Miss Representation (2011)

Very best movie i ever watch

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

While this movie covers mostly basics of how misconstrued women are in media, and seems to reiterate simple facts - I didn't feel like it was repetitive to the point of being tedious. I personally enjoyed the refresher course the movie provided and it gave me some new insight as well. Although a lot of the information given wasn't surprising (which sadly just emphasizes the point of the movie), the recent extent to which gender plays into media (specifically Hollywood) was a new awareness for me; simply because most of us do not go through life scrutinizing every aspect of media and analyzing its gender biases. The movie does a great job of reflecting on past media presentations to prove its points. I appreciate the statistics given because statistics have a general scientific drive behind them that humans innately trust and can certainly create a larger emotional affect for the audience; however, I felt like a little background on how these statistics were gathered (from where?) would have been helpful for credibility. On the other hand, bringing in producers, actresses, hosts, and many other influential people and having them speak about personal experiences where they have experienced gender bias was very powerful and helpful. I feel as though this would be a great documentary movie to show younger audiences (or even older audiences for a refresher or a starting point of discussion!) because it gives a good overview of the problems that media creates in terms of gender related expectations. The movie created a sense of urgency and motivation needed for both men and women to take action and take a stance, even in small every day scenarios. While gender inequality is a great big problem in many, many societal aspects that is hard to tackle, this documentary briefly mentions the more specific issues/topics that are related for possible further discussion (ie. jobs, leadership, eating disorders, bullying, depression, sexual objectification, rape, validation, etc).

Let me state up front that I consider myself a strong and active supporter women although I refuse to label myself as a feminist since I think the true meaning of the label has been high-jacked and perverted by the self-proclaimed leaders of that movement. Rather, I prefer the label of "classical liberal" who is a staunch support of equal rights for women. And it for that reason I bother to write.I just watched your documentary "Miss Representation". I was incredibly frustrated and saddened by what I saw was golden opportunity missed. Golden in that chalk full of "real gold" regarding women's rights/equality issues, but, sadly, it was also so salted with so much "fool's gold" (i.e. damaging hyperbole and clear political agenda) that most viewer will disregard it as just another rampantly and irreparably partisan diatribe. What a shame. The truly tragic part is it didn't have to be that way. In fact, if could have easily been otherwise.You could have highlighted the treasure trove of gold (unflinching reality and "fair facts" regarding the issue) without the poison political pills you scattered among your extremely thought provoking points. Specifically you repeatedly leaned on the cliché rhetorical and political debate tools and polemics of the left. In so doing you, ironically, guaranteed that your documentary instantly alienates close to half the viewing public (non-liberals) who should be your target. Rather you are left preaching to the left, who are already your choir (i.e., modern "progressive", "liberals," old guard feminists).The reason that I am so heart sick over this fact is that the documentary did such a spectacular job of defining the problem including the etymology of the problem... which I would broadly state as the male dominated history of the world and its current iteration as viewed through lens of modern media.BUT THEN, it manages to eviscerates the power of that message by offering solutions... which were highly polarizing, politically... i.e, that the "solution" is yet more government, more legislation and more regulation... much of which will end up diminishing and dis-empowering the very women they were intended to benefit.The problem this documentary so beautifully elucidates is TOO IMPORTANT to have half the entire population grab the clicker to turn it off when it starts hearing the same old tired polarizing vitriol from the same old warn out pundits – the very ones criticized in the same document.Do you really believe that we need more regulation of the media, and free press, as several of your commentators suggest. Ironically the lines you up with the sensors on the right that want to dictate media content to THEIR moral standard.What irked me the most was that this political pandering, was COMPLETELY AVOIDABLE. You had so many credible, unbiased, fair and accurate feminist commentators (of all political stripe) that could have made your powerful points without politicizing and polarizing the whole piece (alliteration not intended). You could have easily veered off in uncharted territory – even-hand and politically unbiased pursuit of the truth, but chose instead decided to take the path "most traveled" and politically worn, all on the left side of the road.It's a shame you couldn't resist the pervading peer pressure to tow the liberal establishment line, literally and figuratively. Partisan pull is powerful.Criticism of misogynistic men in their thought and deed is 100% valid, and critically necessary. Lumping all men into that monolith makes it part of the problem of sexism, not the solution.I have a dream... that someday… men (and women) will be judged by the content of their character, and the gray matter a half an inch behind that "pretty face" (to paraphrase Dr. King). The greatest injustice man has ever perpetrated against itself during its entire history on this planet was to waste, minimalism, or at the very least underutilized HALF of the world's human resources.What would the world be like today if we had twice as many genius, artists, exceptional leaders and policy makers... from the beginning of time – who also just happen to be women. The mind boggles. I wish that point was more clearly stated. But I think its' at least inferred, which is good… or even great, since its' so rarely pointed out.I found myself agreeing with a surprising number of the opinions being expressed. You eloquently defined the true nature of the problem: the mangled misogyny so powerfully experienced and so compellingly articulated by a wide range of women in your documentary - many of whom courageously state that women themselves are as big a part of the problem as men. The discussion of the inherent power dynamic that operates to allow and encourage women to disenfranchise themselves was exactly on point. I just wished you had stated the obvious implication; that its women who innately have the power to instantly change virtually every aspect of their own status as "second class citizens" and virtually every other evil you illustrated – if only they self-actualized to true nature of the barrier that prevents them from doing so.The lens I filter it through is not democrat or republican, not one of liberal lemmings who can speak the feminist mantra but don't know the meaning of the words, or the soul crushing conformist conservatives who want to dictate to women how they should live and love.As I said, if I had to pick a label…it would be "classical liberal," ironic, I know, since modern "progressive liberals" are largely the antithesis of many of the true liberals that literally stand of liberty.Regardless, thanks for your efforts, and I hope you at least consider some of these thoughts going forward in your work.

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.

First off - I'm a guy. Albeit a guy who had graduate level feminist media theory classes 20 years ago - I'm a guy none-the-less. And I think people who know me would probably consider me "a guy's guy" overall.The film is filled with much of what we studied in graduate school in the early 90s. So I guess there was a lot of "no duh" moments for me in it. But if it opens some people's eyes then it's worth it. The messages are essential to the health of our daughters, sons and country as a whole. Many of what I thought were the most important parts of the film were "glossed over," but that may be my view/perspective. For example, to me THE MOST important point in the film is that TV shows are essentially "made for men 18-34." Why - because that demographic doesn't really watch TV unless they're driven to the set somehow. TV show creators don't worry about women - because women watch TV anyway. Think about that - most of us can agree that most of what's on TV is crap. And yet, the people who make TV don't worry about losing the female audience at all. Until women turn off the crap on TV, I doubt that will change.Hit or miss (no pun intended) outing for a first time director. Great messages, important content, mediocre execution. Probably too much "sexual imagery" for me to let my 12 year old daughter watch it - but soon. And everyone over 15 should be aware of the subject matter. This is as good a way as any.