Blog Post 6: Miss Representation

Miss Representation is a documentary film exploring how mainstream media contribute to the under-representation of women in influential positions by circulating limited and often disparaging portrayals of women. Why is it difficult for women to achieve leadership positions and for the average woman to feel powerful herself? I always ask myself that question. Women are seen more powerless than men. Women also have life as men. They are taught to be good at home and in school since kindergarten as men. Women have the right to talk and to lead as men. They must have the right for happiness, for powerful as men. Body images? No one says if you want to be perfect, you have to be as skinny as possible like in those advertisements. I don’t agree with that. The world should consider what inside women’s brain, not what outside women look like. If we look in media world, they are significantly underrepresented. Women own just six percent of the commercial broadcast TV stations in the U.S. And while slightly more than half of local television news anchors are now women, women still make up only 28 percent of local news directors and 16 percent of the general managers at TV stations that air local news. If we look at the political world, women are clearly underrepresented. Out of 197 heads of state around the world, only 22 are women. That means that 89 percent of the countries in the world are led by men. The documentary does a great job on convening the messages for people in general and for women in specific: “Focus on what women can do, not on what women look like.” Everyone should watch this, especially girls.