I just want to thank my teacher for having our class go see the documentary Missrepresentation. I feel that everyone should see this movie. It addressed so many things that I am against. The basic jist was that women are misrepresented in media. We are sex toys, objects, weak, emotional, unstable, dependent things to this work. Men run america. 51% of america are women and their opinions are not being accounted for. Sexism in america is running rampant and no one is stopping it even though it is obviously an issue.
I have always been disgusted when I see women and even young girls who are posting naked pictures of themselves on the internet. They are purposely objectifying themselves! Why would anyone do that?! Why would you want to be nothing more than a body to the world? I personally have had men tell me how nice my ass is and they expect me to be flattered. Flattered… really?! I am not flattered! I’m repulsed! Whether you’re 20 or 50, that’s disgusting! I am not some walking sex toy here for your enjoyment.
Another thing that bothers me that american media implants in the minds of young girls and boys alike is that a beautiful woman is skin and bones with large breasts and a round ass, wears skimpy clothes (maybe a piece of fabric and a string that just barely covers them), and has perfect hair, perfect facial features, etc. Young people please realize that none of these things are realistic! Those women in magazines, in cosmo and in playboy, they are photoshopped! No one is that skinny unless they have an eating disorder and anorexia is not sexy! These faces and bodies are blemish free and stick skinny because they have been digitally manipulated. Young girls are developing eating disorders in elementary school because they are being taugh that they are undesirable unless they are nothing but skin and bones. Young boys are being teased because they aren’t men if they get emotional or cry or love. They are both being teased by kids who don’t think that they are beautiful or that they are not masculine to the point where they hurt themselves… and no one is doing anything about this! Kids have committed suicide because of being teased for these things because they have been taught wrong!
Men, what you have been taught to believe is beautiful through the media is wrong. You have been lied to all your lives because of a computer program and unrealistic ideals! The media has made you ignorant. Women who are smart and curvy and undesirable because the media has made you believe that that is not beautiful. Curvy, intelligent, independent women who are not traditionally beautiful are not depicted in the media very often because our country is a country made up of “teenage boys”. It is so sad…
Most movies have a male protagonist and the 14% or so of the time when there is a female protagonist she is STILL being objectified by being put in skimpy clothing. There was a woman in the movie who had a name for these characters. The name had something to do with them being fuck toys and unfortunately I can’t remember what they first word was “______ fuck toys”. Powerful women are not an ideal in this country. I think the reason we have never had a female president is because a supermodel has never run for president. Men would vote for a supermodel and men would vote for men and since their opinions are the only ones being put out there they always win. In movies, chic flick is the name for movies for women. Chic flicks are about women wanting to be desired by men and therefore about men. The video stated that women will watch shows and movies about women and about men, but men will not watch shows about women. That men don’t watch tv, but women do and so they have to try to make men watch. Women grow up to believe that they are supposed to be swept off their feet by a knight in shining armor and live happily ever after. Well I for one am making my own happily ever after. Sure, it may involve a man someday, but for now I am a strong, independent woman with more ambition than most men could handle to be around. When I look sexy, it’s classy and it’s for me, not anyone else. My clothes, my makeup, my body. They look the way they do for me. I may not look like a supermodel, but damn it… I am beautiful. And so are each and every single one of you men and women that may be reading this. Please, if you can, watch Missrepresentation. Our country desperately needs to make a change and you may not even realize how you contribute to these stereotypes. Even I myself did not realize I was helping this horrible cause. This video explains exactly why I care about what other people post on their facebooks and twitters and such. Those posts that may seem like nothing but a cry for compliments… they are influencing someone whether they realize it or not. Please, teach the next generation the truth about beauty, emotions, and leadership. Someone has to and I intend to.
“Be the change you wish to see in the world” -Mahatma Ghandi
