Woman are 56% of the population, yet only 17% of Congress, 3% of Fortune 500 CEO’s, hold only 3% of clout positions in media ( and in a staggering unreal statistic, only 1 women is on the board of Fox News out of 15 ) and are 7% of directors and 13% of the film writers. These are all jaw dropping statistics quoted in Miss Representation and yet the predominant message we hear over and over, is that women have broken through the glass ceiling, that feminism isn’t necessary and above all, that empowerment for women is by having control of a sexualized, “good” body.
One of the most indelible arguments of the film is by Jennifer Pozner, Executive Director of Women in Media & News and author of Reality Bites Back, where she talks about Reality TV being the backlash to women’s empowerment, showing women as bitch, catty, gold-diggers, over-sexualized, often kept in a harem like environment to vie for the affections of some man they have not spent more then fifteen minutes with.Pozner, quotes ” The fact that the media is so derogatory to women in power, what does it say about the media’s ability to take women seriously ? “. They explore cat-fights and ” the fighting fuck-toy ” , how the majority of women on TV are under the age of 31 when the majority of women in this country are over the age of 45. How movies with female protagonists are there, but are really just looking for a man or to be looked at by a man. How animated characters in G-rated movies on average wear the same amount of clothing as female characters in R-rated movies. These are sly attempts to convince us that women are present, but really just as decoration, as objects, as eye candy.
http://community.feministing.com/2011/02/14/miss-representation-a-film-review/
