“It’s all about the body and not about the brain” said one of the young girls featured in MissRepresentation, a documentary on women in media. Sad, right? A young woman should not be insecure about her body and feel less powerful if she does not have the “right” body. What is the right body anyway? Who made up these standards?
The media did. The media shapes our perception of what the ideal body looks like. We see it, we buy it and we become it. From cereal boxes, to magazine covers, to reality TV, we are bombarded with images of the “ideal” female body daily. It is one thing to be healthy, but another to expect real human beings to become sexual objects in order to gain respect and status in society. The latest Victoria’s Secret news reveals the runway “angel” model diet which contains of egg powder, no solids and gallons of water (see article below). This is infuriating. Is this really what beauty is about? What kind of expectations are we setting up for young girls? Why are we accepting media like this to be circulated?
The documentary sparked many truths that we often ignore in society as we have conformed to the media and its messages to the point where we do not realize that our consciousness is being produced and manipulated by the media. MissRepresentation did a thorough job of contrasting women and men in media by providing examples of how women are limited to positions of power in society. It shows media outlets degrading powerful women like Secretary of State Hilary Clinton for speaking her mind and as a result is portrayed as a b****. It demonstrates how a woman is valued in media; through her beauty and sexuality and not in her capacity as a leader. This ultimately makes it challenging for women to have equal chances of using her mind and not her beauty to achieve equal status.
Besides having an amazing lineup of celebrity women in this documentary, the startling facts that were uncovered were truly eye opening. MissRepresentation requires us to educate our world about the damaging effects of certain media and how degrading the messages can be to women. Instead of being products of the media, we need to take action and change the way women are misrepresented.
“The media can be an instrument of change.”
How can we stop the media from treating us like second-class citizens? How do we help women attain leadership roles? How do we change the way media portrays women?
Perhaps this is a two way street. Perhaps women need to change as much as the media. If we cannot be an example for how we want to be treated, how can we expect others to believe it? Think about it.
Comments and ideas are appreciated and welcomed.
For more information on this documentary, go to www.missrepresentation.org and sign their pledge.
The Huffington Post Victoria Secret diet can be viewed here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/07/victorias-secret-angel-diet_n_1079315.html
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It’s sad that women are bombarded with images on how to “look” rather than focusing on feeding the mind. Insecurity and fear are killers! SO many young females spend thousands of dollars just to look like everyone else. MAN!!!!!!
Veronica, thank you for your comment! How do you think we can reverse the mentality of the media? Do you think we can shut them down by simply ending our consumer behavior or does the system already own us? I appreciate your feedback.
I appreciate your article especially your comment at the end…”Perhaps this is a two way street. Perhaps women need to change as much as the media. If we cannot be an example for how we want to be treated, how can we expect others to believe it?” It is one thing to state a whole bunch of statistics about the way we are being MissRepresented, but when are we going to start taking responsibility for our thoughts, feelings and behaviors? All media is bookends for companies to advertise and sell their products. The fact that the documentary was broken up between commercials directly supports my point. Women control the buying power of the majority of U.S. households, if we were REALLY offended by companies advertising tactics we could easily shut them down by not buying their products. I also hate to say this, but the comment, “You can’t be what you can’t see,” is non-sense. Before the first light bulb was created, Thomas Edison didn’t see it. There was never a black president of the U.S. before Mr. President Obama. Madam CJ Walker was the first black millionaire in the US. Condoleezza Rice become the first woman and first African American to be a Stanford University provost. There are no limits or ceiling that women can’t break. We don’t need to see it, we just need vision, just like the visionaries I mentioned here. Women are powerful beyond measure and we have never been a species to be limited by our eye sight. Women are visionary and now is the time for us to step into a bigger vision, look beyond what is right in front of us and CREATE!
Hi Kenetia,
Thank you for your comments. You are absolutely right with your comment about “you can’t be what you can’t see.” I too, questioned this when I first heard it. I think there are a couple ways to understand the meaning of their statement:
View #1: Your clear point that no one paved the path for all the “firsts” in our world – they envisioned and they became. Period.
View #2: Young females look to the media and absorb, relate, identify and eventually imitate what they see. Mainstream media, as mentioned in the documentary, can often misrepresent women and for this reason, young minds can be vulnerable to the false message. This can become dangerous. Articles like the Victoria’s Secret diet is completely wrong and unrepresentative because this does not illustrate a realistic or healthy image of women in “beauty” and role models to millions. But should this be our concern or the parents concern? As you stated, are we just as guilty being the consumers of the product?
Ultimately, we are in charge of our future and how we are portrayed. We need to challenge ourselves outside society norms and realize our potential (which is bigger than we’ll ever know). The only limitations we have are the ones we create. However many may not have the luxury of being exposed to this message. Overall, I thought the intent of the documentary was demonstrated well, especially for vulnerable young women who may have a limited view of women in media. Hopefully, MissRepresentation will spark an initiative to change the way we consume, behave and feel in the future. At the very least, it has sparked dialogue like this.
Thanks again for your thought provoking comments and interesting perspective, Kenetia! Hope to hear more from you soon.
Sonja Be
Thanks for this awesome article Sonja. What makes me so sad about the issue of women in media is that it is just another way that our media covers up the TRUE challenges that we face. I am thinking almost entirely of the issue of inequality – shouldn’t girls be aware of how fortunate they are to have food on the table and a school to go to? A place to be safe and warm? Family and friend? Instead, they are concerned with starving themselves and running for hours on treadmills. What a waste of potential. We have so many young women that have the power to make our world more equal, more just, but we cram our brains and our worries with useless emotions about things that we can control! It is just another way that the government and the media tries to suppress the potential of amazing human capital – WOMEN!
Okay, so that’s my hardcore liberal and conspiracy theory side, but it drives me crazy! Young girls should be educated about opportunity and world affairs, not about diets and how to be sexy. This is going to require a entire shift in society towards improved education, gender equality, and focus on international perspective.
JVH, thank you for joining the conversation! Everything you said bears so much truth, especially about the waste of human potential. You said it best “young girls should be EDUCATED about…” This makes me think of our education system and what we are being taught in school, how we are being taught in school and why we are taught what we are being taught. Is our education system as corrupt as our media? We need to figure out a way to educate our young female leaders beyond what they see in the media. With so much wrong in our world, it is time we uncover the global issues at a young age so they too can feel inspired and desire change. We need women to think beyond surface level, beyond their looks and focus their energy on their potential. Do we need a full fledged society face-lift? With 7 billion strong, how do we shift towards focusing on what really matters? Education is our best hope for rectifying and identifying our past mistakes.