Miss Representation, The Unrealistic Body Image Of Women

“Miss Representation” is a film released in January 2011, which shows the various ways the media represent women. In the short trailer it starts by showing quotes, various statistics, and input of various influential women, on how women are misrepresented in our society. Some statistics include on how women are vastly outnumbered by men in leading positions in the workplace and in government. It also claims that the media only uses women’s sexualized image for money, not because it is what consumers want to see in advertisements. For example, in a video explaining oversexualizing in young children Geena Davis comments, “…in G-rated animated films the female characters wear the same amount of sexually revealing

Can you imagine what females could accomplish if they spent as much time volunteering to local charities as they did worrying about their physical appearance? So many dreams, goals, and aspirations are thrown away because of something as simple as low self-esteem. The film Miss Representation focuses on that exact social issue. Various people come together in this documentary to tackle the matter of gender stereotyping through the media. We will cover gender stereotypes, the role media plays in shaping them, and what can be done.

Obviously, there are more and more adolescents spend a lot of time on media. As a results, what they experience from media definitely influences their thoughts and reflected in the way they grow up and behave. The release of this movie can be considered as a crucial message to young people, particularly girls that they should be alert to the way media shape their brains and avoid misleading information from media. From various kinds of media, the image of attractive women become more widespread which sometimes confuses people’s perception about women’s real value. Indeed, women are distracted from the real value consisting of consciousness and education when media focuses on their appearance. The fact that media does not take women contribution seriously could limit and destroy women’s confidence to be one of the powerful leaders of the country. According to Miss Representation, there is only three percent of women has power and influence over others in telecommunication, entertainment, publishing and advertising; likewise, only sixteen percent of women are working as directors, producers, writers, cinematographers, and editors (Newsom). Due to a great number of men working in entertainment and media industry, their responsibility to inappropriate exploitations of woman portrayals is undeniable. That reflects a reality of male-centered society. By There could be a hidden message that high education and politics are for men instead of women. Marie Wilson, founding president of the White House Project, stated that “you can’t be what you can’t see” (Newsom, Miss Representation). It is hard for women who seek a motivation since the under-representation of women in influential positions still exists on mainstream media. Therefore, girls and women should express themselves as smart audience that understands the political economy and capitalist society. They should learn how to

This is the thesis set out by "Miss Representation", a documentary directed and produced by actress, activist and documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The documentary gives a good perspective on why the representation of women in the media is so important in our society. The message the film gets across to viewers is that the way women are often portrayed is damaging- to media consumers of all genders and ages. The way the media treats women is the cause of soaring numbers of women who develop eating disorders, the sexualisation of, and violence against women.

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

Argument Found in Miss Representation: The media should not only represent women and girls for their beauty but also for their intelligence. Agree: When women do something that presents a women’s intelligence people do not give it the amount of attention they would give if it was a picture of a celebrity on the new released magazine cover. When the media only focuses on the appearance it teaches girls at a young age that their value/ worth depends on that. By representing girls and women just for their beauty teaches boys that a girl’s appearance is the only thing that is important about them. Mothers see how the world treats young girls and they are frightened for their daughters and try to teach their sons to treat women with more respect.

Analysis Essay-Miss Representation.In the documentary Miss Representation by Jennifer Siebel Newsom of how to use the media outlets such as, social media, advertisements, and also other forms of media outlets such as social media, advertising, newspapers and any other forms of media. Even at a young age women are being brought up in a world which tells them their self-worth and purpose is linked to their looks and appearance. Instead of focussing on the importance of their knowledge. Males have also been encouraged by the media to believe that woman, looks are more important than their knowledge.One of the reasons is that the documentary by Miss Representation by Jennifer Siebel Newson isthat uses figures to persuade their audience. During

women that sends the wrong message to young girls and boys. After watching this documentary,

