Semester Project:: Mis-Representation

http://film.missrepresentation.org/

The medium I chose to present my project is a workshop for a rite of passage program for disadvantaged females ages 7-12 transitioning from adolescence to adulthood. The objective here is to introduce art as an idea for a campaign against the negative influence of the media on youth behavior. The audience is you.

Young people are bombarded with media images at every turn; therefore, it is important to teach them to consider how women and girls are visually represented.  According to John Berger, “the way we see things is determined by what we know”. The real meaning of many images we see has been obscured by academics, changed by photographic reproduction and distorted by monetary value. 

“Socially constructed images are so embedded in Western culture that they appear quite "natural," To understand how most women are socialized we must first understand how they see themselves, are seen by others, and at what point the process begins.  "Images of women and men can effectively incite both sexes to adopt certain self-images, attitudes, and behavior. Male-constructed images of women, and men, are so embedded in Western culture that they appear quite "natural." Once it is recognized that images of women and men effectively are constructed to incite both sexes to adopt certain self-images, then it becomes necessary to ask not only how they are constructed but also why."

The sexualization of girls and women, is everywhere in our media and oftentimes these images are electronically altered to increase attractiveness. This exploitation of female sexuality in advertising has negative consequences for women.  
                                                  

Images of thin models seen, for example, in TV and magazine advertisements, and good-looking muscular men appear daily in magazines, films and television.  Thanks to beauty pageants such as “Miss World” and “Miss Universe”, as well as locally organized beauty pageants, teenage girls now define beauty by the shape and size of their bodies with the impression that being skinnier is sexier.  More young men are also turning to drugs such as steroids to help build muscle strength.  This unrealistic importance given to body image has been blamed for the poor self-esteem and unhappiness among ordinary people, particularly the youth.  While doctors do not agree on the extent of this problem, eating disorders such as anorexia have been affecting more young people (Cooper 1997).      
                                                  
“In our consumption-oriented, mediated society, much of what comes to pass as important is based often on the stories produced and disseminated by media institutions. Much of what audiences know and care about is based on the images, symbols, and narratives in radio, television, film, music, and other media. How individuals construct their social identities, how they come to understand what it means to be male, female, black, white, Asian, Latino, Native American—even rural or urban—is shaped by commodified texts produced by media for audiences that are increasingly segmented by the social constructions of race and gender. Today’s media, in short, is central to what ultimately comes to represent our social realities.” http://www.jofreeman.com/womensociety/socconstruct.htm

For the past century, scholars have described adolescence as a period in girl’s development when many begin to devalue their thoughts, feelings and perceptions and consequently, risk becoming repressed. (Girls, media, and the negotiation of sexuality) 

According to the essay on Girls, Media and the Negotiation of Sexuality Study of Race: Class and Gender in Adolescent peer groups, adolescence for girls in the United States has been characterized as "a troubled crossing," ^ a period marked by severe psychological and emotional stresses. Recent research indicates that the passage out of childhood for many girls means that they experience a loss of self-esteem and self-determination as cultural norms of femininity and sexuality are imposed upon them. Much attention has been paid over the last decade or more to the role of the mass media in this cultural socialization of girls:* clearly, the media are crucial symbolic vehicles for the construction of meaning in girls' everyday lives.

The existing data paint a disturbing portrait of adolescent girls as well as of the mass media: on the whole, girls appear to be vulnerable targets of detrimental media images of femininity. In general, the literature indicates that media representations of femininity are restrictive, unrealistic, focused on physical beauty of a type that is virtually unattainable as well as questionable in terms of its characteristics, and filled with internal contradictions. At the same time, the audience analysis that has been undertaken with adolescent girls reveals that they struggle with these media representations but are ultimately ill-equipped to critically analyze or effectively resist them.” (Girls, media, and the negotiation of sexuality.With the Census Bureau counting nearly 25 million Latin women in the United States, marketers and media companies have started getting excited about the potential to reach them.

Conclusion:

Every teen's life is filled with pressure, some of it good, some of it bad. Our goal is to help teens stand up to negative pressures, or influences. Because the more aware you aware of the influences around you, the better prepared you will be to face them. To do so we propose to change how girls and women are represented through education and advocacy. One way is to teach girls to analyze media culture and its message by employing girls in their own advocacy. You are never too young to start speaking out about the way your treated by the world.
 

Take Action, become a part of the campaign to stop negative influence of media on the behavior of our youth.

Resources:
http://www.missrepresentation.org/resources/
http://therepresentationproject.org/pledge
http://www.blackgirlsrockinc.com/

 

Bibliography

Cooper, Alison (1997) Media Power. New York: Franklin Watts

Durham, Meenakshi Gigi Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, v76 n2 p193-216 Sum 1999

Girls, Media, and the Negotiation of Sexuality: A Study of Race, Class, and Gender In Adolescent Peer Groups J& MC Quarterly Vol. 76, No.2 Summer 1999  193-216   1999

Other sources
http://www.americanpopularculture.com/archive/film/young_latinas.htm
http://witcombe.sbc.edu/eve-women/1evewomen.html

http://womhist.alexanderstreet.com/teacher/picturing.html

http://www.jofreeman.com/womensociety/socconstruct.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/09/business/media/media-companies-set-their-sights-on-latin-women.html?_r=0&pagewanted=print

http://www.americanpopularculture.com/archive/film/young_latinas.htm

John Berger, Ways of Seeing  http://v5.books.elsevier.com/bookscat/samples/9780240516523/9780240516523.PDF
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUJ8MhXTwtI
Miss Representation http://film.missrepresentation.org/