[Wamvan] Miss Representation highlights youth efforts to fight sexism in the media

[Zi-Ann Lum]

We watched this doc at the office two weeks ago so when Avandi's submitted
her article, it was received with much enthusiasm and support.

We're also working on a new column with a critical, engaging focus on women
in media. If you'd like to collaborate on this project with us, just let me
know.

Also, for you aspiring writers who want to strengthen your writing/reportage
chops, I've organized an event for tomorrow with Deborah
Campbell<http://deborahcampbell.org/>to teach non-traditional
journalists key interviewing skills. Some of our
best articles come from people without a technical writing or journalism
background.

Our new workshop series is committed to empowering our contributors (and
future contributors) with handy technical writing skills in our Vancouver
Observer community. Each dollar goes towards recovering venue rental costs
and workshop facilitator retainment. Information is below:

http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2260186278

Zi-Ann

On Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 6:14 PM, Fiona York <fionayork at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks for circulating this - it was written by an intern at West Coast
> LEAF (where I am the communications director) and we coordinated the
> collaboration with BWSS.
>
> Fiona
>
> On Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 5:34 PM, Lindsay Miles <lindskmiles at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Hi WAM!ers,
>>
>> For those interesting in continuing the conversation around the film Miss
>> Representation, see the link or article below for a highly positive
>> review including quotes from Laura at West Coast LEAF and Angela at BWSS.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Lindsay
>>
>>
>> http://www.vancouverobserver.com/culture/film/2011/10/24/miss-representation-highlights-youth-efforts-fight-sexism-media
>>
>> *Miss Representation highlights youth efforts to fight sexism in the
>> media*
>>
>> I recently had the pleasure of attending Jennifer Siebel<http://www.jennifersiebel.com/bio.htm>’s
>> *Miss Representation <http://missrepresentation.org/> *at the Vancouver
>> International Film Festival.
>> <http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/newmovies/2011/09/28/films-see-viff-days-1-2>
>> *Miss Representation *explores the  under-representation of women in
>> influential positions and how the mainstream media isn’t fulfilling their
>> role at providing positive images of females. Instead, the disparaging
>> images that we often see -- including over-sexualization or violence against
>> women -- contribute to the exclusion of women from powerful positions in
>> society.
>>
>> In the film, Siebel details her own struggles with self-acceptance and
>> expressed hopes for her daughter to live in a world where her appearance is
>> not a determinant of her self-worth. The film highlighted 30 young people
>> attending a conference hosted by Siebel and several Californian
>> businesswomen. For Laura Track, the legal director of West Coast LEAF<http://www.westcoastleaf.org/>,
>> the most outstanding part of the film was seeing the thoughtful and engaged
>> young women and men thinking critically about the stereotypes perpetuated by
>> media.
>>
>> *Screenshot from Miss Representation*
>>
>> The young women and men in the media each rejected the way in which media
>> dictates how they should look and behave. The youth were also key to my
>> enjoyment of the film, as their fresh insight was reflected in comments
>> addressing the blatant lack of appreciation for women intellectuals when the
>> body is valued more than the brain.
>>
>> The political undertones in *Miss Representation* were a major point of
>> interest in the film. While women comprise 51 per cent of the population in
>> America, they only comprise a meager 17 per cent of the US Congress. Even
>> women like Hilary Clinton and Sarah Palin, who were front-runners in the
>> 2008 Presidential race, faced a barrage of sexist comments in the press. At
>> one point of the movie, a commentator is asked what it would be like to have
>> a female president, and he responds:
>>
>> "You mean besides the PMS and the mood-swings?"
>>
>> “I found that I agreed with the women represented in the film, regardless
>> of their political affiliation,” stated Angela Marie MacDougall<http://endingviolence.tumblr.com/>,
>> the executive director of Battered Women’s Support Services.
>>
>> In Canada, the situation for women mirrors that of the U.S. People are
>> obviously affected by American media, and there is no doubt that the issues
>> in the film are applicable everywhere. One minor shortcoming of the film was
>> that it violence against women was under-represented. As MacDougall stated,
>> “If the media is playing a role in the violence in women’s lives, we have to
>> connect those dots as well”.
>>
>> Everyone should see this film.  *Miss Representation has *screenings
>> around the country and these are listed on the official website at
>> missrepresentation.org. “Women have made some important gains in recent
>> decades, but this film was a wake-up call”, said Track. “We still have a
>> long way to go towards equal political representation and decision-making
>> power”
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> Wamvan at lists.resist.ca
>> https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/wamvan
>>
>>
>
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