Miss Representation

The documentary we're currently watching in zero period is very interesting. Although we still have some parts left to watch, I have formed some opinions about it. The documentary is titled Miss Representation, and it deals with the stereotypical treatment of women and teenage girls within the media. I agree completely with this documentary. Women are definitely subjects of criticism and exploiting, especially on devices such as television and social media. There three things we had to keep track of when watching this film. They were: things we were surprised by, things that confused us, and things that we already assumed.

There weren't too many things that totally surprised me, but I did write down a ton of statistics that were simply awful. These stats included astounding numbers. Only around 17% of Congress in the United States is made up of women. This is crazy to me! Women make up half the population, but have very little say in politics within the United States. There is also harsh judgement on the women who try to take leadership roles in American politics, but most are on the appearance of the women! This is just shameful of the United States. It seems like the media (at times) is just one big, uneducated child.

Next, there were many disturbing facts that made me question society as a whole. Some statements within the documentary confused me, because I don't understand the logic behind them. It was stated that a huge chunk of the people who oppose women are women! How can this be? And for what reason? If anything, women should be banding together to get equality, not putting each other down for not conforming to the corruption social norms. This disappoints me, because it seems that feminists are completely against the world.

Lastly, there were many facts that I already knew. One main idea was that women are pressured into looking a certain way, because they see actresses and models that have had plastic surgery and/or photoshop done before they are presented to the regular people of the world. Almost everyone knows this to be true, but they still feel awful about their appearance. I don't think this desire to be absolutely perfect will go away. I guess that now that women and men have seen such beauty, they now have  unrealistic expectations for what people should look like.

So, this documentary has showed me that the gender gap will not be mended anytime soon. However, there has definitely been progress. And although media can bring people together, it appears that media has a dark side. This documentary is very eye-opening, and I hope that people take it seriously.