Response to Walzer - Brooke Dinsmore

I think Walzer’s article is very important and gives us a much clearer image of the division of labor within marriages. While there is a lot of discussion of how housework is distributed unequally, this article shows it is not just a matter of time but emotional and mental energy and that ultimately women are devoting far more of it to the home than men. It is clearly visible here that having children is much more strenuous for women than men. I read an article in another sociology class that showed this pattern of women taking on the “invisible work” of managing and worrying is not just something that happens when children are infants but throughout the lifetime of a family. The question that arises is what does this mean for women, men and families? For women I think it shows most clearly why the struggle to have a family and a career is still so relevant. No matter how much time men put in, women are still the ones taking on the true responsibility for the day to day life of the family. As Walzer goes into this is most certainly the result of socialization. Women are taught to assume this burden, to want this burden and men are not.

Throughout this reading I also couldn’t help but think of how much family life could improve for everyone if men engaged in emotional and mental work of parenting as well. The picture of fatherhood that emerges here is just about going through the motions, putting in the time and the physical labor. While these men certainly love their children, they are taught that the way they should express their love is by directing their energies away from the home. What if fathers devoted the same mental and emotional energy to parenting as mothers are taught too? Children would have two parents that were fully involved in their lives and the family would most certainly be a more efficient system. Mothers could truly take a break, could relax from their worries because their husbands could be fully trusted. Women would be enabled to devote more mental and emotional energy to their own selves, to be much healthier human beings, which in turn would be better for their children. And children would most certainly from fuller bonds with their fathers. We should move away from the current definitions of motherhood and fatherhood not just because they hurt women but because they hurt everyone.

Thinking about the Baby-Molly Bienstock

The article "Thinking about the Baby: Gender and Divisions of Infant Care" by Susan Walzer shines a light on a category of life most of us overlook.  This article articulates the problem that resides in thousands of homes across the globe about caregiving and gender roles.  This article reminded me of the article we read before break about the myth of the maternal instinct.  There is no specific gene, characteristic, or quality within women that would allow them to know how to perform as a mother.  And it is just that: a performance.  This article proves how mothers are under much more intense amounts of pressure to perform as the best mother.  Fathers are under much less pressure to worry about their children  or worry about how good of a father they are.  The article also illustrates an interesting point about fathers' lack of pressure to pay attention and worry abut their children because they have far more pressure to be the primary economic provider.  However, this pressure can also translate to a worry in many ways.  The father feels he must support the entire family with his career and this could mean a decreased focus on personal happiness and an increased focus on economic growth, which is a reason I think helps perpetuate unjust gender roles in the business sphere.  Men gain a notion that they must be the best, earn the most, and be the manliest, but that definition blurrs over time when manhood becomes an animalistic path to something non human.  The same way women try to reach an unattainable level of beauty, men try to grasp an outrageously gross amount of money that should actually not be reachable because it only generates close mindedness in a search for the almighty green paper.  
In addition to the already over stressed gender roles that exist in the home, there is another worry that persists for women and their babies.  The article quotes a mother named Eileen who worries about her "special relationship" with her son Jimmy.  Eileen has probably already called a sitter, worried extensively about her son during her occasional dinner out, and worried about coming home to see if Jimmy doesn't want the sitter to leave.  Eileen said this was devastating to her as a mother because she felt Jimmy rejected the special relationship they have as mother and son.  "If she was not the most special person to him, she was inadequate as a mother."  The mothers emotions are driven by insecurities while the father's is driven by fun!  The relationship between children and parents gains tension at the earliest of ages and ceases to change as the child grows.
The worries seem to be endless for both mothers and fathers, but for very different reasons.  All we can know for sure is that there is no right way to be a parent, but everyone always thinks they are failing at something that is supposed to be instinctual but is actually purely and nonsensically socially constructed.

Thinking about the Baby- Ellie Merrell

Does anyone remember the movie Cheaper by the Dozen? In this movie, the father of a family of twelve kids gets a new job in a different town. He uproots the family and moves an hour away to be closer to his place of work. As soon as the family moves in, the mother discovers that her book is going to be published and that the publishers are requiring her to tour for a week, advertising the book. Essentially, once the mother leaves the house, all hell breaks lose. The father doesn’t know who likes what type of lunch, he forgets to pick his kids up from school, and he doesn’t have time to satiate the emotional needs of his kids. Ultimately, the mother is forced to end her tour, thus jeopardizing the publishing of her book, in order to fix her family at home.

