Blog 3 Chris Bertrand

I found Missrepresentation to be a very refreshing point of view and critique of our culture and society. Before I watched the documentary I thought it wasn't too hard to notice how women are unfairly represented in our country, but it was really surprising to hear we were 90th on female representation in our government figures globally and the degree to which women are handicapped in our society. I think we tend to not really challenge or notice the unfair treatment of women in our society because it's, more or less, the current status quo. Men built the country, ran the advertisements, and consequently... created our culture to be patriarchal and by design suppress the female half (more than half) of the population. This is a sad reality, truly.
I think one of the most debilitating aspects of the sexist stigma in our country is the lack of female representation in government positions. One woman was speaking about how all legislature/policies passed without the presence/contribution of women is invalid/faulty legislature/policy. I agree and sort of disagree with her statement  "Because men, and basically only men, were voting on a bill, it's wrong/faulty" is more or less the point she made, but too quickly and from a place of resentment. Now I think there's a good general point to be made (what i took from it): Woman contributors would benefit the law making process as a whole(different perspectives, though process, contributions etc). The way she said this information came off as "only women are capable of making the right decisions/ enacting correct legislature" and I think that's equally detrimental as excluding women.
An interesting fact I noted was that 58% of women were unhappy with their bodies at age 13, and that number goes up to 73% by age 17. Now, figures don't lie... but liers figure. This is probably 100% accurate but I think there could be some selective information going on. They never tell us how men feel about their bodies from age 13-17, I'm sure the expected stats would draw a powerful contrast, or would they...? Another thing: 17 is an age where both sexes are probably very self conscious about their bodies, not just women. What about women (or men) in their 20's? 40's? 60's? I think the documentary could have done a better job of covering more angles, not just on this particular fact, but throughout the documentary. Given the objective of the documentary, that would maybe offer less of an impact...
Overall this documentary was a good "eye-opener" in the sense that it really made me notice the sexist aspects of our society, when before I didn't consider myself a sexist by any means, I realize how I consciously and subconsciously play into certain social conventions that propel negative views of women. Before watching this I never payed close attention to the "make me a sandwich" comments or cosmetic commercials that litter our culture, but now I can do my best to censor any remotely sexist comments/ideas on my behalf.