter a job traditionally for men, she will still not receive the same pay or experience the same increase in occupational ability. Gender typing plays a huge role in the workplace. It is the idea that women tend to hold jobs that are low paid with low status. Women are not highly considered in leadership positions because of social construction of gender. Society has given women the role of “caretakers” and sensitive individuals. Therefore, women are not depicted as authoritative figures, which is apparent with the absence of women in leadership roles in companies. Furthermore, sex segregation leads to occupations with either the emphasis of women in a certain job or men in a certain job. In 2009, occupations with the highest proportion of women included “secretary, child care worker, hair dresser, cashier, bookkeeper, etc.” (3). Male workers typically held job positions as construction workers, truck drivers, taxi drivers, etc. (3). Sex segregation represents inequality because the gender composition for these jobs depends on what ...
The media’s way of portraying a woman can be skewed and unrealistic from what reality is. Teenage girls then have a desire for this look or style. In this essay, the three ways I will describe as to why the media can negatively affect a teenage girls body image is by showing unrealistic bodies and women, women whose bodies are desirable by a mass number of people, and lastly not allowing all body types to be equally shown as “attractive.” The pattern is similar for the portrayal of women on television, magazines, and other parts of the media. The way media represents women is for them to be thin-like models and other women on television to be the high standard of “attractiveness” to others.
However, it is evident that the media usually presents and sexualizes women who are “young, fit and beautiful” hence probably creating self esteem issues more than confidence especially in younger women who are religious towards the media’s expectations. This stereotype of being a desired body shape only forces women to meet unattainable perfect physical standards (Gill 2015). The media bombards the youth with gender representations and the types of bodies that are deemed to be attractive. Many teenagers all around the world are desperate to lose weight to be “beautiful”.
Alexandra Scaturchio, in her article “Women in Media” (2008) describes the media’s idea of beauty as superficial. She supports her argument by placing two pictures side-by-side; a picture of a real, normal-looking woman and her picture after it has been severely digitally enhanced. Her purpose is to show young teenage girls that the models they envy for their looks are not real people, but computer designs. She also states, “the media truly distorts the truth and instills in women this false hope because…they will live their lives never truly attaining this ideal appearance”. Scaturchio wants her readers to realize the media’s distorting capabilities and feel beautiful about themselves, even with flaws.