As I read “Thinking about the Family”, I couldn’t help but think about Cheaper by the Dozen. The father relocating the family in order to chase a job seemed to exemplify Walzer’s comments on the power that fathers gain from their economic responsibilities. Additionally, the father’s inability to manage the more detailed facets of parenting once his wife departs, like making the right lunches or keeping track of his kids’ schedules, indicates that he was never familiar with managing this kind of mental labor for his family. Finally, the expectation that the wife will put her career on hold in order to return to the family, rather than that the father quit his job to take care of the kids, supports Walzer’s observation that the wife always belongs more to the private world of home and family than the husband.

One thing I found particularly interesting about the article was Walzer’s suggestion that a lot of marital tension stems from different ideas about who should be grateful to whom. This makes so much sense. And, unfortunately, I think the only way that this tension can be diffused is if society reevaluates its expectations of mothers and fathers. We are at a weird point right now where women are more firmly entrenched in the public sphere and more aware of their right to equity. However, we still have a very traditional and dichotomized view of family responsibilities. These contradicting views and expectations of women are causing tension between the sexes.

Thinking about the Baby- Tina Seretta

The article thinking about the Baby: Gender and Divisions of Infant care touches on the social construct of gender roles as it relates to the rearing of children.  “Taking responsibility for babies is socially constructed as ‘women’s work’”.  Society perpetuates the idea that women are primary caretakers of their children. This concept has evolved and become so strong because of many different factors. Women tend to worry about their children more frequently. Mothers are constantly concerned about their children’s health and well-being, while fathers tend to be more focused on the economic issues. I agree with this but at the same time I feel that fathers also worry more than the article described, they just don’t necesarly express these feelings openly. For example, I feel that fathers are very protective over their daughters. Growing up my dad was always very protective over certain things. Rather than being obsessed with my health and worrying about doctor’s appointments my dad was more concerned about me being out too late. He always wanted me to check in when I was out late and driving. His worries were just different than my mothers. Still today my dad is always concerned about my safety while my mom is more worried about my health and well-being. I think this would have been an interesting aspect that the article could have explored more. Another personal example that also matches my theory is when my dad took me to the hospital. I got injured in a basketball game and my mom was out of town. My dad had to rush me to the hospital. The whole time we were there I could tell my dad felt uncomfortable, he did not know all the details of my past medical history and he even made a comment that eluded to the fact he wished my mother was around. I have always noticed differences in my parents gendered parenting styles. Society labels women as the caretakers of the home and kids. Mothers are expected to always be concerned about their kids, and if they don’t worry they are looked upon as bad mothers. 

One of the worst representations of parenthood is the MTV show 16 and pregnant. The show trashes father figures; there are no good representations of responsible caring boyfriends/ male figures present.  All the girls end up being the primary caretakers, and even they struggle. The girls struggle with motherhood simply because they are so young and have a difficult time transforming from a lively social 16 year old lifestyle to the pressures of being a mother. The show is a terrible representation of parenthood, and too many young girls watch. 

Thinking About the Baby - Mike Murgo

In Susan Walzer's Thinking about the Baby, she examines the gendered roles of parenthood and the care-taking imbalances between the parents. Firstly, she suggests that mothers worry about their babies because fathers do not. Fathers do not typically think about their children while they are at work or doing other things, and someone needs to care for the child, so it is left to the person who birthed it - the mother. Why is worrying associated with the mother, though? Walzer suggests that it is an integral part of taking care of a baby, as it evokes the scheduling of doctor appointments, babyproofing, and changes in the baby's diet. Moreover, there is a connection between physically caring for the baby and thoughts that reinforce this care - worrying more correlates to doing more. Additionally, mothers tend to be self-conscious about others' perceptions of their parenting. People tend not to think, "That's a good mother," when they see a good mother, but they do tend to think, "That's a bad mother," when they see a mother whose parenting they do perceive as inadequate. Mothers are worried about how others evaluate them as mothers, especially given the social script that mothers are the primary caretakers of the baby. Fathers, on the other hand, are given more slack by society. They are not expected to do all that a mother does in raising a child, nor do they actually do it. Fathers may feel that they are putting in equal work in raising a child, but in reality, mothers tend to be the managers of the required care-taking tasks. Mothers are typically the ones to ask the father to change the diaper or give the baby a bath; they have the extra burden of delegating the work, thus adding extra "mental labor," as Walzer puts it. Considering that their task of baby care if often the mother's ultimate responsibility, mothers become disempowered economically as the fathers tend to work the most.

