To start things off, "Miss Representation" impacted me in a fairly different way than most message driven films that I have ever watched. Different in a sense that it was hard for me to formulate a reflection, even within myself, on the way home after watching the film. I will attempt to elaborate as best as I can. From what I took from the film, they touched on two ideas: empowerment and encouragement for women, and media's effect on women being the biggest topic. Media is where the negativity is being made.

 As a guy, it is hard to put myself in a woman's perspective, in most cases, since dudes and gals are different from each other in most ways than not. As a standard idea for people’s roles, women are viewed as the caretakers of the home while the men go out and work, so that they can be the providers. If you look deeper at this image, this puts women at a disadvantage. They are of course recognized as people too, but people that are viewed as “below” the men. We can say that this is a man's world, based on this idea.

Lets time warp for a moment and look a few decades back, maybe to the 1940's to 1960's, where people, both men and women, had more class and respect for one another. During this time it is safe to conclude that things were a tad primitive in terms of technology. Television was not that popular yet, movies were in black and white, people read things for leisure, etc, etc. Media during this time was still a baby; it was not really popular yet. 

Next, lets move forward a bit to the 1970's and 1980's. At this point we have gone to the moon and have built many atom bombs, so it is safe to say that technology is progressing. In addition, people are beginning to gain more freedoms, so they are able to do more things that they may not have been able to do before. As a result people are starting to express themselves differently. Disco dancing is happening, colored TV's are now the standard, and the sexual revolution was going down, etc, etc. Meanwhile, media is consuming all of this and is starting to grow.

Eventually, the 1990’s and the millennium arrive, and media is at its prime and is ready to pounce. At this point, times have really changed, male enhancement pills are being popped, and technology has progressed even further, etc, etc. Now, there are many new gadgets and things available, so at some point, how do you get these new things out to the public? Say they are hip and cool, right?

However, the big downside is, this is where media gets it power. In today’s world where consumption is idea for how to keep the world running, media is used to deliver that message. How do you deliver that message in a man’s world? To stir up the testosterone in men to the point where they cant help but comply by objectifying women into sex things. Sex sells in a man’s world. Take two identical cars that are being advertized. Car A is being presented by a man in suit and car B is being presented by a petit woman with a booty and D-cups. By the rumble in my pants, it is safe to say that more car Bs will be sold.

This is the big problem. The idea is since the woman with car B grabs men’s attention and therefore sell more cars, women should be like her. Not only do things like this happen for men’s products, but for women’s products as well. They portray an image for women on how they should look in relation to how men see them. Metaphorically speaking, media has enslaved women by targeting their appearance. They are not good enough if they are not pleasing in the eyes of men.

Before touching on the second topic that I took from the film, I feel I need to express my view on the media. I was never really in support of media because in my mind media expresses what things should be like, in other words they tell you what think and do. I guess I am a bit of a rebel in a sense that I like to be different in some aspects and I like to have my own opinion on things. For example, I absolutely dislike pop music now. All they talk about is fame, hotness, “I’m the sh*t”, etc, and the music itself sucks because its filled with house or dance beats that are just plain boring to me. I feel that high school was the closest I got to being in support of media since talking to girls and being at parties carries that being “cool” persona, hence media is influencing me to be what I am not.

With that put on the table, I am in support for the empowerment and encouragement of women. Like all people with legs, a body with arms, and a head, they are entitled to be whoever they want to be and do whatever they want to do, and nothing out there should manipulate them otherwise. That’s because media portrays an image of only “good looking” women can be successful. Again media is trying to manipulate people into being something they are not. If I owned a business and I was deciding between two women to be my CFOs, I would look at who is the most qualified rather than their appearance, but some sort of stature on their appearance can hold some extra credit. Who wants to hire anyone who looks like they haven’t showered in a week?

In conclusion, media is a monster lurking in the shadows of people’s insecurities, most particularly in women. Media should not dictate what people should do or think, but rather just be informational. The way it sends its message out there is very damaging. I agree with one of the comments made in the film, where women (and guys should too) should not support the negative media. If we keep doing so, the damage this has on the culture may have long term effects that may be very difficult to fix.  

-Extra note, the film was not what I expected. Sadly what was said was the capital T-truth.