An engaged crowd gathered in Wilson Auditorium to gain insight on how the media affects female’s perceptions of themselves when the documentary, Miss Representation was screened and its writer/director/producer, Jennifer Siebel Newsom spoke November 5.
The movie and Q & A was split up with Miss Representation screening at 10:00 am and Newsom speaking at 1:00 pm.
The Miss Representation screening began with Heather Brown, a board member for Gender Studies at the University, thanking Katherine Parkin, associate professor, Robin Mamma, Dean of the School for Social Work, and acknowledging departments like the School of Social Work. Before the movie started, she simply said, “The film speaks for itself.”
Miss Representation examined how the media has taken a hold on society and presented unnecessary arch types for women and even men.
While Newsom uses figures to show media consumption and psychological effects, the film’s spark is with its interview subjects. They offered strong insight on how people see, think, or view media afflicting females. Condoleezza Rice, Nancy Pelosi, and Diane Feinstein demonstrated females that are driven and strong when it comes to politics and how they are treated.
Newsom also included entertainers like Geena Davis, Margaret Cho, and Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke to sound off on this problem. Cho talked about getting on a TV show only to be told she wasn’t skinny enough, and developed an eating disorder.
Newsom added balance at times in Miss Representation with a male perspective as people like Newark Mayor Cory Booker and California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom ignore media definitions on women and work to rectify this issue.
The director also talked to those bombarded and influenced most by the media with thoughts from high school students. It was tough to hear girls feel they need to conform to what TV and films show and how it affects them. One girl, Maria, cried as she talked about her sister and how she cuts herself.
Newsom also heard from a few boys who discussed how they view the media as being unfair to women. One boy said his male family members want him to be tough and strong but he doesn’t feel the same way. Early on, Newsom talked about learning she was pregnant with a girl saying, “I want a different world for my daughter and her generation.” Hearing these kids speak showed she may have found a way to connect her ideas with them.
Newsom and editor Jessica Congdon compiled a number of montages showing women being negatively portrayed as sex objects or with impossible beauty with TV clips (“The Bad Girls Club”) and films (Sucker Punch) to give context toward what people were saying. It was interesting to see these clips yet in the context of Miss Representation, it showed how the media alters women and men’s perception on what they need to aspire to.
“I thought the movie was pretty accurate,” said Kyla Kendrick, senior. “The problem is how we socialize women and, how for women in power, it emasculates men.”
Newsom also observed how the news plays into the media’s gender game by observing female newscasters dressing up more than they should or reporters gossiping about female figures than males.
A good example of focusing on women superfluously was a “Morning Joe” clip where Joe Scarborough wanted to talk about Paris Hilton as his female co-host got annoyed.
Miss Representation peels back the ideal that females in society need to look and act certain ways. Girls and women should be allowed to be themselves based on nothing else but their intelligence, merit, and spirit. The film showed in WWII, women stepped up when men went to war and the time has come to bring that back.
Mike Kulik, a physical education and health major, said, “I think it definitely brought attention that women are oppressed in the media.” He also said on his future media intake, “I feel like I’ll look at it differently than I have in the past.”
At the Q & A presentation, Stanton Green, Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Science, introduced Newsom and her past/future work. Newsom began by saying, “I believe America can do better. We haven’t had the feminine in leadership. We haven’t had the care in leadership. Where did this go wrong?”
Newsom pointed toward four areas, starting with how her son got gifts like a t-shirt that said “Future President” but her daughter didn’t.
Next, she discussed Halloween costumes for girls promoting “beauty and sex” and “violence and mastering the environment” for boys. Newsom also said how she was told to lie about her age and erase her MBA from her resume while off in Hollywood. “If you can make a sex tape and party with the best of them, you can be a celebrity our society tells us,” Newsom said.
The last thing she mentioned was the individual and how they work toward change. She summarized Miss Representation as “a catalyst for culture change one individual at a time.”
“Use your power as consumers wisely. Together we can spark small changes and lead to big changes,” she said.
Melissa Glavin, a freshman, said, “I thought what she is doing is a good thing and brought up more issues.” She also said men should be included more in this discussion.
During the Q & A, Newsom talked about what one does when their children leave the parental bubble, being a mother, using feminine versus feminists, and much more.
One man asked about makeup and Newsom said, “Kids should never wear make-up. ‘Toddler and Tiaras’ is extremely scary” when it comes to this.
A male student asked Newsom how media representations affect males. She said, “It’s harmful to men. I think the men in this room are healthy role models. I think we need more male mentoring programs like we have female mentoring programs.” The writer/director/producer also mentioned how in Hollywood she would be casted as a mistress, sex kitten, or trophy wife.
Newsom also talked about a page on her website missrepresentation.org called Take Action, where they hold a campaign for sexy vs. sexism and that people “will flood network inboxes for why [a film, TV show, etc.] is bad.”
Kulik, who was also at the Q & A said, “I feel [Newsom] was really good at expanding some things and bringing in new thoughts.”
When The Outlook asked Claude Taylor, Communication professor, about the film, he said, “The kind of work this film does is raise awareness, a film can start momentum. It raises awareness and is tied to who is in the audience.”
Taylor also said, “There is still a lot of work to be done in gender equality.”
For more information on Miss Representation, visit missrepresentation.org
PHOTO COURTESY of celebritywonder.ugo.com
