Miss Representation conveys that media is derogative to the most powerful women in the United States. People learn more from the media than any other source because it is the message and messenger. Americans devote about 10 hours and 39 minutes daily to consuming media (Howard). The media’s misrepresentation of women in movies, television shows, and advertisements negatively shapes politics, our national discourse, children’s inquisitive minds, and ultimately society. The danger behind these stereotyped images of women is that their effect is subconscious, meaning we slowly become accustomed to a sexist portrayal of women without even immediately realizing it. To cease our unrealistic, prejudiced expectations of women, a culture change is necessary. Early on, adolescents get the message that a woman’s worth is mostly based on her looks, not her intelligence. This norm is harmful to girls because they end up comparing themselves to an impossible standard and feel ashamed when they cannot achieve it. Conversely, boys end up judging real women much more harshly and start treating them like objects. Because adolescents have different interpretive and emotional abilities from the rest of society, they are a particularly vulnerable group of people. They are often exposed to the things they see in movies, television shows, and video games with little to no mediation. The director of the movie, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, worries about the pressure her daughter will feel to be like
“Miss Representation” is a film released in January 2011, which shows the various ways the media represent women. In the short trailer it starts by showing quotes, various statistics, and input of various influential women, on how women are misrepresented in our society. Some statistics include on how women are vastly outnumbered by men in leading positions in the workplace and in government. It also claims that the media only uses women’s sexualized image for money, not because it is what consumers want to see in advertisements. For example, in a video explaining oversexualizing in young children Geena Davis comments, “…in G-rated animated films the female characters wear the same amount of sexually revealing
Throughout today’s society, media contributes to almost everyone’s daily life. From informative news channels to comical television shows, media proves to be effective in advertisement, releasing messages and informing the audience. Although media proves to be wildly effective in advertising, releasing messages and informing the audience, periodically destructive and misleading messages are provided to the audience and directly influencing women. Cultural critics widely agree that media tends to negatively influence women and all the critics point to research which supports the belief that women are portrayed as subordinate to men, having no
“Miss Representation” is a documentary film that is made by Jennifer Seibel Newsom. This film talks about many issues from the roles of females in politics, and the ways in which media negatively impacts women. The film examines how the media have contributed to the underrepresentation of women. Therefore, eventually, the film is persuading people to be open-minded, and study how media affects our perception, judgment, and behaviors. The targeted audience of this film is all people who live in America. People should be convinced to change their mind about stereotypes on women. Jennier effectively convinces the audience that the mainstream media has mainly contributed to the under-representation of women through the use of statements claimed
The Miss Representation documentary film by Jennifer Newsom explores how media contributes to the under-representation of women in influential positions. This message is portrayed by delivering content through media and technology as well as advertising partial and/or often degrading interpretations of women. The consequences are becoming more and more dreadful. In today’s world, composed of a million stations, people will tend to do more and more shocking things to break through the crowds. They resort to violent, sexually offensive, or demeaning images. Jean Kilbourne, EdD, filmmaker, Killing Us Softly Author and Senior Scholar Wellesley Center’s for Women states, that “it creates a climate in which
Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s documentary, Miss Representation, shows that the media’s impact on the American discourse of women’s bodies, women in power, and the same standards of what women should be. Newsom effectively convinces the audience of Miss Representation that how mainstream media contributes to the misrepresentation of women in influential positions by having limited portrayals of women through the use of interviews from influential people, several statistics, and appealing to emotional sense.
