A Review of Missrepresentation

Missrepresentation, a documentary created by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, explores the role of media in the characterization of women. Using statistics, female experts, and personal stories of how women are mistreated by the media, the documentary delivers three powerful messages. The driving force behind the media’s objectification of women comes from corporate companies who control the media. Although women are mistreated, men are also victims of the media’s model of the ideal man and woman. Lastly, unregulated television causes even more objectification of women.

The media is controlled by a handful of corporate companies such as Time Warner Cable, Disney, and CBS. These companies’ only goal is to make money. They make the most profitable advertisements by displaying pictures of physically perfect women, making real women insecure about their body. As a result, these women spend their money on beauty products to achieve the media’s idea of perfection. Before watching this documentary, I didn’t know that control of the media and advertising was in the hands of so few companies. Without strong regulation from the Federal Communications Commission, these companies can display images that promote violence and the objectification of women.

Although women are degraded by the media, men are also victims. The media portrays the ideal man as a strong and unemotional pillar the woman can lean on. Men are expected to embody this stereotype and are considered “unmanly” when they show emotion. The media expects the woman to be emotional and incapable of handling pressure. These two stereotypes are polar opposites of each other, and few men or women truly embody the media’s vision of the ideal man and woman.

At the beginning of the 20th century, women were making enormous strides in equal rights, equal wages, and the right to vote. There was opposition to this growing women’s rights movement. Through the widespread use of the television,