I found the Miss Representation documentary took a feminist approach in analyzing media representations of women (e.g.: in Hollywood, Reality TV, and magazines). There was also plenty of discussion on how women are limited in positions of power (especially in politics), due to sexist representations and ideologies. I believe the film was arguing that feminism is still needed (and that we are not in a state of post-feminism). For example, I found the social media campaigns at the end of the film to be promoting feminism.
As discussed in lecture and the textbook, feminism is aimed at achieving gender equality by being critical of hierarchal systems and practices that oppress and undermine women (Keller, 2017; Mills & Barlow, 2012). Miss Representation is a media text based on feminist ideologies, because it challenges many of the hierarchal and patriarchal systems/practices which benefit men and undermine women. For example, there were lots of statistics presented about how women are severely underrepresented in politics, film, and positions of power. In addition, many cringe-worthy clips were presented where men were saying things
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A perfect example of the male gaze in the documentary was the very alarming clip of the old news anchor who was obsessed with rolling footage of Paris Hilton, despite his female co-anchors desire to actually report news. As discussed in the film, the hypersexualization of women and the continual emphasis on a woman’s appearance seems to be reducing women to simply being objects. The media continues to reinforce and promote patriarchal ideologies, as opposed to continually promoting ideologies that represent women as strong, capable contributors to
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
Newsom clearly explains how the media portrays gender bias and stereotypes in TV, films, and advertisements through the use of interviews from influential people. Since many influential people are interviewed
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
Miss Representation is a documentary style film written, directed and produced by Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Its main focus correlates to its title, in that, it attempts to expose the gender bias and sexism in mainstream media. The film includes testimonials from celebrities including Katie Couric (who went to my high school, #shoutoutYHS), Condoleezza Rice, Geena Davis, Nancy Pelosi, Rosario Dawson, Rachel Maddow, etc. An element I thought was particularly noteworthy was the viewpoints of high school students, mostly women, incorporated with those of the celebrities.
It shows different types of media coverages where it gives an example of how women are being downgraded and used for sexual exploitation. For example, a section of the documentary shows models posing in magazines and photoshoots practically naked and Pat Mitchell former CEO of PBS describes the effects that the media is causing to young teens she states, “if the message is that women are objectified, objects that match their primary being that is a very tough and challenging question for young women who think that is their path to power” (30:10). The purpose of using images and videos from the media itself is to show how women are being treated and to show how the media is showing the false idea of beauty. It is also to encourage women and young teenagers that women are worth more and need to start standing up for ourselves more. An example of the type of media coverages the video shared is a when the speakers talk about how only men are taken serious in politics and news broadcaster for example women in the news are very sexualized, they shows videos of women news anchors and they are wearing provocative clothing, as Katie Couric a CBS news anchor states “ sometimes I look on the cable news channel
media in today’s society and culture. The documentary is arguing that women in the media are not
Gender and the Media by Rosalind Gill addresses gender stereotypes that are brought onto women and men through the media resulting in objectification and subjectification. Gill discusses how the representation of gender is altered as a result of the media in Western societies. Gender and the Media is aimed to address the rapid transmission of media and how those changes affect the construction of feminine and masculine gender roles in society. Gill uses her interest in the contradictions of gender construction by society, to analyze gender and the media. Using feminism as a backbone for her research, Gill and many commentators support the idea that feminist ideas are common and may even affect the media. Gender and the Media addresses multiple forms of media: postfeminism in advertising, gender in the news and journalism, and gender in magazines. Gild aims to address the construction of gender representations, elements for gender analysis, and feminist culture with Gender and the Media.
Chapter 9 by Heather McIntosh and Lisa Cuklanz details the ins and outs of Feminist Media Research. Media, in its various forms, such as film, television, advertisements, the Internet, printed publications, and material culture can uncover "The patterns of what can cannot be said, or what is and is not said, for evidence of where power is located how it is deployed. These patterns can be understood as derived from ideologies" (pg 266). Through representation, repetition and omission of various ideas and social locations, media can determine what is acceptable, normal and favorable in society in a given era.
Women are sexually exploited in the media. In today’s society if people watch television programs such as Chingy featuring Snoop & Ludacris – Holidae; Charlie's Angels; the Z100 commercial with Britney Spears; or Baywatch they will see that the feminine image is presented differently than the masculine. In these programs men are typically placed in sexual situations fully clothed, while women are presented in provocative clothing or less. The camera will frequently zoom in on body parts to focus on the woman’s buttocks, midriff, and legs. Society is still dominated by men who control what people see. As a result women are increasingly portrayed as sex symbols as a way for a media company to turn
The message that was presented in the video “Miss Representation” was that the media is a powerful tool to shape the world. However, the media has been utilized not for the benefit of human being instead in the most negative way that anyone can possibly think of. It has indeed shape the representation of women globally in this generation. It degenerated the name of woman and what they are capable in this world whether they are use for political, and/or economical. The trailer for Miss Representation presented this powerful message through the usage of a video of selected people being interviewed about feminism and the cruelty that they endure during the twentieth century. This highly sensitive message in the video of Miss representation is
According to Hooks (2000) as cited in Considine and Dukelow (2009:141) “Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression”. It is necessary to explain the different types of feminism that are present in society first. Freedman
“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.
What is feminism? The definition is often argued over by feminists and anti-feminists. Feminists believe that the expectations for women are far too high to be attainable for most—they are expected to be the perfect weight, the perfect height, the perfect everything in the eyes of society in order to be seen as worth anything. Feminists believe that women are seen by society as less powerful, less smart, simply less than men. Feminists also believe that feminism promotes gender equality, not misandry. They aim to fix this. Anti-feminists, on the other hand believe that feminism is women being obnoxious and putting themselves above men. They think feminism in 2015 in unnecessary. Women already have the right to vote, what more could they possibly want? This oppression is just one reason why feminism exists and—in my opinion—is extremely important in today’s world.
Feminism is deeply critical of the character of modern societies, where it’s arguments can be based on fundamental inequalities. Like Marxism which locates the roots of inequality in capital ownership, feminism points to the domination of males in society (patriarchy) being the root of human inequalities and injustices. We see that inequalities are pervasive aspects of our modern lives meaning men have economic, political, and cultural power while women do not. It is seen that women occupy the marginal spaces of private life and domesticity while men generally control public life. We tend to normalize the oppression of women and that is with the help of cultural products like television, film and other popular mediums. “The media enables traditional gender stereotypes because it reflects prevailing social values” (Comm 3263, 2011). Which leads to the realization that our world is structured by a sexual imbalance in mass media culture.
Feminism has been portrayed in the media in a different perspective. It has been portrayed as a fight against men. This has created a picture that the female gender was fighting against the male gender.