Miss Representation outlines how damaging to girls and women media and culture is, given that it is controlled and designed almost exclusively by men. Damaging images concerning women’s bodies and roles strip girls and women of their autonomy and makes them vulnerable to self-objectification, body dysmorphia and self-image issues, and rape culture – from more covert transgressions like being subjected to unwanted (non-sexual) touch and sexist attitudes, to explicit violence such as sexual assault and coercion.
The title of the documentary lends itself to a few different interpretations, however perhaps the two most significant are: the idea that women’s representation in the media can be boiled down to one prototype or character (i.e. Miss …show more content…
It is stated that women, under the influence of these media images, spend more money on their bodies than on their education.
Additionally, TV and film often represent women as being submissive sexual objects which makes girls feel that they have no sexual agency, which contributes to low self-esteem and makes girls highly vulnerable to sexual violence. Additionally, women are portrayed as being
“catty” competitors to one another, which ultimately provides another advantage to men both
socially and politically; if women are fostering competition against each other, they will not be able to simultaneously combat sexism.
Another problem created by sexist media that disempowers women politically is “self- objectification,” which is when girls and women subscribe to the ideas that are put forth in media that they are to be subservient and curate their image and self-image based on the male agenda.
This self-objectification leads to lowered political efficacy, which in turn discourages women from voting and running for office. The United States is ranked 90th in the world in terms of women in national legislature – in fact, women make up 51% of the U.S. population yet …show more content…
“She speaks well for a woman.” These problems pervade politics from an elementary school level, through local government, all the way up to a national and global level.
Despite the progress that women have made from the 1960s to today, backlash only increases and creates new avenues for itself as women make themselves more visible in legislature. From male commentators referring to female politicians as “sexy,” “cute,” and “hot”
– and conversely, “ugly” – to sexist and racist insults such as referring to Michelle Obama as an
“angry black woman” or sexist, racist, and transphobic political cartoons depicting Michelle
Obama as being a man or an ape; male politicians and news reporters are constantly using attacks on women’s appearance not only to disempower them but also to distract the general public from the political strides that these women have made. Referring to women in office as “sexy,” “hot,” and especially the infantilizing “cute” creates a distance between women in the eyes of the
public, and our conceptions of power which always default to being associated with
The title of the documentary lends itself to a few different interpretations, however perhaps the two most significant are: the idea that women’s representation in the media can be boiled down to one prototype or character (i.e. Miss …show more content…
It is stated that women, under the influence of these media images, spend more money on their bodies than on their education.
Additionally, TV and film often represent women as being submissive sexual objects which makes girls feel that they have no sexual agency, which contributes to low self-esteem and makes girls highly vulnerable to sexual violence. Additionally, women are portrayed as being
“catty” competitors to one another, which ultimately provides another advantage to men both
socially and politically; if women are fostering competition against each other, they will not be able to simultaneously combat sexism.
Another problem created by sexist media that disempowers women politically is “self- objectification,” which is when girls and women subscribe to the ideas that are put forth in media that they are to be subservient and curate their image and self-image based on the male agenda.
This self-objectification leads to lowered political efficacy, which in turn discourages women from voting and running for office. The United States is ranked 90th in the world in terms of women in national legislature – in fact, women make up 51% of the U.S. population yet …show more content…
“She speaks well for a woman.” These problems pervade politics from an elementary school level, through local government, all the way up to a national and global level.
Despite the progress that women have made from the 1960s to today, backlash only increases and creates new avenues for itself as women make themselves more visible in legislature. From male commentators referring to female politicians as “sexy,” “cute,” and “hot”
– and conversely, “ugly” – to sexist and racist insults such as referring to Michelle Obama as an
“angry black woman” or sexist, racist, and transphobic political cartoons depicting Michelle
Obama as being a man or an ape; male politicians and news reporters are constantly using attacks on women’s appearance not only to disempower them but also to distract the general public from the political strides that these women have made. Referring to women in office as “sexy,” “hot,” and especially the infantilizing “cute” creates a distance between women in the eyes of the
public, and our conceptions of power which always default to being associated with