Washington Area Women's Foundation

Miss Representation Screening This Week

miss representation posterI once got upset with a high school intern who made a disparaging remark about herself while we were taking a group photo.  But before I could get too high up on my horse, I realized that she was parroting me and other adults in the group.  I don’t know that any of us even meant what we were saying; it may be a cop out to suggest this, but I think that we were being classic examples of what happens when we’re taught to put ourselves down while at the same time aspiring to impossible standards of physical beauty.

So why would a group of smart women fall victim to this?  Part of the answer may lie in Miss Representation, a documentary that takes a look at the ways in which females are perceived and the impact that it has on our society, particularly when it comes to under-representation in positions of power and influence.  The catalyst for the film was the pregnancy of filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom.  In Miss Representation, Newsom explains that learning she was pregnant with a girl made her question what kind of world her daughter would grow up in.  And as a former actress, Newsom was well aware of the dearth of complex roles for women on screen.

Obviously, you don’t have to be a mother to be disturbed by the ways in which women are portrayed in movies, magazines, online and in the news. You don’t even have to be a woman to know that women and girls on screens are often not at all like women and girls in real life.  In Miss Representation, a diverse group of media creators and consumers weigh in on the focus in the media on appearance, perfection and sex appeal, and how it is damaging to everyone, especially girls.

Here are three of my takeaways from the film, which I recently saw on OWN:

Consumption and your function –To understand and resolve many of the problems outlined in Miss Representation, all of us need to take some responsibility for how we consume media.  Put simply, if you think something is sexist, biased, unfair or damaging, stay away from it.  No more Bad Girls Club.  No more magazines that use Photoshop to plump up cleavage and whittle down waists to ridiculous proportions. Then talk about it.  Tell your co-worker why you no longer go on that website that snarks about the waistlines of women in Hollywood.  Talk to your niece about whether or not she thinks the behavior of the women and men on Jersey Shore is appropriate.  And tell advertisers why you won’t be buying their products as long as they’re supporting sexist programming or creating insulting ads.

We are what we seeMiss Representation tallies the enormous amount of time children spend online, in front of the television and in theaters.  But what is in front of girls even more than all forms of media combined?  We are. The film quotes Marian Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund: “you can’t be what you can’t see.”  It’s very true, and so is the inverse.  When we put ourselves down, others are watching.  When we complain about our thighs, our hair, about how terrible we look in every photo, we’re not just talking to ourselves.  We’re making it OK for others to judge our appearance and, even worse, for girls to treat themselves poorly.

Give credit where credit’s due – In Miss Representation, the credit needs to go to the kids.  The voice that shrieked at Sarah Palin during a TV interview – “breast implants! Did you have ‘em or not?!” – didn’t belong to a child; that was an adult with her own television show.  The young women – and men – who were interviewed in Miss Representation were smart, savvy, and not only understood that the media’s portrayal of women was often wrong, they talked about why it was so detrimental.  The reporters, producers and writers who are creating the ads, programming and content Miss Representation attacks are all adults.  You have to wonder if they don’t know better, or simply don’t care.  In the film, Newsom talks about wanting to make the world better for her unborn daughter, but often it’s adults who need to be saved from themselves.

If you haven’t had an opportunity to see Miss Representation yet, there’s a free screening at American University on Thursday, November 3rd at 6pm.  I’ll be participating in a panel discussion afterward, and I hope that you can join us and share your thoughts.  For tickets, please go to: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2287164972/efbnen