Blog Post #6

Blog Post 6: Miss Representation

Miss Representation showcases the way that the media whether intentionally or accidentally portrays women.

As a feminist [wanting to have equality between genders and closing the current gap between them] I found myself somewhat surprised when watching Master of None, a comedy series on Netflix, when one of the episodes featured a female president. I felt confused for a second, and although currently we have Hillary Clinton running for president, the fact that in the media I have never seen a female president, and now I have surprised me a bit. I know that there are many women in political power all over the world, for example Dilma Rousseff as Brazil’s current president, but it was still a surprise to see it within the media, especially a popular Netflix show.

Films are [usually] a representation of the current society, and movies have been more and more liberal when representing important figures in society such as the president of the United States. From having Harrison Ford playing the president of the United States in Air Force One in 1997, to Morgan Freeman in Olympus has Fallen in 2013 to finally De'Adre Aziza as a female president in Master of None in 2015.

In the beginning of the semester, it was very clear that women are portrayed as sexual objects in magazines, advertisement, but one would think that now, in 2015, the portrayal of women would be better, but it is not as good as I thought. In past decades, women reached the standards of beauty with makeup and cosmetics, but with increasing technology, the standard of beauty is almost impossible to reach due to the photoshopped features of models in advertising and other forms of media. 

Miss Representation does a good job at pointing out the way that the objectification of women by both men and women themselves leads to a decrease in political participation, and when women do participate politically, the only aspects that people pay attention to is their appearance. 

In the end, everything relates and comes back to capitalism and how media companies and advertisers are looking at ways to make profit. Michael Eisner, former CEO of Walt Disney Co., stated in an internal memo that “we have no obligation to make history, we have no obligation to make art, we have no obligation to make a statement. To make money is our only objective.” Although it may unconfirmed, the media may be sharing these unideal ideas of beauty and showcasing an excessive amount of negative portrayals because that is what catches people’s attention. Miss Representation discloses these ideas and makes an audience member reflect about whether or not the media has impacted us, and how we can change or take part in the improvement of how the media affects public views.