Miss Representation - Documentary on women in media

[karadinart]

Speed past the self-congrats ads for O Network and the back-patting of the director, once you get into the meat of the interviews with women in positions of power, it's interesting, and the stats certainly make you stand up and pay attention, it's not just about how images of women in media make us unhappy with our physicality (after all that's how you sell product) but it's about how this hinders our advance into the political arena and how as soon as women make any headway at all, the pushback is so strong.

Women create most of the blogging content online (about 80%) at least, so let's start harnessing this energy.

Comments

[bulleteyes.livejournal.com]

I've been renting an apartment in a historic old house near a large university. The other renters are all students. It has been shocking to be around the young women, and disturbing. They are in worse mental and emotional shape than women were when I was in school. I am around lovely, intelligent young women who doubt themselves to their very core. They are consumed with not looking good enough to the point they are completely unaware of their current beauty.

I've been encouraging them ever chance I get. Telling them how beautiful they are, how they look fabulous at their current weight, that they are so very, very smart. At first they look at me like I am insane, then they begin to listen. Here I am, a 60 year-old woman and I am telling them they genuinely are beautiful, are smart, are worthwhile, can do what they set their minds to do are not "going" to look good but are already there! Sometimes I can see it beginning to soak in. I have to wonder if it is the first time some of them have ever heard this kind of attention directed towards them. They need so much encouragement. I love giving it to them.

[karadin.livejournal.com]

I'm really glad you are there to do this, I also try as much as I can. I sometimes if it was always as bad (but we weren't as aware it was a problem) or perhaps the media-saturation is really exacerbating the problem.