Topic > Women's Issues in Media in Miss Representation, a Documentary by Jennifer Siebel Newsom

The Miss Representation documentary taught me more about women's issues in media and the challenges they face within themselves and from men. As a student trying to break into the PR and entertainment industry, I felt this film helped understand how women are viewed and how the media plays an important role. “Content shapes us and impacts us.” (Newsom, 2011) Since the media are considered messengers, the contents within them teach many people what they have to offer, and some take such opinions as reality. Through advertising, television and social media platforms, women with unattainable beauty ideals are shown to women/girls who may be considered vulnerable. What you can see creates this mentality that “what you believe, you can do” and it is important for women to understand that the women they see in ads are not “real” most of the time. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay One step I would take, to change the way the media portrays women and girls, would be to educate others about how they are portrayed and the challenges they face. I think it's hard to pick just one way that can change media representation as they (males) have been doing it for years, it sells and it's something they're used to. “Male journalists make up 63% of bylines in print, on the Internet and in the media.” Having a few different women in higher positions can help portray women in a better light since they can bring some perspective to the table. Educating younger people, whether through a documentary like this or through other ways, such as social media messages or events where women talk about their experiences with the media, can help humanize them while spreading the message to young people male and female adolescents. female. While it is difficult to completely stop the unrealistic portrayal of women and girls in the media, I believe it is important to at least be informed about the facts and know better than what the media may be trying to sell or tell you. I agree with the message of the documentary, regarding the issues of empowering other women, how those in their forties and older are not adequately represented, and how boys/men learn the behavior of being dominant , I felt like another representation of women was missing. Some Asians, African Americans, Indians, and some Hispanics were interviewed, but the majority were white women. It's important to include how the media views women, but I wanted to see how it portrayed women of color especially. Being a female minority in the media is an important aspect not only necessary for representation, but to give that sense of "belonging". Understanding that there is someone on screen or in an advertisement that a young woman can identify with makes her feel included in a society filled with a European standard of beauty. “As a result, the internalization of racialized beauty standards can perpetuate itself in a lifelong, intergenerational culture of self-hatred.” (Hunter, 1998) I felt that the way the documentary was structured was not to leave out those of color, but simply to focus more on Western women. They didn't address the representation of ethnicities, minorities, people of color, and the different or similar struggles they faced when featured in the media..