The documentary Miss Representation
explores how women are represented in media and how this affects women in our
society today to feel that need to have the perfect figure to be a exactly what
a man wants and that they don’t have worth besides how they are seen on the
outside. Jennifer Newson, the narrator
and creator of this film, reflects on her own experiences and what she will do
to educate her daughter, which is soon to be born.
In the telling of her story, she uses the combination of her personal story, the stories of others, both men and women, through interviews and verité footage, startling and revealing images, dramatic statistics. Personally, I thought the combination was powerful and I especially enjoyed the interviews. It made me feel that people were on my side, as a woman, and that there were many people who saw this as an issue and it had affected them personally.
The graphic images of women in media was a little manipulating. It was if they were looking through all of the media of this past decade and finding the worst to feature. However, in my personal experience, I have seen women portrayed in a very similar light. I was able to understand what she was trying to accomplish by backing up the words of people in interviews with very powerful evidence, with themes that are still present in media today.
Some of the more effective scenes that I saw were of the interviews of the younger girls and boys. It made me think of not only myself at that age, but of the future girls that I’ll have in my own family. I recognized the same struggles that I had as a teenager and I wondered, just like Newson, about what I would do to educate and encourage my future girls. Along with that, it was powerful of her to share her own story and her worries about the baby girl that she was pregnant with and would bring into a world in which her gender was represented in such a negative way. It gave the film a personal angle for her and also for me.
In the telling of her story, she uses the combination of her personal story, the stories of others, both men and women, through interviews and verité footage, startling and revealing images, dramatic statistics. Personally, I thought the combination was powerful and I especially enjoyed the interviews. It made me feel that people were on my side, as a woman, and that there were many people who saw this as an issue and it had affected them personally.
The graphic images of women in media was a little manipulating. It was if they were looking through all of the media of this past decade and finding the worst to feature. However, in my personal experience, I have seen women portrayed in a very similar light. I was able to understand what she was trying to accomplish by backing up the words of people in interviews with very powerful evidence, with themes that are still present in media today.
Some of the more effective scenes that I saw were of the interviews of the younger girls and boys. It made me think of not only myself at that age, but of the future girls that I’ll have in my own family. I recognized the same struggles that I had as a teenager and I wondered, just like Newson, about what I would do to educate and encourage my future girls. Along with that, it was powerful of her to share her own story and her worries about the baby girl that she was pregnant with and would bring into a world in which her gender was represented in such a negative way. It gave the film a personal angle for her and also for me.
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