Miss Representation

2011 "You can't be what you can't see."
7.5| 1h25m| en
Details

The film MISS REPRESENTATION exposes how American youth are being sold the concept that women and girls’ value lies in their youth, beauty and sexuality. Explores the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence in America, and challenges the media's limited portrayal of what it means to be a powerful woman. It’s time to break that cycle of mistruths.

Director

Producted By

The Representation Project

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Reviews

Karry Best movie of this year hands down!
Evengyny Thanks for the memories!
VividSimon Simply Perfect
Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
Ana As a female director the first thing I notice about this film is that the women have too much make- up. And their hairs are perfect in every shot. And they talk about misrepresentation of women.But if we philosophically talk about this film and its contents, it's OK, it talks about real and horrible problem of teenage depression, diet obsession and disorders and many other maladies caused by living in a bubble created by media. People of both genders have this disorder and have obsessions with their bodies and look. It's planetary. Maybe even anthropological question since since ever people maimed their bodies to look 'great', from European corsets in the mid-XX century, Chinese wooden shoes, collars that extend necks of African tribal women, to contemporary plastic surgery.I think that problem lies in fashion in general, in human obsession with fashion. In human need to be accepted. Actually the problem is very deep. Focusing on solely media is only a tip of the iceberg.
eurograd Miss Representation address, mostly, the important issue of how women are represented in the media and the impact such representations have on how society perceives women, how it affects the ability of women to reach higher echelons of media-related positions, and how that in turn affects programming, choices in advertising, and perpetuation and certain stereotypes and patterns. On this aspect, it delivers quite a powerful message. However, there are also serious flaws, some of argument, some of execution.While I myself fully support gender equality, and otherwise agree with the problem of glass ceilings and reduction of professional women to their sexualized attributes, I think it is very, very worrying the suggestion for some level of censorship and regulation of media content, especially the implication that some government agency should step in to enforce "family standards" in online content production and broadcasting. As a viewer, I was left with the impression the producers really didn't have a clue about issues concerning freedom of speech and were incredibly naive on their pro-censorship stance (since it doesn't resonate with the rest of the documentary).Editing also could have been better. Some of the short testimonials could have been consolidated in longer shots focusing just one subject, instead of having too many parallel interviews clumsy moving forward on little bits that often got lost. Finally, I think they could have better explored the hook on how sexist attitudes are bad not only for girls and women, but also for men. That would make the documentary even more interesting, although it already lacks, fortunately, a us vs. them tone.
titus227 This film is meant to address the social distortion present in media as it affects women. I feel this doc fails to point out that this happens to youth in general, not just women. Secondly, it should have been stressed that such a focus on sex & marriage leads to increased teenage pregnancies, which, in turn, contributes to young delinquency and uneducated adults having children who will not attend college or even finish high school. Unfortunately, the majority of this doc consists of a woman obviously reading a print out of monologues in a dull, lifeless monotone. Several speakers chastise the media for reflecting the low number of women working in big business and politics in movies, but most of the thoughts presented are fragmented or inappropriate to the topic. These women say such things like 'Women should be politicians so other women will want to be politicians.' 'Women are never leaders and men don't want us to be. Just look at Star Trek.' These statements seemed to defy the fact that England had Queen rulers for over a century and that Star Trek is and always has been a show that shatters social boundaries, and the different seasons have seen Famale captains, doctors, Science officers, ensigns, engineers, psychologists, and a plethora of other positions. It seemed like this documentary was more interested in talking about hurt feelings than any serious issues. It's as if they interviewed the absolute dumbest women available and said, 'Talk about how movies make women look bad,' then showed 15 min worth of UNSCRIPTED REALITY TV clips while the interviewees stumbled through cliché after cliché, generally never making a solid point, cohesive statement and/or expressing conclusions related or even relevant to what was just said. 'I hate bikinis on TV, so I became a politician after a particularly moving episode of Murder She Wrote.' Lastly, some of the issues blamed on media aren't real issues or controlled by media. Why aren't there more women politicians? Same reason there aren't more women trashmen, fisherman, hunters, mechanics, mathematicians, Footballl coaches or construction workers: Most women are uninterested in such professions. Equally interesting is the idea that men are expected to work successfully at a job that isn't embarrassing, or that the media tells youth to hump like rabbits, accumulate debt & go to jail in hopes of turning us all into consumers rather than producers. Monetary slaves providing a financial battery to the rich. Another point left out is that when the youth have teen pregnancies, who will work? Man or Mother? Usually the man, so it is not more surprising to see more men at work than it is to see wives staying home. I feel that this film is highly destructive to the cause it's attempting to address.
evawatches This documentary doesn't break new ground for people already interested in the issues discussed, but I think that it gives a good perspective on why the representation of women in media is so important in our society, and why the way women are often portrayed is damaging - to media consumers of all genders (ie. all of us).I especially liked the focus on how female stereotypes in media affect young girls' self-esteem and ultimately their chances of growing up to be leaders. Obviously the documentary was US- centric, but these problems exist pretty much all over the Western world, where girls see very few really good role-models in mainstream media and where the few that exist are always heavily scrutinized and criticized.Since media has changed so much in the past 20 years, I agree with what was also said in the movie: That media literacy, the ability to understand media as products (created by humans with their own biases and agendas), has become almost as important as the ability to read. After all, these days it's pretty much impossible to shield children from harmful media messages, so it's vital that they have the tools to deal with those messages. This is true not just for girls, but also for boys.