Last Tuesday, the presidential election was not the only happening of the day. The ECGC hosted a special screening at New Trier of Miss Representation, a film whose goal is to bring up the question: "How does the media's portrayal of girls and women affect their future success?" It exposes how mainstream media under-represents women and "challenges the media's limited and often disparaging portrayals of women and girls, which make it difficult for women to achieve leadership positions and for the average women to feel power herself." I think this is important to address because so many women and girls try to change themselves to look like the "perfect" person, when in actuality there really is no such thing. One clip in the movie that talked about this "perfect" person was originally presented by the Dove Self-Esteem Fund. It takes a model and drastically changes her looks (check out the clip below of this!). Dove's campaign celebrates "a world where beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety."
After the movie, the audience had a chance to discuss it with two panel members, Mindy Faber, of Columbia College in Chicago, and Mr. Bolos (!). In the discussion, not only did I hear how mothers felt about this topic, but I also had a chance to voice my own opinion-- though I will share more now. One mother (I think she has been active in women's issues) commented that when her daughter was younger, she didn't allow her to go to nail painting parties because of what it might imply with regards to objectifying the girls. I agree that sexual objectification is very wrong (treating women as sex objects), but to not let your daughter go enjoy her friends and get her nails painted-- I just think that is going a little far. When does it cross the line to objectification? Where does objectification start and can awareness be taught so little girls can also enjoy being girls? At some point, we, as women, have to be proud of who we are and the things that we can do together to have fun as women- things that we can do for ourselves. So go get your nails done, have fun, catch up with friends, celebrate a birthday while having your nails done! I also took note that there were only two boys and one dad at the screening of the film (not including Mr. Bolos and Dr. Dohrer). I had to leave a few minutes early, but I did really want to hear what they thought of the movie. I think this movie is an important film for everyone to see and think about. I don't think we stop often enough to think about how the treatment of women and girls in todays world impacts our everyday lives.
The day after watching the film, The Colby Echo, my brother's college's newspaper arrived at my house. Flipping through it, I guess it was just meant to be, I came across an article titled "Girl Power in the Media." A Colby professor and two former students took action to give girls an opportunity to "talk back." They chose to start PBG, Powered by Girl, "a media activist arm of Hardy Girls Healthy Women." The PBG is a website "comprised of blog posts and interactive forums for girls of all ages to share their thoughts regarding the portrayal of women in the media." I looked around the site and saw how girls are taking action. They are using the site to talk back to the media. But still, we need to spread the word. I also looked through the "PBG Ad Gallery." Here "girls can log on and make changes to advertisement images that depict women in disempowering ways." Look at one of the many examples I took from the Gallery below. The image on the left is the original magazine cover; the one on the right has been changed by a PBG user. By doing this interactive activity, users can highlight sexualization of women in advertisements we see everyday.
Overall, watching the film Miss Representation and then running into numerous articles and organizations has really been a thought provoking process for me. Women are still constantly objectified and it is what little girls are growing up watching and seeing in the media-- only trying to pursue to be the "perfect" person.
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