I did something super nerdy. Even nerdier than usual. I went to see a screening of a documentary...at a museum...not for a class. And I'm so glad that I did.
It was called Miss Representation. It's all about sexism in the media. If you haven't seen this movie, you should. It completely expressed a lot of what I have been thinking for a long time.
Despite the women's rights movement women are still objectified and sexualized. Some would argue that is more true today than it was fifty years ago. The problems this creates for young girls (and boys) are so far reaching. The rates of depression in women and girls has increased dramatically in the last decade. Violent crimes against women are also increasing. At the same time, women's satisfaction with their lives and bodies is decreasing. Young girls have few role models, even fictional ones, to look up to; only 1/4 of movies have a female protagonist and most of the their stories are about finding a man. All of this leads young girls to grow into women who are less confident and empowered, and who do not believe that they are worth more than their body.
For example, did you know that for the first time since 1970 women lost seats in congress? We make up 51% of the population, but only 17% of senators and representatives! After the way that both Hillary Clinton and Sara Pallin were treated in the 2008 election, it's no wonder women stay away from politics! Everyone was more concerned about what they looked like than what they were actually saying.
Looking back I think that my feminist streak comes from the fact that I am the only girl. My brothers and my parents never made gender an issue. If I was going to play with the boys I played what they were playing; if they were going to play with me they played what I was playing. We were adventurers and pirates and space travelers, and all kind of other awesome stuff together. It wasn't until I went to school and was told that I couldn't play kickball because it was a boys game that I realized that boys and girls were expected to act differently. Another time, my friend (who was a boy) was teased mercilessly because we sometimes played Family together...it probably didn't help that I was the mom who went to work and he was the dad who stayed home with the kids. (To make it so he wouldn't get teased, we decided that the reason he stayed home was actually because he was a super hero. Having a day job would distract him from his crime fighting duties.)
The whole thing makes me really upset. It seems like this discrimination is so engrained in our culture that there is no way to root it out! But there is hope; people (obviously) are still talking about and thinking about this problem. And when I have children, boys or girls, they will be taught to respect and value everyone as a human being, based on their minds and hearts.
2 comments:
Jess! I am so thankful for people like you that also understand this problem! It is so encouraging!!! We are not alone! We will have to be the role models of our future children in changing this injustice.
I really liked your blog! Also, to give you hope, my friend who came to the screening with us was one of the last people on earth that I thought would understand feminism or be a feminist, and now she is (to a good extent, I would say)! Praise God for the fact that he opens up our eyes!
-Kiana
You were the one who made me want to go see it, so thank you!
I really liked, too, what you said about how the new wave of feminism is just as guilty of sexualizing women as the other side...it's in a different way, but it still leads to women being looked at only as sexual beings.
And praise God for bringing us to people who can help Him open our eyes :)
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