Miss Representation- Tina Seretta

The documentary Miss Representation was just another video that reinforces the high standards that all media sources set for women. The media, TV, magazines, music videos, and advertisements are unbelievably detrimental to our sense of self. Women are taught that their bodies are their only attribute. They are simply sexual objects. “There is no appreciation for women intellectuals”. These messages are being displayed to girls and women daily. Thus, we grow up learning to care what we look like; the media puts an extreme emphasis on the importance of our appearance. Women are held to such high standards of beauty and even though they may try to ignore these messages, many are so normalized and subliminal that it’s impossible to avoid.

            My friend’s mom is in the world of sports entertainment. She is on TV and in the public eye regularly.  The part in the movie where Sarah Palin is asked if she has breast implants reminded me of a similar situation that I witnessed. My friend’s mom was once at a basketball game, one of the player’s mothers asked if she had gotten a nose job. My friend’s mom felt awkward and had no idea what to say. After taking a moment to process the situation, my friend’s mom answered: NO, I did not get a nose job, I never have and I never will.  This is an exact example of how beauty is so vitally important. There is always a pressure for her too look good, and people clearly notice. 

Response to Miss Representation by Dakota Peschel

Miss Representation is a fantastic documentary which highlights the startling inconsistencies and discriminations that exist between women and men in contemporary society. Paying special attention to politics and the double standards that women are subjected to in the world today, this documentary aimed to point out the flaws that consist and how women need to be strong in order to fix them. Whether it be body image issues, fashion disasters, or femininity, girls of all ages are subject to the constant pressure the media places on all women, whether they be celebrities or political leaders, which in turn causes a new generation to be image obsessed.

Powerful women are seen portrayed negatively because they threaten the white, male heterosexual power scheme that dominates our society today. Kids see these images of women in power getting media coverage covering their outfits and come to understand that vanity is more important than politics. They can see women politicians getting heckled over the most ridiculous things, whether it be breast implants or household chores they “should” be doing. This discourages women from becoming politicians; they feel that as women, being pretty and obsessing over their personal image is more important than making a difference in the world. The filmmakers make a point to stress the fundamentally bad image and objectification that this nation's media places on women in general.

Women are constantly upheld to the highest standard of beauty, even if it means photoshopping models in their pictures. Disturbing images of a models being photoshopped skinny are apparently common place, and when the actual image of their figure is compared side by side, the results are astonishing. Young women are seeing these incredibly fake images and fake standards of beauty, and they feel inadequate. The magazine ads are then placed in order to engender insecurities in these young women, and in order for them to feel adequate, they suggest that they must purchase their product. Advertising is quite an evil industry, as it essentially preys on everyone's insecurities in order to sell products.

In the end, the main message that was sent out is that our society is still incredibly biased to males. Males have most of the power, get paid more, and are less apt to conform to the standard image of masculinity, although in some ways there are more pressures on them to succeed. Women need to be educated to lead, and this documentary aims to point out the flaws within our society that bring women down.

John Gallagher Response Miss Respresentation

After watching the documentary Miss Representation I was very alarmed to see some of the statistics along with how men and women are portrayed in our society. The film helped put into perspective what most women go through throughout their lives, and allowed me to look at myself in a different light. First off Americans are far too much engulfed in television, magazine, movies, and pop culture in general.  This is why people (women in particular) are so concerned about their appearance because they feel the need to keep up. The documentary talked about how early girls consume themselves in movies and television.  While we have touched on this concept in class readings, seeing this documentary, like I said, put it all in perspective for me.

Like Keith said in his response, I have never really taken the time to think or really care about my appearance, weight, or complexion.  The saddest part is that women are doing this to appeal to men.  While at the same time, men are still “higher in society” in terms of positions at work etc.  I cannot wrap my head around why this is still an ongoing issue.  Women are portrayed in society and valuable in society for their looks and appearance.  Many of the women in the United States may be over looked even though they are smart and motivated individuals.  Society is more inclined to pay attention to the women that appeal to men and have “good looks.” I hope this changes for the betterment of all people in our society.  Once this culture changes, as I hope it does, I think our society will become more productive and less self-conscious. 

Alexa Campagna's post to Miss Representation

I can honestly say that I have not been affected as strongly by a documentary as I had been while watching “Miss Representation.” My mother received a degree in law; my aunt is a successful entrepreneur; my grandmother became the first female vice president of her local bank. I, first hand, have seen what powerful and independent women are capable of and am saddened by the fact that women of power are being underrepresented and misrepresented in the media. These skewed images of women as individuals who are constantly being judged by their physical appearances, who are being portrayed as sex objects for the male gaze, or who are shown on television as too ditzy and emotional to hold positions of power, are inescapable and detrimental to impressionable young girls. It is becoming more and more difficult to successfully shield children from these images considering the prevalence of iPods, television sets, and computers in a household, which tend to go relatively uncensored. Even with the knowledge that such young children have access to all these devices, the statistic that an individual spends an average of 10 hours and 45 minutes per day consuming media through these sources, was extremely shocking and rather frightening. If I have a daughter, like the narrator in the video, how will I protect her from these images of girl-on-girl cat fights, women who discuss spending money on a face lift that could pay for one year’s worth of college tuition, or advertisements of models who are so painfully thin that they resemble skeletons more than they do people? I can’t cover my child’s eyes every time he or she passes a billboard on the side of a highway or casually flips through a fashion magazine while waiting in line at the grocery store, but how else are we going to protect our children from these harmful images?