"She worries a lot. I'm probably too easygoing, but she makes sure he goes to the doctor, makes sure he has fluoride, makes sure he has all of his immunizations. She's hyper vigilant to anytime he might be acting sick. She's kind of that way herself. I kid her about being a hypochondriac. She makes sure he gets to bed on time, makes sure he's eating enough, whereas I'm a little more lackadaisical on that." This account from an actual father represents the general mood of fathers in America. The mother worries about doing most of the work, while the father's job tends to be to tell her not to worry. I know in my personal life, this is how I was raised. My mother was always on top of everything. When I asked my dad a question, I would be answered with, "Ask your mother." Thinking back on life, I was raised almost completely by my mother with little influence from my father. She is surely the person who shaped who I am today. Walzer's analysis of economic disempowerment on the side of the mother is also true in my family's case, as my mother stayed home to care for my siblings and I until I was 5 years old, leaving my father to bring home the most money. Having this advantage, he kept her in the dark financially - even when he was out of work for extended periods of time - and it took years for her to discover how bad the financial situation really was. Walzer's analysis of parental power dynamics were very much alive in my household.

The family is a largely imbalanced and gendered institution, and I can't help but wonder how parents who know of this fact change their behaviors to make care-taking more fair and equal. I also cannot ignore how the biological implications of parenthood, which I had been hoping Walzer's article would discuss more of, play into the roles of parents. Mothers not only carry and birth the baby, but they need to stay with it in order to breastfeed. This naturally gives the mother more work than the father, and thus often times leads the mother to stay home while the father works. Should the fathers be stepping up their game and doing even more than what they perceive as "equal" when you factor the necessity of breastfeeding into the equation, even if they contribute most of their time to the family as the major breadwinner? It's all very tricky, especially when you cannot easily quantify the amount of labor given to the baby in order to divide it 50/50. How will you know when the father is doing just as much "mental work" as the mother, for example? And if one parent is not acting as the "planner" of work, delegating it amongst the two, how will the work get done? Parents will need to sit down together and plan tasks to complete the work without delegation. Making parenthood fair is a complex responsibility, and I am interested to find how it will play itself out if I ever have kids with another man one day, essentially stripping the mother from the equation.

Garrett Brown Response to "Thinking About the Baby"

As I read “Thinking about the Baby: Gender and Divisions of Infant Care”, I wasn’t necessarily surprised by any of the points that she discussed in the paper.  I haven’t done any research on the topic but Walzer seemed to really present points that should be obvious, at least in my opinion.  Maybe my lack of being surprised speaks to how society’s norms of infant and child care are so ingrained in my mind.  I think this is what Walzer is trying to make readers realize. There is definitely an unbalanced nature when it comes to taking care of babies and it stems from societal expectations. And that unbalanced nature is therefore decreasing marital satisfaction between heterosexual couples.
I always found it interesting that worrying is associated with motherhood.  While reading the section I thought about my mother and the mothers of close friends. The one thing they all have in common is being anxious about their children, even when they are past teenage years.   It’s undoubtedly something that apart of motherhood but I always thought it was unconsciously apart of parenthood in general.  I mean aren’t all parents suppose to worry about their children?  Then why is it in our society that this is something exclusively for women?  Furthermore, why are men simply expected to comment on their partner’s “concern” as overdoing and then balance it out with a laid back attitude.  
One of my favorite moments of the paper is what Walzer discusses under the headline “Mental Baby Care and Marital Changes”.  It really provides a great discussion on the imbalance that exist between a man and women when it comes to baby care and how it can affect the marriage.  Two keys words she uses in this sections are recognize and support.  Walzer talks about how one woman in her sample group felt as though he husband didn’t seem to recognize her thoughts or feelings about how important it is to be a good mother.  She has been advised by the baby help books not to tell him her true feelings and to just entice him into understanding but that obviously wasn’t enough.  Walzer also touches on support and men are praised when they are seen as doing their partner a service when they help in the caretaking of the babies but don’t return that praise to their wives.  These two points are connected because it basically saying that since men have this “freedom” that it easy for them to not recognize their wives true thoughts which leads to not providing them with the necessary emotional support.  

