Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Breecia Gray, Blog #3 Miss Representation

In the opening credits of Miss Representaion, many faces are flashed on the screen. Faces of female movie stars, models, politicians, news anchors etc. From the begining, I sadly realized that I am far more familiar with the Hollywood faces then of the women who I personally believe to be far more accomplished. I was shocked at many of the facts presented in the documentary. A couple of them really stood out in my mind. Though women make up 51% of the population in this country, only 17% of women are politicians. We are ranked 90th in the world in terms of women in politics. I was always under the impression that we were a leader in terms of equality. There are many women news anchors, even on CNN. We even had Hilary Clinton running for President not so long ago. The film points out that we actually have fewer woman in congress than we have had in the last 30 years. Thats a phenomonal set back. Until watching this, I never realized how much women in politics are sort of picked on. I remeber a lot of talk about Hilary's age and Sarah Pallins legs, but never thought much of it. An old roommate of mine is really into Glen Beck. I always thought he was sort of an out there guy, how could ANYBODY find him believable? During the elections in 2012 I realized that many people I know, men and woman alike, support him and his ideas. I saw what a huge influence is show had on people and he really seemed to frame their opinions on who they should vote for to be the next President. Some of these people I know actually voted for Obama in 2008, but had changed their opinions after watching Glen Beck. If one mans reach can go that far, it is not surprising that the media has such an impact on our view points.

2 comments:

  1. I still think the US is a world leader in equality. The only way (I believe) we wouldn't be number one in equality is if one of those smaller places we don't pay much attention to beats us out (you know, like Singapore, Finland, or Australia; but I doubt that). And we are definitely in front of those other places like the Middle East, that wrap their women in cloth and cover their faces, or China that (may or may not) still "get rid of" first born daughters that "should have been male". Sure those places may have apparently ranked higher than us in women in government, but we don't know what position they hold. And positions in government and equality are two different things. So don't worry Breecia, we're still number one (or so) in terms of equality. America.

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  2. Good post on “Miss Representation Breecia. I am with you when you said you realized that you where more familiar with actors than women in politics or intellectual women. And the numbers show this. I also see that women in politics getting picked on, and that’s not good, because it fuels the blaze and that doesn’t help fix the problem.

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