Miss Representation

Last night was the premiere of our screening of Miss Representation, a documentary about objectification and discrimination in society as we know it today. The film, narrated by someone who's been in the film/television industry (Jennifer Siebel) starts off by stating something like"Is this the kind of world I want my daughter to grow up in?" The film covers the perspectives of multiple women, ranging from high school students to high ranking officials, professors, actresses, and talk show hosts about how high of an impact media has on our life and what impact it's making about women. They describe it as women are being objectified and treated like things instead of people, thanks to the influence of media. Music videos and commercials display half naked women being promiscuous because it sells. The speakers say how we care less and less for what accomplishments a woman makes or what she has to offer to society. I don't disagree, I think they're right; we've let media morph our opinions of women and change how we see them.
That in turn changes how we interact with women, as a man would and as another woman would. Media has given women unbelievable standards to try and live up to, taught us to look down on each other based on our appearances, and to care less about others as people and what makes us special; only focus on how everyone looks. And it's not only women, but men have been given standards like this too. I'm not saying it's worse for men, because I don't think it is. But I've felt the same stimulus media tries to push on me. Its a struggle we all have to suffer, and its one we need to stand up against and change for our generation. By leading by example, future generations will have hope and can hopefully better what we've done. Films like this are a good calling card for people to recognize our issues so that we can change them in ourselves.