Jenn Hyslip Response to "Thinking About the Baby"

The article “Thinking About the Baby: Gender and Divisions of Infant Care” by Susan Walzer opened my eyes to a topic that I never spend much time thinking about – how the mental labor that is required when raising a baby enhances the already socially constructed gender roles. The first category that Walzer touches on is the act of worrying. What struck me most was the statement, “worrying was such an expected part of mothering that the absence of it might challenge one’s definition as a good mother” and how I am partially guilty of believing this. (Walzer, 221) As an occasional viewer of the popular reality television show, Teen Mom, I have become more likely to “root for” the mothers that are always by their kids, and shy away from paying attention to the mothers who pawn their children off to the grandparents. Additionally, I end up adoring the fathers that do “worry”. However, the sad truth is how fans enjoy the fathers that “worry” about their children because it is so out of the ordinary for a father to “worry” at such a young age. As Walzer mentions, “there is a much greater threat to their social identities…” (Walzer, 230)

The second element of the division of mental labor is processing the information. Walzer goes on to argue that the assumption that mothers will do the work is highlighted by the expert advice mothers to-be are given. The ultimate guide has been the book, What To Expect When You’re Expecting. It is supposed to be a pregnant woman’s reading before going to sleep and should never leave their bedside table, while the remote control doesn’t leave the man’s side of the bed. Another element that I think is associated with information is the cultural phenomenon of the baby shower. A baby shower is a party thrown for the mother to-be and acts as an excuse for females to get together and present her with gifts and humorous games that mock the dreaded life of motherhood. The soon to be father is expected to stop by, say hello, and leave – not participating in the celebration at all. It almost acts as a correlation to the slight effort males are expected to put into the baby.

The third section of Walzer’s article is managing the division of labor. She delves into how mothers are almost burdened with the responsibility of trying to encourage the father to become more involved. In a way, I beg to differ. I believe that a lot of times, mothers become controlling of the actions taken, and the fathers remain passive and let the mother “do what she does best”. The well-known argument is that it is the maternal instinct for mother’s to know what to do and because she is the one who is physically carrying the baby, she develops a connection. Whether this is scientifically true, I believe that because it tends to be the mother who is the central figure in the first bath, the first diaper, etc., etc., they don’t bother dealing with the father making a mistake.  I can think of so many examples in the media where a father is deemed a “bad father” when they don’t financially support the child. In the reality television show, “Real Housewives of Orange Country”, one father is exploited for not paying child support and thus is deemed an awful father. While the reasons of skipping out on child support remain unanswered, it solidifies what Walzer says of the father being the breadwinner. Many times in television shows, if there is a stay at home father in the show, he acts as a comic relief, as this is not ordinary role. Finally, another issue that I think is interesting is how the roles change in many households as the children grow up. As soon as the child becomes a teenager, the mother is checked out, and the father assumes the role of the protector. What is so interesting about this is that it enhances what we have talked about in class many times – the male taking on the physically dominant figure in the household. 

