Miss Representation Page #4

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As a culture, women are brought up

to just be kind of

fundamentally insecure

and always looking for the time

when that knight on a horse

will come and rescue us

or provide for us.

Heidman:
When it comes to female

leaders in entertainment media,

we see the bitchy boss

who has sacrificed family and love

to make it to where she is.

Miranda:
I said to myself,

"Take a chance.

Hire the smart, fat girl."

The whole movie is about

bringing her down a peg,

and this is generally done

by someone who is under her,

a subordinate, typically a male,

so that image doesn't bode well

when it comes to ideas

of women in leadership.

Haggis:
We had many more

interesting characters on screen

in the '20s, '30s, '40s

than we do now.

And we allowed women to really embody

all the contradictions that

make up a human being back then.

They could be the femme fatale

and then turn around

and be the mother

and then turn around and

be the seductress,

and then turn around

and be the saint,

and we accepted that.

They were complex human beings.

Now we really like to

put people in boxes.

The only two choices for women...

witch and sexy kitten.

Oh, you just said

a mouthful there, sister.

As men, we do it

because we don't understand

characters that aren't ourselves,

and we aren't willing to

put ourselves

in the skin of those characters.

And women, I think, terrify us.

We tend not to write women

as human beings.

It's cartoons we're making now.

And that's a shame.

Heidman:
Throughout any type

of mass media there is,

we see the widespread acceptance

of women as sex objects.

In rock videos,

rap and hip-hop videos,

in all the summer blockbusters,

women are basically just body props

there for young male viewers.

I think when they do put in the part,

she's used as a sexual object

or an object of desire

toward the men,

which I think should change a lot

because there's a lot more

to a woman than just a body.

Katz:
We're socializing

boys to believe

that being a man means

being powerful and in control.

Ooh la la.

Being smarter than women

or better than women

or our needs get met first

in relationships with women,

that's not genetically predestined.

That's learned behaviour.

You don't think I can be a surgeon'?

I can be a surgeon.

- Surgery's hardcore.

- I'm hardcore.

You won't last the first year, babe.

Heidman:
We also see

a new incarnation of this,

where women appear to be empowered.

They are carrying the story.

They're the action hero.

But, again, when you peel back

a layer or two,

you discover that it's not

really about their agency,

and I call this archetype

"the fighting f*** toy."

Don't move, don't speak,

even whisper

That's a badass chick.

Heidman:
Because even though

she is doing things

supposedly on her own terms

she very much is objectified

and exists for the male viewer.

Davis:
In G-rated movies,

the female characters

are just as likely to be wearing

sexually revealing clothing

as in R-rated movies,

which is horrifying.

Fonda:
The hypersexualization

that occurs in Hollywood...

it's toxic.

There's no question.

It affects all of us,

including young girls

who are seeking an identity.

Mitchell:
If the message is that

women are objectified objects,

that that's their primary being,

that's a very tough

and challenging message

for young women who think

that's their path to power.

Durham:
You know

they'll say Madonna

is tremendously empowered

or Angelina Jolie,

but they all embody that exact

same definition of sexuality.

I mean, when you really think

about it, though,

Hillary Clinton's

tremendously empowered.

She's Secretary of State, right'?

Or, you know, you think of women CEOs

or, you know, there are

women who are empowered

in lots of different kinds of ways,

but you don't see them represented.

You don't get that message

that you don't have to use

your sexuality

to attain empowerment in the world.

A male-dominant system,

a patriarchal system,

values women

as child-bearers, period.

So it limits their value

to the time that they are

sexually active,

reproductively active,

and become

much less valuable after that.

Lauzen:
What we see

in broadcast television is

that the majority

of female characters

are in their 20s and 30s.

That is just a huge

misrepresentation of reality,

and that really skews

our perceptions.

It's like when a female

reaches 39 or 40,

she simply needs to go away.

One day, I got the call that

I'd heard about others getting,

and that was this...

I had just gotten a series,

and it was presented to me

by my manager as,

"Daphne, your part is secure,

but would you consider doing

a little Botox or collagen

or something?"

Well, just like them, I didn't

know what the hell it was.

What do you mean,

"Botox or collagen or something"?

And I remember lying in this chair,

with this fat, bald man

injecting, like, needles

in my forehead, bleeding.

And I'm crying,

and I'm feeling guilty for crying.

I remember lying in that chair,

just thinking,

"There's something wrong here."

It really made me feel...

a less spiritually whole person,

less of a woman with integrity.

I felt like I was cheating and lying

with this stuff in my face.

So, maybe I'll stop working.

I don't know.

But just right now,

I have chosen not to do it again.

And my mother was furious.

Want to hear what my mother,

the hippie in Vermont, said'?

"You tell those f***ers

to get penis implants."

[laughs]

This is not new.

You know, I started out

in the business in the '50s.

My very first movie,

I played a cheerleader,

and Jack Warner was the head

of Warner Bros.

And he sent word down that

he wanted me to wear falsies

and my director, Josh Logan,

asked me to have

my back teeth pulled out.

You know, I wasn't good enough

the way I was.

I really, truly believe

that reality TV is the

contemporary cultural backlash

against woman's rights.

Miss Blondie...

I think one of the worst

stereotypes in reality TV

is this notion that women exist

to be decorative.

Women exist to be stupid.

Women are considered gold diggers.

Women are considered bitchy,

catty, manipulative, vindictive,

not to be trusted,

especially by other women.

You are a piece of [bleep]

and you're a stupid blonde.

I think you look like a ho.

[ Cat yowls ]

Slap me, b*tch, or...

What?!

You are a f***ing whore!

Pozner:
This notion

that women are natural enemies

vying for the prize of being

more beautiful than the rest

or the love of whoever

is so counter to women in real life.

Woman:
Please pick me,

pick me, pick me.

See how beautiful I am.

Durham:
There's a really unequal

power relationship

going on there,

where it's the girls

whose bodies are on display,

and the boys get the power

to arbitrate and judge

whether their bodies are

acceptable or not acceptable,

desirable or not desirable.

So I think there's a whole lot

going on there

that actually puts girls in

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