The Netflix documentary Miss Representation by Jennifer Siebel Newsom explores how the media contributes to influence the young girls and boys in America. Every day in America we are showed this unrealistic look of what the so-called perfect image of women is supposed to be from the TV shows we watch, the movies we see, to the magazines we read, to the online social media outlets we visit. This documentary shows the negative effects it's having on teenage boys and girls in America, Miss Representation interweaves between the stories of teenage girls, telling their own experiences and how the media has portrayed the image of women to them. They share their stories from pressures they feel they have to live up too from how the media shows them
In Miss Representation, many female actresses, news anchors, politicians, directors and producers talk about how females suffer a lot of social, political and economic inequalities in today’s society. There are double standards against women in magazines, on TV, in movies, the news, politics, and the workplace. The media is an influential part of modern culture. When women are portrayed as objects for men to use -- never as the protagonist or president -- and when female news anchors are objectified, this will cause girls of all ages to begin viewing themselves as objects. Girls grow up in a world where their voice does not count; where our culture does not embrace them in all of their diversities, where
women that sends the wrong message to young girls and boys. After watching this documentary,
Miss Representation, the 2011 documentary about how the mainstream media depicts women, and how that depiction is partially responsible for the reason why so few women hold positions of power in the United States. Miss Representation provides refresher course in feminist politics, a reminder that, even as much progress as women have made, men still hold most positions of power in both politics and media. That things are unlikely to change until we reshape the minds of men and women in America. It is also focused on the sexualization of women in the media, and how women are objectified as sexual objects for men or targeted in the media and being fat shamed by tabloid magazines. While this is true, the film is biased because it is produced, written,
“People learn more from media than any other single source of information” (Missrepresentation). This quote exemplifies how society learns and creates their standards about people, places, and things. All sources and mediums of media impact billions of lives every day. The media holds this power over society and it’s time to change that; especially when it comes to the media’s view of women. Women are constantly being misrepresented. This misrepresentation of women in the media is negatively impacting America by corrupting both the youth and adults. This is occurring because of the hyper-sexualization of women, wrongly portraying women in leadership positions, and creating stereotypes of women in movies and television.
The documentary “Miss Representation” deals with and discusses the sexualization of women within the media. It showcases everyone from movie stars to political leaders, and broadcasters to fifth graders. With such a wide range of women being showcased in the documentary, it goes on to prove that all women (and men), are affected in some way by this major problem within our media. The documentary showcases the sexualization of women in the media, the lack of powerful and independent women role models in the media, and the constant advertisements of sexual women throughout the world.
After viewing Miss Representation, I was filled with anger, frustration, and sorrow at the discriminating portrayal of women highlighted by popular media and culture. I find this topic very thought provoking and realize that this topic is always going to be controversial and highly disputed. Women are often characterized in the media in roles traditionally given by society, portrayed as submissive and passive, mothers or sexual objects. The film paints the impact of mass media on the idea of “Ideal Beauty” for women, through movies, magazines, television shows and video games. The media has greatly impacted the thoughts and opinions, which is seen as the norm by societies where gender equality is far from reality. Miss Representation discusses the aspect of the female roles in politics and leadership. Our society is governed by the immense power of the mass media and the media has the potential to reverse this concept as it has imposed it. The current message that our young men and women receive is that a “woman’s value and power lie in her youth, beauty, and sexuality, and not in her capacity as a leader.” The whole idea of "Ideal Beauty" has numerous harmful outcomes. The film debates about how women have made great advances in leadership in the last few decades. It remarks how the United States is still 90th in the world for women in terms of nationwide legislatures, women hold only 3% of positions in mainstream media, and 65% of women and girls are
Miss Representation, directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom and Kimberlee Acquaro, is a documentary that discussed the misrepresentation of women in America. The film has gathered a whole cast of empowered women from the media including Katie Couric, Gloria Steinem, Margaret Cho and many more female journalists, authors, directors and actors. The purpose of Miss Representation is to expose the unfair depiction of women and hopefully make a change in the way we look at the media. The film shows stories of both famous and non famous women and how the misrepresentation of women in the media has affected their lives.
Miss representation, a documentary film produced by Jennifer Siebel Newsom and based on sexism in American society and the media, is outlined to inform the audience about the problems women face in the media field. This documentary film paints an ungrateful appreciation towards women who give their time and devotion to the media industry. As the documentary film “Miss Representation” discusses various issues of gender inequality such as the lack of women in the political field which impacts women in the media drastically. The documentary “Miss Representation” elucidates how Jennifer Siebel Newsom the producer persuades the audience to surmise how
Language is a system of communication which consists of a set of sounds and written symbols which are used by the people of a particular country or region for talking or writing. It is considered as an art because when used it able to help a person develop or create a certain picture in the mind. Language being an artifact of culture means that it is an interesting thing that is created by the people. It is an aspect of their way of life of the people. It also helps in development of the people as writers and intellects. As a culture it is a people’s way of life and therefore the impact it has to human beings cannot be under looked.