Thinking about the Baby response by Melissa Monsalve

    Walzer's "Thinking about the Baby" article brings up very obvious and not so obvious aspects about the imbalance of responsibilities between men and women in terms of caring for a baby. The more obvious imbalance would be that of the physical tasks for the baby, which women perform most of. The less obvious imbalance is that of the worrying about the baby.
     One point that Walzer brings up in the article that I found quite interesting was about how women do not see their requirements as mothers and wives of a household as oppressive when compared to their oppressions outside the private setting. When you really think about it, the role of mother and wife is a highly oppressive role. The woman becomes dependent on their significant other because they are the ones expected to make sacrifices in their lives in order to be a good mother and wife. This then leads to make the man the boss, causing the woman to lose any sense of power. Women then may feel like they need to be a mother, a GOOD mother specifically, to reclaim some power lost in the private setting. In reality, motherhood acts in an opposite manner. Women are put down by the man of the house.
     Why is this oppression not more obvious? The answer, to me, seems to be in the fact that society suggests that it is natural for a women to just give herself up to motherhood and wife-hood. This is a ridiculous claim. It's like saying that because we as humans can, and are built to reproduce, that we all want to have kids, when in reality some people don't have any interest in doing so. And if motherhood is so "natural", why all the parenting books and why isn't there some natural tendency in men to be fathers? I mean, after all men and women are of the same biological templates, with only one chromosome and hormones determining main differences, so why not?
     The whole concept of worrying is the less obvious part to me. It's quite interesting really, because we don't immediately think of the burden that it is to have to worry about a child and how there is a lack of sharing of that burden. The general trend is that men worry about making the money and women worry about the baby and the house to make a happy home. Its also funny how the worrying is reinforced. For example, what happens when you know for a fact that the baby is in fact perfectly fine? It's healthy, full, sleeping well, with a clean diaper on. What's left to do? Does the mother continue to worry? If she doesn't worry, is that a bad reflection on her mothering? I mean, if the baby is fine, that should reflect well on her seeing as she has fulfilled the baby's needs. Also, in terms of the fathers, I find it difficult to believe that they do not worry about their kids. Sure, the child was not birthed by them, but there has to be something in them that instills some type of worry if it does the same in women. The problem is that women are pressured into being a good mother, whereas for men, if doesn't matter if they're good fathers or not. All that matters are the numbers and that's that.

“Thinking About the Baby” post by. Ryland Hormel

While reading “Thinking About the Baby” by Walzer, I couldn’t help but think about how it compares to my parents.  Beginning with the section of the article about worrying, I knew that this all too well applied to my parents.  My mom is constantly worrying about me when I am home, but I do not feel that she worries as much when I am at school.  I believe this is her ability to control when I am at home and knowing what I am doing.  When Walzer states that mothers feel that worrying is part of being a good mother I wonder if that is due to the fact that they have the ability to control.  For example, if my mom tells me to brush my teeth every night when I am younger, it shows that she always thinks about me doing that and worries about the health of my mouth.  Regardless of my own decision to brush my teeth every night, she would still tell me too.  So this leads me to believe that the ability to control and tell your child what to do reinforces the need to worry.  Aside from my own mother, this part of the article reminded me perfectly of my friend’s mom and dad.  I was in Barcelona with them two summers ago and one night before my buddy and I went out, his mom broke down crying.  She was crying because she was worried about letting us go out.  Meanwhile my friends dad was sitting in a chair just watching this all go on and looked completely un-phased with us going out.  

The second part Walzer explains is about “Managing the Divisions of Labor”.  I was most intrigued by this section.  From what Walzer shows, it sounds like the Mothers do most of the work, and the only times fathers do the work is when their partner asks them too.  Not saying the fathers do no work or do not want to do the work, they just simply do not do it until they are asked.  This is very surprising to me.  All of the quotes Walzer used shed a lot of light on this area.  The one quote that stood out to me was: “I do diapers. Joel can't handle it well. You know, he does diapers too, but not if there's poop in them.”  This seems funny to me.  Aren’t men supposed to be the ones that can handle the nasty stuff and not women?  Certainly it seems that way when society looks at it. So when it comes to changing poopy diapers why are the roles reversed? 

John Gallagher - Thinking About the Baby

I found this article to be an interesting look inside parenting dynamics and how mothers and fathers each have a different and particular role.  Nothing too out of the ordinary jumped out at me as I read this, as I agreed with most of the facts and statements throughout.  The first section, which discussed the worrying factor in parents, shed an interesting light on why mothers worry.  I thought it was interesting that Walzer thought that mothers worried only because fathers do not.  This section then went on to mention that mothers will go the entire day without letting their baby leave their mind, while fathers do not necessarily think about their children their entire work day.  Like I said above, this doesn’t jump out at me as ridiculous and far fetched, but it was interesting to see some of the quotes on display by Walzer, and facts to back it up.  It doesn’t seem to me like there is a problem in our society in terms of father’s not caring/worrying enough.  In most households fathers are expected to put food on the table and do the bulk of the work outside the home. 

