After watching the film Miss Representation (Script) (Discussion Guide), it has raised some questions as well as discussion points about the media, feminism, and where we find ourselves today. In this blog post I will discuss what I learned from the movie as well as the impact it has had on the way I view these topics.
Miss Representation places a lot of the blame for the societal ravine between women and men on the media. I think that's a valid viewpoint, but I don’t think it is the only one. I think trying to place all of the blame on one thing for gender inequality can’t be correct because the disparity has been around for thousands of years. If there was only one factor, I feel it would be impossible to have half of the people on earth marginalized for that long. While watching the film, there were definitely some emotional stories and statistics. I felt sympathetic for a lot of the women who faced barrier after barrier and attack after attack just to get the same thing as the guy next to them. I also felt ashamed in a way because I have fallen into the same trap as so many other guys where I think that I can’t show emotion. It is kind of scary to think about it as well because after a while it kind of just becomes part of your identity and you forget where it came from. I definitely learned a lot about women’s rights as well as a lot of history behind it. In high school there was never really a lot of attention put on women in power. Many of the events surrounding the push for women's suffrage and later movements in the 80s are all very briefly covered. I also learned that without role models, women don’t want to make the leap of faith and advance the movement. But this does not apply to only women. I think that anyone feels less motivation to do something if they are the first to do it. If you have to cross a shitty wooden bridge in the middle of the amazon jungle, you're going to want to be anywhere but the front. The film has not made me want to change a lot, however, I think that the film made me change whether I wanted to or not. I think that just by watching the film, I will subconsciously be more considerate towards women. I don’t mean to say that I’m not considerate to women. I just think that by knowing some more of the things that women face everyday just by being a girl, I will sympathize more. However, I also feel kind of hesitant to add my voice. To me, the message of this movement feels slightly undermined when a guy adds his voice. I think that the higher the number of females in positions of power is, the easier it will become to have both women and men contribute openly to gender equality.
1 Comment
Sabatino
4/6/2019 06:00:50 am
Thanks for this post. Some questions:
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“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all: Read a lot and write a lot”
- Stephen King AuthorHello. I'm Raj. Nice to meet you. Archives
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