Miss Representation: A Film Review

The idea that stuck strongly throughout the Miss Representation film is that women in the spotlight are not recognized for their accomplishments, but their gender and looks. Women are being criticized, degraded, dehumanized, and objectified based on their looks alone, not even their roles in the spotlight. Women are being seen as non-threatening and are not being taken seriously.

Girls get the message very early on that the most important thing is how they look. The idea that your looks determine your value, self-worth, and achievements matter less. As for boys, the message that looks are most important is broadcast through advertising, films, TV shows, video games, and history.

The symbolic annihilation of women leads to more self-objection. The negative impacts women face from this include things like shame, anxiety, self-loathing, lower confidence, developing an eating disorder, as well as lower political efficacy.

Many women, like Katie Couric, Sarah Palin, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, Madeleine Albright, Nancy Pelosi, and Hillary Clinton, are all objectified and degraded weekly by old white men on radio shows. These men make remarks such as: “Look at these ugly skanks who make up the big female leadership of the democratic party.” -Lee Rodgers Show.

One thing women can do to overcome these challenges is just expose these men for what they are doing and by doing that they can rehumanize themselves. Hillary Clinton does an incredible job of broadcasting the message of just how effective these words are on not just women but young girls as well.

In her video, she’s using the words Donald Trump used to describe her but she’s creating the idea that it affects the way young girls see themselves as if the words were being used against them and not Hillary herself. By doing this people can see the effects of the words being used as detrimental and disgusting and it is easier to come to terms that there in fact should be proper respect amongst everyone.

Video of Hillary Clinton