Miss Representation, by Jennifer Siebel

Miss Representation, by Jennifer Siebel

Introduction

The documentary film “Miss Representation,” written and directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, tries to expose how culture, as well as the mainstream media, contribute to the degrading of women in power and influence. Furthermore, the film attempts to reveal a glaring reality in modern society but fails to capture the limited and often disparaging perception of women by the media. As a result, women and girls in today’s world find it somehow challenging to feel powerful or achieve leadership positions. In the film, Jennifer postulates that society today uses the media as a way of shaping cultural norms. On the contrary, the media itself portrays the wrong perception of the masses (Crittenden 72). The media, according to the film, displays women as people whose value and power lie in their beauty, youth and sexuality and not in their ability to lead. In order to get a clear understanding of Jennifer’s thesis, I was able to point out a few strengths and weaknesses of the film.

1. Strengths

First, the film’s objective of capturing the deregulation of women in power by the media is well covered by the writer. This deceptive act by the communications industry has triggered the emergence of massive media conglomerates that assists us in having a comprehensive understanding of the larger political climate in the content we consume daily. The media has championed in lifting restrictions and allowing the more prominent names to buy out the smaller community-based outlet. In turn, this has resulted in a steady decrease in narrative diversity. This means that a handful of compelling people, who do not care about women, can control the majority of the information passed to the public (Siebel). One of the featured interviewees, Margaret Cho, states that “The media treats women like shit.” This statement alone describes the thesis of the film. Moreover, quite a several characters in the film are described by the writer in depressingly cohesive montages: A young girl, probably six years old or slightly less, is seen adjusting her pageant costume whereas her mother glues on fake eyelashes. All these illustrations indicate that there is indeed a problem in which the director captures brilliantly.

Secondly, the writer has been able to capture how capitalist interests are at the forefront of the media industry. Jennifer Siebel Newsom postulates that the problem of women’s misrepresentation cannot be covered without addressing the inherent problems of capitalism. The film looks at all the subtle ways in which women are belittled and undermined by the communications industry. An example is illustrated when the reporters describe women politicians as having “whined” when airing out their criticisms, unlike the usual “stated” or “said” used in coverage of their male counterparts (Duncan 05). The writer used this style to address the thesis of the film- portraying acts of blatant sexism by the media. My take on this is that the average person is entirely aware that women are underrepresented by the media they consume.

1. Weaknesses

Despite the attempts to bring out the biases in media coverage, there are several demerits exposed on the same. To begin with, there is a selected group of experts in the film who are treated differently from the rest of the characters in the film. This group consists of brilliant and powerful women. Unlike most characters, these women get more face-time in the film, which can be viewed as a setback. Some of these women include Pat Mitchell (MA, President, and CEO for the Paley Center for Media); Caroline Heldman (Ph.D., Associate Professor of Political Science at Occidental College); Marie Wilson, Geena Davis, and Jane Fonda. These are the type of role models that the director of the film tries to highlight to counter the degraded and objectified women who are rendered voiceless by the biased media. As high as the move seems, this act proves to be a juxtaposition. The film tries to challenge the media’s perception of women, and somehow, the writer does it herself (Johnson 221). By giving these educated and knowledgeable women more screen time and little screen time to the uneducated and ignorant displays the same inequity in the mainstream media by focusing more on capitalists than the smaller groups. She encourages the media’s move indirectly by quoting high profile women in the film- a move that is neither productive nor innovative (Crittenden 72). From my point of view, revolution can only be achieved if the participant is revolutionary, not only in the message but also the targeted public.

Lastly, it is clear from the film that there are a lot of privileged white women doing most of the talking. On the other hand, we do not see a lot of anybody else. We see few colored women with exceptional insights and experiences such as Margaret Cho and Rosario Dawson, who play supporting roles. Jennifer Siebel lets the usual suspects take the leading role. She reinforces the prevailing ideology of making the formally educated white person’s knowledge and vast experiences core while the rest are left to supplement. Just like most feminist documentaries, I find no difference in classifying this film as one of those race-based documentaries having the superior race taking the central act. About the film’s slogan, “you cannot be what you cannot see,” we can conclude that girls cannot become successful, empowered, and civically engaged if they do not see women with similar traits on the media platform. In addition to this, we do not see women from marginalized groups such as disabled women whose abilities and intelligence are regularly discriminated against.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there is a need for enhanced media literacy in our culture. We need to understand that media is a construct- it can either be used as a mirror of the society or manipulated by a few influential individuals for their interests. The economic activities of large media mainstreams are a concept that ought to be taught in school, together with reading, writing, and arithmetic (Johnson 219). Everybody has the responsibility of fighting the passive consumption of media in this modern society, which is bombarded with screens and advertising images everywhere we go. The film “Miss Representation” provides one way of combating this issue. Moreover, other minorities and special groups should also be involved in this good fight in order to attain equality in both rights and responsibilities (Duncan 03). The long term objective of this film is to promote equality, community healing, as well as encouraging the privileged to work just as hard to mitigate oppressive power structures and subvert the status quo. I believe that the objective of combating women’s discrimination in the communication industry has been covered.