Mjeteconer
Just perfect...
Memorergi
good film but with many flaws
Invaderbank
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Mr-Fusion
"Miss Representation" makes some very good points, but the execution was a bit of a turnoff. That opening strings score while statistics are being thrown on to the screen borders on fear-mongering, and Jennifer Newsom cuts in throughout with a somber voice-over. The front end of this thing skews melodramatic. Eventually, the documentary settles into the material, and it makes a solid argument. The shocking double standard of judging (and prizing) women differently than men in the media, the teenagers who work overtime to fit a media ideal. It's an engaging piece. This is worth it if you can get beyond the clumsy opening. I have a child of my own, and I can empathize with Newsom in worrying about the world in which she'll grow up. It's just that the motherhood aspect was shoe-horned into the documentary.6/10
eurograd
Miss Representation address, mostly, the important issue of how women are represented in the media and the impact such representations have on how society perceives women, how it affects the ability of women to reach higher echelons of media-related positions, and how that in turn affects programming, choices in advertising, and perpetuation and certain stereotypes and patterns. On this aspect, it delivers quite a powerful message. However, there are also serious flaws, some of argument, some of execution.While I myself fully support gender equality, and otherwise agree with the problem of glass ceilings and reduction of professional women to their sexualized attributes, I think it is very, very worrying the suggestion for some level of censorship and regulation of media content, especially the implication that some government agency should step in to enforce "family standards" in online content production and broadcasting. As a viewer, I was left with the impression the producers really didn't have a clue about issues concerning freedom of speech and were incredibly naive on their pro-censorship stance (since it doesn't resonate with the rest of the documentary).Editing also could have been better. Some of the short testimonials could have been consolidated in longer shots focusing just one subject, instead of having too many parallel interviews clumsy moving forward on little bits that often got lost. Finally, I think they could have better explored the hook on how sexist attitudes are bad not only for girls and women, but also for men. That would make the documentary even more interesting, although it already lacks, fortunately, a us vs. them tone.
mngnm94
To explain what is wrong with this movie's theory here is the description of my political beliefs from my dating profile:I like equal rights, but we need to consider EVERYBODY'S rights while fighting for the rights of minorities. The only thing that is excluded from this is Gay Marriage., because it WON'T affect anybody negatively. For example, Wayne Franzen upped the danger in his tiger act, because animal rights groups started to protest circuses, claiming that ALL circuses were abusive, so he had to make more money to keep his circus going, and, so, upped the danger in his tiger act. The result was... he was KILLED BY A TIGER! Did the animal rights groups, mean for him to DIE? NO! THEY just meant to protect animals, which is a GOOD thing. What they didn't consider is that people make their LIVING being in circuses. What they should have done instead is help develop ways to train animals humanly, so that way, there would STILL be circuses, AND animal rights WOULD protected, both sides win!Fortunately, Wayne Franzen's story is an extreme example, mostly, books and movies get labeled racist, or sexist, or both, because of of progression. This problem is caused by meta analysis, which here means "quantitative statistical analysis that is applied to separate but similar experiments of different and usually independent researchers and that involves pooling the data and using the pooled data to test the effectiveness of the results" (basicly Miss Interpretation) this presents three MAJOR problems:1. Does not treat characters as real people. (We CAN NOT control what race, sex, or sexual orientation we are born with)2. Judges whether the creator of the characters mentioned above as a bigot, WITHOUT talking to them. This thanks to the "Twilight Saga" has made this apply to not only creators of classic books (my favorites) who are dead, but also those who are alive. (Which in most cases the creators of the films featured in this documentary ARE alive and should have been interviewed on screen)3. Ignores the fact this accused media has NOT stopped the progression of human rights, as some EXTREME left people claim it does.4. The First Amendment says people can create any media that expresses any views Media Literacy can claim it does. and the fact that "Miss Representation" says media HAS TO is unconstitutional and American.(The fact that the First Amendment is the last thing I think to point out should disturb you, because like Women's Rights the Right to Freedom of Expression is a HUMAN right)I'll admit it is magical to see a character ALMOST just like you in media, mainly because these people don't know you exist. When a 16-year-old girl said she said the media did not include women like her, I told her a very personal story about my struggle to see myself in media:My Dad died, setting off a chain of events that didn't seem to match any of the "dead Dad" stories in movies, TV shows, and other media. Not even my favorite novel "The Phantom of the Opera" where the women saves two men, matched my own "dead Dad" story. Thus I felt alone. Then I saw "Saving Mr. Banks" six years after my Dad died, and it matched my "dead Dad" story almost exactly! Finally Hollywood had used it's Right to Freedom of Expression to include a women like me, and now everyone will understand what I went though when I reference "Saving Mr, Banks" I am not alone anymore! If you view enough media, I am POSITIVE you find a woman like YOU too.I would give all viewers of "Miss Representation" the same advice. Thanks to the Representation Project however if it works I won't be represented in media anymore, because it takes more than one piece of art to represent the human experience. Most of which will get destroyed by the Representation Test or simply because it was written by men. To fight the Representation Project with me use their website's Contact Us page to tell them how male creators of media have represented you, and use #NotBuyingit on them, using the method of analysis I gave you at the start of this review. Use #MeidaWeLike to support media YOU think is feminist even if the Representation Project says it's sexist. Because sexism in media is only do to Miss Interpretation.
evawatches
This documentary doesn't break new ground for people already interested in the issues discussed, but I think that it gives a good perspective on why the representation of women in media is so important in our society, and why the way women are often portrayed is damaging - to media consumers of all genders (ie. all of us).I especially liked the focus on how female stereotypes in media affect young girls' self-esteem and ultimately their chances of growing up to be leaders. Obviously the documentary was US- centric, but these problems exist pretty much all over the Western world, where girls see very few really good role-models in mainstream media and where the few that exist are always heavily scrutinized and criticized.Since media has changed so much in the past 20 years, I agree with what was also said in the movie: That media literacy, the ability to understand media as products (created by humans with their own biases and agendas), has become almost as important as the ability to read. After all, these days it's pretty much impossible to shield children from harmful media messages, so it's vital that they have the tools to deal with those messages. This is true not just for girls, but also for boys.