The documentary “Miss Representation” delves into how the media and society. The viewer is exposed to how the media builds an expectation of how women should look and act. When the media portrays women as the perfect weight, height, and behavior for the target audience, it lowers the self-esteem of the females watching that cannot hope to compare to a fictional character. Men exposed to these types of advertisement and entertainment are taught to objectify women. It distorts societies and male expectations of how real women should look and behave. The documentary also discusses the lack of female protagonists in television and movies. There is a distinct lack of female heroines in our world today. This shortage further diminishes the hopes

Miss Representation is a documentary that examines the impact that media have on society as a whole. Many people believe that as adults we have the most impact in the consistent pressure to be perfect, but actually children are expose it to at an early age. It difficult for mostly girls, since “girls get the message early in age that the most important thing is their looks and their values and worth depend on their looks”. For young boys that notice that media portrays women to be “perfect”, then they want their significant other to be perfect as well. Our society is an appearance driven society where it does not matter if a person is an intellectual.

The documentary Miss Representation shines a light on the overwhelming impact the male dominated media has on the development of females. Women cannot grow up emotionally happy in our culture due to the overwhelming pressure they are given. As girls grow up and become women they are constantly being judged by those around them and are given a high standard compared to their male counterparts because of the media. Being strong, smart, and accomplished isn’t important as being beautiful and skinny. Today in America you are seen physically and not intellectually. With the media portrayal of women as sexual objects has come with severe consequences. According to the video fifty-three percent of 13-year-old girls are unhappy with their bodies

The film Miss Representation (2011) directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom explores an alarming and downplayed problem that is reoccurring in media that overlaps into the life of many girls and women. The media drills sexualized images along with “ideal” characteristics of how women should be; youthful, skinny, and beautiful with a strong sex appeal. Women are under constant scrutiny whether they are in powerful positions such as Hillary Clinton or playing a sexualized character in a movie like Jessica Simpson. Clinton and Simpson receive different types of sexist comments but nonetheless offensive and degrading.

This again shows how powerful the media is, because it shaped us. And it is unconscious that the media is shaping us, shaping out how we thinks and react. “ Miss Representation” also wants us the audience to learn what media is, and the media are actually showing the audience something that people could never achieve. Such as sexy body, perfect body shapes or clear skin from media and posters. When girls and women saw it, it becomes a goal for them, but the truth is that it is not going to happen. It is because someone edits those perfect looking and bodies using Photoshop and other

Meenakshi Gigi Durham, an Associate Professor of Journalism in University of Iowa father explains why media displays women in such a way, saying that capitalism plays a part of it because advertisements that display women in a sexual way produces more revenue for media. The trailer also reveals that it isn’t only women being affected by media, but men too. It talks how about media is also making boys believe that they should be strong, masculine, and in control. Overall, this trailer is really effective in showing how media creates sexism and preventing more women to hold influential positions due to its emphasis on how media affects our lives. Examining the purpose of “Miss Representation”, one can conclude that the documentary needs to cover how media greatly affects our lives in order to show that media is the sole reason that limits women and creates sexism.

After viewing Miss Representation, I was filled with anger, frustration, and sorrow at the discriminating portrayal of women highlighted by popular media and culture. I find this topic very thought provoking and realize that this topic is always going to be controversial and highly disputed. Women are often characterized in the media in roles traditionally given by society, portrayed as submissive and passive, mothers or sexual objects. The film paints the impact of mass media on the idea of “Ideal Beauty” for women, through movies, magazines, television shows and video games. The media has greatly impacted the thoughts and opinions, which is seen as the norm by societies where gender equality is far from reality. Miss Representation discusses the aspect of the female roles in politics and leadership. Our society is governed by the immense power of the mass media and the media has the potential to reverse this concept as it has imposed it. The current message that our young men and women receive is that a “woman’s value and power lie in her youth, beauty, and sexuality, and not in her capacity as a leader.” The whole idea of "Ideal Beauty" has numerous harmful outcomes. The film debates about how women have made great advances in leadership in the last few decades. It remarks how the United States is still 90th in the world for women in terms of nationwide legislatures, women hold only 3% of positions in mainstream media, and 65% of women and girls are