Whose to Blame?

Today in class we watched Miss Representation. I found it very interesting and thought it had a lot of valid arguments but some things I may have done differently. Media guides our thoughts and shapes our perceptions of what is normal and what should be expected as us. It shapes gender roles, draw unnecessary attention to personal appearances and over all causes an increase in insecurities among many. For the most part, the media in no way empowers our society, rather hurts it.

The whole purpose of the film was to show how the media has negative effects on women. Due to the content media is made up of, both men and women have unrealistic expectations about what a women should look and act like. The media portrays these images of the "perfect women" but she completely lacks substance, it is all very superficial and appearance based. While I completely agree with this argument and can relate to the struggles of being a women in modern times with all the media influence, I do not think that women are alone in this struggle. As women, we have the solid facts and concrete evidence that the way we are portrayed on media can relate to and effect how we are perceived by others in society and how it effects us in regards to politics, leadership roles and other important opportunities. I think that since we do have the facts to go along and strengthen this argument, it is easy for us to blame society for the lack of women leadership in our country. While i believe in this, I also think we need to take a look at the influence the media has on men.

With all of our facts, our argument is easily made and supported. Although women may be the larger targets for the media, men are also subjected to the power of the media as well. It may not be as prominent but men have insecurities due to portrayals of how they should look and act from the media. Although women are treated as objects and sex symbols, men are seen as the same way.

Someone made the point that on instagram there is a "Women crush Wednesday" and how sexual images of women are being displayed all day. But to counter that point, there is also as she had mentioned in class "Man crush Monday" where we as women do the exact same thing. This is happening not only to women, but to men as well. The sad thing is, we are use to it and don't tend to think twice about this. Women find it normal to see half naked women in advertisements and shirtless men. We have stopped questioning these things, its just how it is and we have come to terms with it (not saying this is right).

I did find the video very interesting and probably speaking from a biased point of view, I do think women are criticized  way more for imperfections than men. Although at times I felt as though the video was reading too much into some issues, I still found myself offended when some of the guys in the class would claim how ludicrous some of the points were. I guess that is similar to being called a bitch. I can call myself a bitch, especially when i'm acting like one, but the minute someone else calls me out as being a bitch, then its not ok. The issue as a whole can be touchy because as women, we see things one way and men see things in their own way. Even though we can agree on some/most things, it is still hard to completely relate when its not your gender being attacked.