MissRepresentation - Documentary and Campaign

Whilst trawling the internet for my initial research, I stumbled across a campaign and documentary named 'MissRepresentation'. The campaign focuses on the under-representation of women as leaders in the media. They state that young girls women are sold the idea that their value lies in beauty, slimness, youth and sexuality and not in their capacity of leaders and that boys learn that their leadership is tied to dominance, aggression and power. The campaign aims to teach people how to value others as beings and not as gendered stereotypes.

The campaign comes along with a documentary that is available to rent on youtube, I was pretty interested and it only cost a few pound so I didn't see the harm. The documentary covered a vast array of topics and revealed the medias limited portrayal of women and the effect that this is having upon young girls and women. I wrote down a few notes and statistics whilst watching the documentary so i'm going to put them on here to refer back to at a later date.

"To be a woman means to be constantly striving for perfection and beauty - eating disorders - self worth"

53% of 13 year old girls are unhappy with their bodies - number increases to 78% by age 17

65% of women and girls have an eating disorder

17% of teens engage in self-injurious behaviour

Rates of depression amongst girls and women have doubled between 2000 and 2010

U.S. women spend $12,000 to $15,000 a year on beauty and salon services

The number of cosmetic surgical procedures performed on youth under age 19 has more than tripled from 1997 to 2007

Self-objectification has become a national epidemic - APA - Negative consequences including shame, anxiety, self-disgust

The more women and girls self objectify, the more likely they are to be depressed, have eating disorders, lower confidence, lower ambition, lower cognitive function, lower GPA's

Gender-Bias - women make up 51% of american citizens, yet only 17% of congress

Film & TV

- Women are very rarely protagonists, unless it's male related drama
- Only 16% of protagonists in films are female
- Movies contain more violence, sex and profanity than a decade ago
- Women in their teens, 20's and 30's are 39% of the population, yet are 71% of women on tv
- Women 40 and older are 47% of the population yet are 26% of women on tv
- News hosts often consist of an older male and a younger female - childlike - lower status


Media is overwhelmingly in the hands of men

Women comprise only 16% of all writers, directors, producers, cinematographers and editors

Symbolic Annihilation - The absence of representation or underrepresentation of a group of people in the media 

Objectifying and dehumanising a person is the first step towards justifying violence - rape - sexual abuse 

1 in 4 girls experience teen dating violence 
1 in 4 women are abused by a partner in their lifetime 
1 in 6 women are survivors of rape or attempted rape 
15% of rape survivors are under the age of 12
Rape survivors are more likely to suffer depression, abuse alcohol or drugs, contemplate suicide

Men are taught to have a lack of emotion expressed - Manifests in violent and mysoginistic ways

**Watched 5/4/17 on youtube**

The quotes and statistics that stuck out to me most here where the ones that involved the impact that media was having on our mental health. I feel that this is something that I would like to explore further. Last year I looked at sexualisation of the female form so I feel that I have some background into what i'm wanting to research into. Although this time I want to be looking at self-objectification and the impact that that is having on women and girls.