Miss Representation: Media Literacy in Today’s Society

The documentary Miss Representation discusses how the media has been under-representing women in positions of power. In this film, it exposes how the media and society contribute to this sort of sexism. This reality exists on an everyday basis, but it is glazed over for a vast majority of the time. In this American society we live in, the media is one of the most persuasive aspects in putting together cultural norms. Miss Representation compiles stories from young girls and interviews with politicians, journalists, actresses, and other activists. It contains eye-opening facts and statistics while bringing out a new perspective on the topic.

Jennifer Siebel Newsom is the writer, director, and producer of Miss Representation. According to The Representation Project, she is “a filmmaker, CEO, advocate, and thought leader”. She wrote the documentary in 2011 after graduating from Stanford University and getting a graduate degree in the Stanford School of Business. Newsom was registered Republican in 2008 but has since registered as an independent voter. Newsom started out as an actress, but saddened by the way she had seen women being portrayed in front of the camera, she decided she wanted to do more influential work behind the scenes. She has been passionate about this topic, thus creating Miss Representation. This film had a powerful impact, and Newsom then created The Representation Project, “a nonprofit organization that uses film and media as a catalyst for cultural transformation.”

The narrative is told through Newsom herself, a survivor of assault, eating disorders, and the Hollywood industry, who uses her pregnancy to start off the film for inquiry into this system. The initial question about images of women in the media gets us caught in a trap that accuses advertising for bringing about the content of TV shows and media as vehicles for the advertisements, which needs to create insecurity in people so end up purchasing the products, so the companies can keep buying ads on the networks. The numerous accusations are conveyed clearly and effectively in this film. Miss Representation’s flaw could be that is that the overflow of information can feel overwhelming at times, but there is no real way around it, and it is important information to put out there. Also, the entire film does a good job with tugging at the heartstrings, which could be a tactic used to suck more people in. Newsom’s own story gives the audience some intimacy with her personal context to a large amount of statistics, as well as interviews with high school students who are very intelligent and bring out emotion.

The key phrase for Miss Representation is “you can’t be what you can’t see,” which is meant to state the fact that girls cannot become successful, self-assured, empowered, and engaged if they do not see women who embody these traits on television, in movies, or in magazines. It is a powerful message. However, Newsom seems to commit the very sin of which she hopes to rid the world. We do not see a whole lot of different sorts of women in the film. For example, women with disabilities - whose large-scale exclusion by the mainstream media contributes greatly to the discrimination they experience every day, as their abilities and intelligence are routinely under-estimated or outright dismissed - are not shown. We see quite a lot of white, privileged women talking throughout the course of the film, which means there is no room for much else. There are a few women of color, such as Margaret Cho and Rosario Dawson, but they are in more of a supporting role. One could ask the question, is Newsom partaking in the objectifying she is claiming to criticize by replaying degrading images? It could be argued that showing this sort of victimization is further victimizing the subjects. That is a dilemma that journalists may face.

Miss Representation expresses the dire need for improved media literacy, especially in today’s society, being constantly sucked into our screens. At the end of the film, Newsom suggested ways to spread awareness to this issue of objectifying women in the media. Some of her suggestions include protests, taking time to think about personal contributions to sexism in daily life, and proposing media literacy courses focused on gender issues. It is important to know how to use media in a rightful way, using it to do good instead of spreading content that is harmful and may lead to a distortion of misleading outcomes.