Another part of the article that I found interesting was the concept of whether or not parents thought they were doing a poor job or good job raising their kid.  One mother said that she always is worrying about what everyone else is going to think.  I have definitely noticed this with some of my friends’ mothers growing up as a kid.   The sense of self-consciousness in mothers can be very visible I have noticed as I have gotten older.  One of my neighbors who is now a single mother with a younger boy around age thirteen, is always making sure she comes off as a “good parent.”  I have noticed this the past three years.  This mom will try to make it apparent to other parents in the neighborhood that she is up to par with her parenting obligations, and will even express her “good parenting” towards me and my sister by bragging about what she allows her son to do. (etc…) I find it funny, and as I read this article I was able to see a real life connection.  Walzer’s article helped put parenting into perspective for me.

"Thinking about the Baby" Response by Emily Hunter

“Thinking about the Baby: Gender and Divisions of Infant Care” by Walzer Response by Emily Hunter

 During the final class before spring break we discussed Hollingworth’s article exploring the devices used to impel women to have and raise children. One theme that arose out of this discussion was the idea that a woman’s self-worth can be determined based on whether or not she is a mother, and if she is, whether or not she is a good mother. This same theme can be seen numerous times in Walzer’s article. The worth of a woman being defined through motherhood is first noted when Walzer explained that many mothers worry because they believe they are supposed to be worrying, and that worrying about their child means they are good mothers. This “need” for worrying leads many women to feel they are not fulfilling their role as mothers because they are not constantly thinking about their children. This constant worrying about being a “good” mother begins even before a woman has a child. Personally, I have had numerous discussions with friends regarding who will make a “good” mother and who will not. I (and many of my friends) have already begun to question whether we have what it takes to be successful as mothers. I now wonder whether these questions begin to arise at this age because women move into a new stage of life in which the defining factors of femininity are changing. Yet the worrying mothers experience is not simply based around the child’s health and wellness, but also around how the child’s actions reflect upon the parenting of the mother. Again, this “mother worry” (as Walzer describes it) indicates that women are extremely self-aware as to how they are seen as mothers, and gain or lose self-worth based on how successful they are as mothers.

 One aspect that Walzer did not explore in great detail involves looking at the worries of fathers. Throughout the article Walzer explained that the fathers do not experience the same type of worries that mothers do and the fathers actually take a more laid back role in the family. Yet, Walzer also explains that this may be because society demands that fathers be the primary financial support for the family and for this reason fathers must dedicate more time to work than to the family. I feel that fathers most likely worry about bringing in money as much as mothers worry about the children, but because the two parents worry about different things, tensions may arise within the marriage.

 I also found the section on division of labor within the household to be both humorous and thought provoking. For years I have listened as my mother asked my father why he can’t seem to do any housework unless he is told to. While my parents split many of the household tasks, cleaning has been something that my father does not choose to do without being ordered. The more I thought about this, the more I realized that my mother has always been the one who decided who and what needed to be done in the house while my father and I simply waited for orders. Thinking about this division of labor in the context of the article, I can now understand my mother’s frustration arises from the pressure she feels to keep the house clean with little to no help from other members of the family. Not only does the lack of help frustrate her, but numerous times she has hinted at the fact that my father gets to participate in many physical activities he loves, while she cannot because after her day job she is responsible for cooking dinner and straightening up the house. I always tell her to simply make time for herself, but now I see it may not be as easy as I believe. It is possible that my mother feels the pressure from society to conform to proper household roles and thus does not have as much freedom as my father or me. I therefore believe it is extremely likely that these feelings of oppression mothers experience based on family dynamics have the possibility to create frustration and tension within a marriage.

Jae's Post on Miss Representation

It was interesting to see how the media influences women.The media “teaches women or rather tells women how to use their bodies, how to look, and how to act. Young women see music videos and how the women in them are portrayed and then you have various magazines showing women bodies. Further more those bodies are skinny and “sexy”. The media creates the image of how women are suppose to be and then girls and later on young women try to make themselves into that image and it is very stressful. Women have to be beautiful and skinny and everything that they see all around them in order to in a sense fit into society.

