MissRepresentation did a great job of explaining the hardships the media poses on women. Many of the statistics that were mentioned surprised me and lead me to think deeper about how women are negatively affected by the media. How women are portrayed in movies helped me understand the issue especially clearly.
Mean Girls and Wedding Crashers were two of the movies briefly shown in MissRepresentation. They are both considered by most to be hilarious and very entertaining in general. When one takes a closer look and looks past the comedy, it is apparent that women are completely objectified. Mean Girls is a primary example of how girls judge other girls based on their appearances and how pier pressure can shape one's entire outlook on their life. Wedding Crashers is a primary example of how men objectify women in the media. Women are complete objects in the majority of this movie. They aren't depicted as real people for most of the film (until the protagonists realized their wrongful doings). They are seen basically as prizes.
The gender inequality issue is displayed in many other types on media besides movies. Many times, girls will idealize their favorite singers' and actresses' appearances. They'll also view modeling ads and see women with the "ideal" body type. This essentially sends a message to young women without the "ideal" body type that they aren't good enough. Men will also see these ads, actresses, and singers and idealize their appearances.
In conclusion, women are constantly objectified by the media. Since they see themselves as objects, they perform lower. It plays such an affect on them as a gender that their opportunities are more restricted than those of men. For example, only 17% of congress are women. They deserve better, and media regulation of some sort may help.
I like the Wedding Crashers example, mainly because I still haven't seen Mean Girls. I remember seeing that movie and can agree with you about how women were objectified for the majority of the film. This kind of thing was what Miss Representation was talking about, and this is what people thought made the movie funny sadly. These kinds of movies are only encouraging people to make more like them because, its what most people want to see. I'd agree with you that if there was some sort of media regulation it probably would help to stop women from being objectified.
ReplyDeleteThere are lots of ads and movies that have the objectification of women and we do not realize it. Even the movie where there is a female lead. A lot of times their goal is to get the man and that is objectification of women even though the target audience is women themselves. And so a lot of the times media is harming women’s views about themselves and they start harming themselves physically because of it. It is one of the causes of 17% of teens said they engaged in cutting themselves or other self-injuring behaviors.
ReplyDelete