Miss Representation (Post #6)

I thoroughly enjoyed our class viewing of Miss Representation. Despite considering myself a passionate feminist, I hesitated to watch the documentary because I was worried it would fall into the category of "white feminism" – feminism that ignores the specific issues that women of color face. While these fears were not entirely unfounded, as the documentary primarily addressed women's issues in a monolithic sort of way, I found the film to be helpful when taken at face value. The passion displayed by those interviewed was admirable and perfectly exemplifies the ways in which women can and should actively seek out change. As someone that wants to work within the political sphere, my favorite part of the film was the portion that dissected women in politics. A fact that in the film I found particularly disturbing was the correlation between women's self esteem and their political efficacy. I never would have correlated the two, but the statistics forced me to recognize these issues. Despite enjoying the film's overall message, I took issue with the film was the introductory slideshow that showed images of "sexualized" women (mostly actresses playing characters in movies, which doesn't seem entirely fair) in skimpy clothing next to well known women leaders and influencers. Pitting women against each other in this way does nothing to move society forward, but instead further pushes them into the dualism of either being sexy and dumb or buttoned up and intelligent. There is no right way to be a woman, and we should be allowed to embody all sorts of dichotomies along this scale without the fear of being shamed by other women.