            What I was most struck by while watching the film was the footage of a billboard advertisement model getting digitally enhanced. The first image was of a woman with natural curves and a natural-looking face, untainted by pounds of makeup. As she became digitally enhanced she began to look less and less like herself, almost as if she was morphed into a different person completely. Her eyes were lifted and made larger; her already thin frame was made even thinner, and even the smallest blemish was removed from her body. This image of this model is not real. It is a cartoon of a model. If a little girl or woman sees this image she will strive for a level of beauty that is unattainable simply because it does not exist. This constant overemphasis of the thin ideal is really beginning to become a huge problem in the media, especially since there has been such a massive rise of eating disorders in women of all ages. I flipped to a page in US weekly, a tabloid magazine, a few days ago and stumbled upon an article entitled, “Beauty at Every Age.” It consisted of pictures of celebrities ranging from 18-50 years old. Each was in a bikini and each was rail thin. This is sending a message to woman of all ages that they will only be considered beautiful throughout their lives if they maintain a certain weight. 

Josephine Bingler - Miss Representation

     The movie “Miss Representation” further opened my eyes to how the media exploits, demeans, and criticizes men and women. Girl's are especially targeted by media and taught at a young age that their image is most important. A prime example of this is the TLC show “Toddlers and Tiaras”. Toddlers are seen getting spray tans and competing fiercely against other young girls for the entertainment of America. It seems, no matter what age the girls, America loves to see a good cat-fight between women; whether it is toddlers in tiaras or the New Jersey housewives.

     I think I was most shocked at the part when Sarah Palin is asked if she has breast implants during a news interview. Sarah Palin should not have even entertained the question which was completely out of line and unprofessional. Media spends so much time scrutinizing women, especially female politicians. If she would've refused the question and called out the reporter on being incredibly sexist and invading her personal business, it would have made a point to America that women are to be respected and taken seriously. Whether a politician has breast implants or not is none of America's business.

       We can stop this. We must focus on sending positive images to young women. Media can show them a different way by showing them women who respect on another. Women are more than their bodies. It is up to us to change what we want to see. Media is one of the biggest instruments of change. It can change people's minds but it depends who is piloting the plane.

Molly Bienstock's post Miss Representation

Watching Miss Representation in the Women's Center in the comfort of my peers from this class was probably the best way for me to watch this documentary for the first time.  We all gasped and whispered at the same time, I heard "Oh my God"s scattered around the room, and comments like "Oh, she's beautiful".  Every woman or man in the Women's Center during the viewing had numerous insecurities of their own I'm sure, but we were all able to be impacted by the stories of other women who been made captives of their insecurities and forced to confront them every moment of every day.

This was the reality that this documentary was trying to illustrate.  It proved to audience members that a woman must defend what is inside her head at all time because her exterior will also be constantly judged.  The interesting point about physical judgment in the aesthetic world that is brought up in this film is the fact that women judge other women in a tremendously harsh manner.  Men, also judge women on their bodies.  When men are confronted with educated, empowered women, they don’t know how to react because they feel their personal sphere of hierarchy is being penetrated so they focus the conversation on the surface and only continue to question what is below.   

The most upsetting part about the way a girl views the world is the notion that she must live up to what she sees.  Magazines, billboards, movies, celebrities are all fake.  It is an impossible goal for a young teenage girl to want to achieve the body of a model she sees in a magazine because everything is photoshopped!  Miss Representation displayed this horrifying fact so well when it showed several ads, especially a Ralph Lauren ad, where there was a before and after picture for the magazine in terms of photoshop.  The beautiful model’s picture was cropped in the waist, her stomach was trimmed on all sides, her legs were touched up, and more.  The after photo of this poor model doesn’t even look like her.  What does it say if you can’t even recognize yourself in your own line of work? 

Another point that intrigued me was when Miss Representation talked about the American Psychological Association and how the DSM has printed articles on self-objectification and its rise in the past several years.  Self-objectification is when a person sees themselves through another’s eyes, always feeling the need to monitor one’s self.  In this thinking, the girl is an object and nothing more.  Self-objectification leads to lower GPA’s, less cognitive functioning, a feeling of no political efficacy.  This means that women don’t think they can run for office because they won’t get the vote.  Women are the minority in every possible sector of the government, and more importantly the media.  This is how our children are educated.  They see few role models for healthy, smart, and motivated women.  Instead, our youth receives messages about over sexualization, unwanted desires, and prototypes for what a man and woman should be.

I think the change happens in some serious education.  We need to teach girls and boys from a young age to love their bodies and express their feelings about the world because once they do enter this deranged and corrupt society, there’s no going back.       

Melissa Monsalve response to Miss Representation

     I remember watching the Miss Representation trailer long ago, before the documentary came out, and simply thinking "And people think women have made progress?"
     Yes, without a doubt, women have made great strides over the last century, and it is a great thing. However, it seems that for every step forward that society goes, we take three steps back. The problem is inherently a cultural and societal issue. We have been so conditioned to view things through the perspective of a white, heterosexual male that it's okay to reduce women to objects or to ignore a woman's value in terms of intelligence and capability to serve in office and just criticize her for her appearance. This has become so much of a problem that even some women doubt the possibility of other women taking office, which is beyond ludicrous. What's worse is that women have become used to being put down through media, so the effect goes beyond the general public. It psychologically affects young girls, especially in terms of body image and self esteem.
     What struck me most while watching this is how angry it made me, which is something I should have expected actually. It made me think of the things I do or say and how I can connect it back to things I've learned from the media. And it's really sad. I know I am not alone in saying that I have self-esteem issues and I have to live with them. Looking back on it, I got the whole self criticism thing from my mother, who often times stands in front of the mirror nit picking. And she got that from her mother. So in an essence, we are perpetuating the negative behavior and passing it on to younger generations. We need to become more aware of our actions and the things we say to change the way we think.