Miss Representation: Infuriating & Inspiring

Several months ago, I submitted my suggestion for Miss Representation to the Oneota Film Festival.

I was thrilled to see that it made the cut and saw it with my husband at 9 AM this morning in one of the large lecture halls at Luther College.

I have written before about the impact of media on girls and women. It drives me CRAZY! This film just fueled my fire.

As the mother of a 14-year-old daughter, I get to witness first hand the detrimental effect of the media on this generation. Sure, we were concerned about our weight and appearance when we were young. But not like this. And not as young.

According to the film, American teenagers consume 10.75 hours of media per day. This is unheard of!

In one week American teenagers spend 31 hours watching TV, 17 hours listening to music, 3 hours watching movies, 4 hours reading magazines, 10 hours online. That’s 10 hours and 45 minutes of media consumption a day. ~Miss Representation

During this time, they see ads that tell them that they’re not beautiful enough, not buff enough, and not rich enough. Not to mention violence against women and portrayals of women as sex objects. Female politicians are scrutinized based on their looks rather than their policies. And mostly, we see young, attractive, slim women – even though we all know they don’t represent the majority of American women.

This reminds me of the book Think where Lisa Bloom reminds us women to stop buying the sleazy magazines and to use our brains to learn about the real world around us. She talks about how her producer wants her to cover celebrity stories over important world events. Because it’s what people want to hear…

And there’s the crux of the matter, isn’t it. We can’t blame it all on the media. We all share some responsibility for what we watch, what we let our children watch, and voting for good content with our money. That’s not to give the media a pass – no way! They also share responsibility for what they put out.

I’m not going to get into the debate of whether or not policy change is what’s needed. However, we can all be part of making a change here.

The Miss Representation movement has a great twitter campaign where if you see an inappropriate ad/TV show/video game/etc you can tweet the name of it followed by the #notbuyingit tag.

Maybelline’s “baby lips?” @RepresentPledge #NotBuyingIt I am a WOMAN not a baby.

You can also take the pledge on the Miss Representation website and spread the word.

We’re canceling Netflix for a while and have already cancelled Teen Vogue (working on Seventeen). I’ve just had enough. I want a better world for my daughter – just like the creator of Miss Representation. It can happen if we get off our couches, stop mindlessly surfing the Internet, and start making some noise.

And if you’ve even tentatively considering running for public office – do it! You’ll be better at it than you think.

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