Within the last decade (more than ever), women of all ages, races, body types, occupations, educational levels, and so on have been increasingly shamed, stereotyped, and used. Although we have made and are still making the gradual, treacherous journey to equal pay and equal treatment, it stills seems that women are still the victims of mistreatment. This is especially true throughout different media platforms, from social media to political news stories. We see many cases of women being sexualized and noticed only for their looks and outward appearance. Still, us ladies are being placed inside this mold based on a 1950s housewife, where all we're "supposed" to do is get married, stay home, cook, clean, and get dominated by our husbands. News flash, it's 2017!
In the film MissRepresentation, our eyes are opened to the many factors in how the world sees women and how women are affected. What I expected to find out is that early on, girls are taught that their "value" is based on how you look, as if we're a painting up for sale at an auction and only the prettiest ones seem to be the most valuable & popular. What I didn't expect is that 53% of girls are unhappy with their bodies, which increases to 78% by the time we're 17. 53% of girls alone?! That's insane! By the looks of it, however, it's mainly how media has portrayed us over the last decade or so. For example, when women are put up against each other, ranging from reality TV to political races, the media always implies that its a "catfight." It's the same idea of being paintings at an auction: only the prettiest ones get picked, or in this case "win."
Another outlet of female discrimination is in movies. A new and more explicit term one of the women mentioned in the film was "fighting fucktoy" (excuse my language) This correlates to movies that feature seemingly strong, female superheroes who are independent, yet their "costume" is very revealing, making their character sexualized yet again. This kind of dehumanization not only tells girl that they are sexual objects, but also affects boys, in that they are focused on their boobs or their scandalous outfit rather than the character's ambition, drive, and strength. In addition, there is always the stereotypical "chick flick" character. This women has got her whole life together, but then she meets some guy and the plot develops into a story about her going through the ups and downs of dating and trying to win this guy over. Once again, this is reinforcing the idea that boys can easily "get" women and become the center of our universe, as well showing girls all they should do in life is meet some guy and live happily ever after.
Even though our society working towards gender equality, deep down ingrained in our roots is a patriarchal-driven world. As one of the women in the film put it, "Patriarchy is America's default setting." We were so close to changing that this past presidential election, but clearly the patriarchy is still deeply rooted in many people's brains. I'm hoping we can change the status quo drastically and value women for their accomplishments, not their bodies or looks.
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