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 Even though the documentary’s we watch in class are informative and eye opening, they also appear to be outdated.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.