Miss Representation Essay

The title Miss Representation garners its power and significance through the play on words of “misrepresentation.” It gives context to the documentary as whole, and primes the viewer with the underlying position that the media holds women back when it misrepresents them. The media’s portrayal of women creates a chain reaction of gender socialization that has lasting effects on the way women are treated and how they treat themselves. Misrepresentation in the media-be it oversexualization of women, negative depictions of high aspirations, or public backlash against the progress of the women’s movement-has very tangible consequences that begin with self-objectification and end with a lack of political efficacy. In between lie compromised mental

While this under-representation is at a full head in the political realm, it begins in the home. One of the striking statistics that flash across the screen states that American teenagers spend thirty one hours a week watching television. There wasn’t enough programming even created the 1920s-1940s to fill that many hours, and by examining the content of television then and now it is clear that amount is not the only attribute of television that has changed. In the 20s-

40s, women were allowed to play multi-dimensional characters in complex roles; women were allowed the full experience of what it means to be human. However, as television and cinema have progressed, woman have been further and further reduced to caricatures of humans, filling only broad character tropes revolving around the much more interesting and complex life of a man, whom is usually a would-be romantic partner. With women as only a grand total of sixteen

Erin Wagner

WST 3015

Miss Representation

Application Paper percent of all protagonists, the misrepresentation of women on screen teaches all