Blog post #6: Response to "Miss Representation.”

It wasn’t the first time that I had seen the documentary “Miss Representation” that was shown in class. I had watched it for a previous class about a year ago and then re-watched bits of it again for a class last semester. I am aware of the sexualized female tactic that the media uses and thankfully I am learning more and more about it every year. “Miss Representation” is a documentary that focuses on how “the media is selling young people the idea that girls’ and women’s value lies in their youth, beauty, and sexuality and not in their capacity as leaders” (therepresentationproject.org). Although this documentary was released in 2011, the details and statements that were quoted are still true. Yes, perfume ads are still using naked girls to sell their fragrances. When it comes to sports news coverage, the reality is, those who run sports news coverage are predominantly white males (3rd Annual Report Women’s Media Center). Yes, people are still talking about what Hillary Clinton is wearing. It seems this is just the way that media works to attract views.

The documentary discusses how from a young age girls are being fed the message that their value lies in what they look like, their youth, beauty, and sexuality. This often leaves girls feeling disempowered and distracts them from “making a difference in the world and becoming leaders” (Jennifer Siebel Newsom, “Miss Representation”). It is true that the media is still feeding this message to young girls and young adults through the media, but it is also interesting to see how things have changed. A selection of the media is starting to include all body shapes and races. Young adult clothing lines are including more plus sizes in their selections. Social media is also a big messenger of how girls should view themselves physically. A new trend that I recently learned about is the thigh brow. The thigh gap, which promoted “skinny” people, is gone and now the thigh brow is promoting “curvy” people. You could say this is progress, but really, it’s still focused on the physical part of girls and not their capabilities.

Another thing that has changed is jobs for women. In a previous class, I read the 3^rd annual Report by Women’s Media Center (2013) which provided many facts and statistics about how women l American media allowed women to make their own narrative and to include their own voices in a wide-ranging public discourse in print and online. The report provided a few accomplishments of women today:

• A female can be sitting in the film director’s seat
• Women journalists are not relegated to the women’s pages anymore
• A woman can be hard-pressed to get an entertainment media project green-lighted
• Shonda Rhimes broke barriers in primetime TV. Rhimes is a screenwriter, director, and producer. Rhimes is best known as the creator, head writer, executive producer and showrunner of the medical drama television series Grey's Anatomy.
• Jill Abramson ran the globally influential "The New York Times" in the years 2011 and 2014. Abrams was the first female executive editor of​​ The New York Times​.
• And a small assortment of females-in chief looming large in the digital sphere.

It was interesting to re-watch “Miss Representation” with this new knowledge that I had gained from previous readings last semester. It’s good to see that there is progress. Although the positive progression of women’s representation on the media is developing slowly, it’s definitely happening.