It was also interesting to see the message of how women are not equal to men. It always interest me some women and men think they are equal to each other because they can both vote and work in the same companies. However we see that they are still not paid as much as men even in the same positions as them. Women are inferior to men in societies eyes. Most individuals would think that in this society pressure is put on men but in reality it is on women because men are expected to succeed and born with “privilege” that women are not.

Miss Representation Response - Brooke Dinsmore

Of all the documentaries about media I have watched, MissRepresentation is by far the most powerful. What the movie manages to do, and to do really well, is not just articulate the problem with representations of women in media but to also articulate the why and the why it matters. I thought one of the reasons the movie was so powerful movie was the juxtaposition of real, strong women with media images. This begins in the intro with beautiful black and white images of women like Barbra Steinem and Hillary Clinton with color images of horrible images from the media. Throughout the movie the story is narrated by women, real women of all ages and races, from all walks of life. And their realness, their strength, their flesh and bones and humanity is to me what made this movie so powerful. To switch from Rachel Maddow to images of Playboy models, from Nancy Pelosi to Desperate Housewives, is to understand the real tragedy of media images of women. As the movie shows these images are not real and they fall so horribly, tragically short of what real women are, of all their strength and beauty. These images are women minus their humanity and it is so much more apparent when you see so many representations of women who are fully human.

The consequences of these media images are made drastically clear. They are the internal, the pain and suffering women go through, the eating disorders, the self-harming, the feelings of inadequacy. And they are the external, the struggles faced by women politicians to be taken seriously. These things are made so beautifully clear, and so painfully meaningful. The movie makes you really feel the consequences of the toxic nature of media images. And it forces you to understand the complexity of the why. To face the systematic nature of the problem – the government’s role, the role of corporations and capitalism. The complexity is made clear. The movie also makes it clear there are no easy answers. But it does provide one answer, and that is empowerment and community among women. When at the end of the movie, a female politician told a group of aspiring young women that we must come together, say Hallelujah  sister, whatever gets you through, it resonated in a way that was almost painful. If we as women must recognize each other’s humanity and create a community, then I believe that we do have a chance at changing the culture. 

Jenn Hyslip Miss. Representation Post

            The premise of the documentary Miss. Representation is to provide the viewer with the perspective on how the media depicts woman, particularly the lack of positive representations of women. Right off the bat, I was sucked into the documentary because it was produced in 2011, meaning it truly was about my generation. Even though the documentary’s we watch in class are informative and eye opening, they also appear to be outdated.  There is an extreme underrepresentation of women in the media and this documentary looks to start a movement in the right direction. To be honest, I was not familiar with many of the women interviewed other than Katie Couric and a few other actresses. I guess this goes to speak to the fact that media does not provide us with images, but also many of the female leaders are well known in the world of U.S. government and politics – something that I do not keep up with or know much about. It’s always been a “guy” major to me, so it’s sad to say that I am one of the people that conform to the media images.

            One of the things that struck me was how the media is both the message and the messenger. Through television shows, the media provides us with images of woman’s confining role in society by what they depict and how often it airs on TV. Miss. Representation gives me a new perspective and source to delve into for my research paper topic on the message reality TV sends to men and women. Such shows as I Want A Famous Face and Extreme Makeover, force images of what is acceptable and unacceptable to society. Other ideas that stood out for me and made me think was the idea that when girls are little they always aspire to be the President of the United States. While I don’t think I was one of those girls (I did want to be the President of my Beanie Baby club though), I knew plenty of girls who wanted to be. However, when asked during middle school years, girls are reluctant to say they want to be President. The gap is outstanding. Lastly, there was one interview with a high school student who explained her opinion on why women compete. Her answer was that when one girls looks at the girl sitting next to her and she is getting good grades or succeeding in some other way, the girl gets frustrated and wants to beat her and in turn does not support her competitors success. While I think this is completely true, I also believe that this exists in the world of masculinity as well. However, the way our society is constructed, men are just given more opportunities to succeed in numbers. Overall, I think this documentary is pretty amazing and can be utilized in a positive way during our generation.