Miss Representation: Movie Review

The film Miss Representation removes the media's mask and unveils a glaring reality we live with consistently yet neglect to see. The film uncovered how traditional press adds to the under-portrayal of women in places of power and impact in America. It fights the media's restricted and frequently belittling depictions of women no matter their age, which make it hard for them to accomplish administrative roles and for the normal woman to feel amazing herself. In a time where media is the most convincing power for forming social standards, the aggregate message that our young ladies and men overwhelmingly receive is that a girl's worth and force lie in her childhood, excellence, and sexuality, not in her ability as a leader. While women have taken extraordinary initiative steps in the course of many years, the United States is as yet 90th on the planet for women in public governing bodies, they stand firm on just 3% of clout footholds in traditional press, and 65% of them have disarranged eating practices. Miss Representation hones in on these issues in great detail.

Paramount to this film getting its point across is gender bootcamp and how socialization affects women of all ages. The media plays an important role in secondary socialization as well as our education system which this film discusses in-depth. At the beginning of the film we hear the thoughts of high school girls growing up with a nation who, through the media, puts unattainable expectations on women which the men adapt as their ideals. These ideals cause these girls, and many others, to obtain an eating disorder to prove they aren’t too thin or too big and care more about their appearance than ever before. The teenagers interviewed inexplicitly describe experiencing the academic curriculum where they are underrepresented academically starting from as early as elementary school. There are clips inserted of congress representatives explaining the pay gap between men and women and how absurd it is that it exists. It is even stated that if women in congress didn’t speak up and negotiate nothing would get done going against the idea that women don't negotiate pay. The workplace culture is depicted in this film with Devanshi’s story where she and her friends were told “She speaks well for a girl,” and noticed people focusing on their bodies while they campaigned and ran for leadership roles within their community.

The most heart wrenching part of this film was Maria’s story about her younger sister along with the constant statistics being thrown in the audience's face. Maria explains how her younger sister engages in self-harm all because she gets teased at school due to her body. Maria states “What can I do so my little sister won’t be getting hurt by the media?” The mere idea of a young child self-harming is saddening enough however, knowing people instantly blame the media and wait for someone to take a stand against what the media produces in regards to the standard for women is even more disheartening. Women can’t simply turn on the TV and watch a show or movie without subconsciously being told they’re not good enough whether it be due to their facial features, skin tone, weight, body type, etc. meanwhile men turn on the TV and see themselves as the hero every single time. Maria’s sister sadly experienced gender socialization at school via peer interactions. By implementing the statistics throughout the film it exposes the gender inequalities women face in the media and the way the media portrays women. The media portrays a specific body type that society deems the norm leading them to judge and hurt others for looking like their natural selves. The media also diminishes the accomplishment’s women have made while simultaneously uplifting men despite them truly making an error. This leads women to not feel as if they have any power so when they are told they must look a certain way by their peers and are made fun of they simply just accept it. However, when women do speak out for what they believe in rather than being honored and supported they are called names such as “catty” to belittle their beliefs, but if a man had the same beliefs they’d be relieved to hear it. The media has done a number on society's subconscious mind which is how this became so deeply rooted in our culture and why America has such few women in positions of power. That is what stuck out to me however, the film in itself is eye opening and has major shock factors from start to finish so picking the most shocking is a hard feat to accomplish.

The sociological perspective best associated with the film is functionalism. With functionalism the main level of analysis is macro. Functionalism focuses on the relationship between the parts of society. Each aspect is interdependent in this case which contributes to society’s functionality which is what Miss Representation feeds off of. This film exists to explain how the media contributes to how members of society think and function which is the core of functionalism. However, this means micro levels aren’t discussed as much as the macro levels are. In order to truly understand the sociological perspective of something you must keep a balance between macro level aspects and micro level aspects. If one outweighs the other it becomes more of a persuasive tactic rather than sociological thinking which in turn gives sociology bad representation. If that were to happen the media would use that as fuel to attack sociology almost as harshly as they do women because they don’t agree with other ways of thinking. The film is a blend of energizing and provocative meetings with women of various ages and foundations. The interviewees are both young ladies as well as, regarded and compelling women. Nancy Pelosi, Lisa Ling, Condoleezza Rice, Paul Haggis, and Katie Couric recount their experiences. The film likewise furnishes us with insights and realities to give the full picture. "Miss Representation" highlights Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Simpson, and others. These ladies are acclaimed for various reasons, however they share more for all intents and purposes than simply their sexual orientation. They were all "casualties" of emotional columnists' conclusions. It is the media that makes a huge piece of VIPs' public picture. It goes past the individual's control. Ladies need to manage the picture forced on them by another person. The experts and interviewees throughout this piece take part in implicit bias because the majority of them are women who have hands-on experiences not allowing them to see both perspectives. The women could be argued to obtain some biases solely based on the fact that this film discusses how unfairly the media treats women. On the other hand, the men would be argued to be truthful and unbiased since this film isn’t about the negative implications the media inflicts on its women viewers. This point essentially proves the point of the film that the media had engraved into society's minds that women are biased and men are automatically right. Due to the interviewee’s statuses and because of their personal experiences they are essentially the textbook definition of reliable and valid. Since they are very reliable and valid this led to no gaps, absences, or problems with what they said along with no confusion on what was being discussed. The usage of random snippets and statistics contextualized in this film played an immense part in all of the gaps being filled. This leaves viewers with no questions rather, it leaves them with the motivation necessary to take a stand and begin to make an indent causing change to, inevitably, occur as a resu