Miss Representation Page #5

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a really disempovvered position.

Pozner:
These shows,

over the course of the last decade,

have tried to portray

a world in which

the only options available to women

mimic the 1950s model of femininity,

in which woman's only power

was her beauty,

in which women

not only had no choices

but shouldn't have even wanted any,

in which men were burdened

with the responsibility

of being the Prince Charming

who comes in

and Whisks women away

to happily ever after,

then has to provide

for their financial security.

Nobody wins in this model,

but women particularly lose

in this model

where they're expected to

look like miss U.S.A.,

have sex like Samantha

on "Sex And The City,"

and think like June Cleaver.

Siebel Newsom:

And here's something

I find even more disheartening...

watching the news.

So many female journalists

are objectified or sexualized.

[theme music plays]

Cronkite:
This is the "CBS

Evening News with Katie Couric."

Hi, everyone.

I'm very happy

to be with you tonight.

Jenkins:
Katie couric was

the very first national

experience we had all together,

viewing a woman

who was not entertaining us

but whose presence

and presentation was vital

for getting us

the information we needed.

The three major evening newscasts

had been dominated by white males.

They had very similar faces

and very similar backgrounds

for the most part.

I thought, "This is an opportunity

to mix it up a little bit."

I also thought it was

an important message

that a women could be

as competent as a man

in an important, powerful role.

And I remember in the early days

when I would get calls

from reporters about,

"Ah, we have our first woman anchor.

What do you think about that?"

inevitably, the questions

that they would ask first were.

"What about those legs'?

Do you think

she was showing too much leg?"

Or, "What about that winter white'?"

Wasn't that a big mistake?"

They were all observations that

had to do with her physicality

and not really about

the content at all.

But, again, it's because,

as I've always said,

we are a nation of teenage boys.

We don't know

what to make of this woman

sitting in front of us,

and so, you know, we look at

her legs, her b*obs, her hair,

her whatever, you know

and then maybe way down the line

we'll get to listening

to what she's saying.

Ever since I've been in media at all,

even since, you know, the first

morning show that I was on

in Holyoke, Massachusetts,

as the sidekick news girl,

there's been a really consistent

proportion of...

I don't even know

if you could call it criticism.

Essentially, it's hate mail.

As I've become

sort of better-known

and I get more feedback,

the amount of

"I hate you," homophobic,

"I hate what you look like,"

"I'm gonna kill you,"

threatening mail stuff,

it's like the proportion

has stayed exactly the same.

[chuckling] It's like

it's always 14% of the feedback.

And almost all of the hate mail

is about gender and sexuality.

I mean, who has the time'?

If that's really what you think

and you really are

that bad a speller,

like, you really are

still gonna take this time

to let me know what you "thunk"

[laughs] about what I look like'?

It's the scrutinization

that women get

that far surpasses

the scrutinization that men get.

I don't ever see

gossip columns or tabloids

reporting on Brian Williams'

personal life,

yet Katie Couric

and what she is wearing

or who she's dating is headline news.

Couric:
I think

whenever there are two women

who are working

in similar professions,

it's automatically positioned

as a cat fight.

Diane Sawyer and I

were pitted against each other

as if, you know, we were gonna be

in a mud-wrestling competition

on the weekend, so...

and you never saw that

with, say, Tom Brokaw

and Peter Jennings.

Take it away with the red-hat

boys in blue, would you'?

- I got this one down.

- Okay. Good.

Couric:
Sometimes, I look

on the cable news channels.

I see women wearing very low-out

shirts and lots of make-up,

and, you know, their hair

is kind of tousled,

and they look like they're

working as cocktail waitresses

instead of newscasters.

It's just a very mixed message.

Folks, we're gonna play a game.

I'm gonna show you

a photo of a woman.

You have to guess whether

she is a professional newscaster

or a Hooters waitress.

Are you ready'?

Here we go.

Pozner:
The local news

anchorships look like,

you knovv, somebody's grandfather

and his second wife.

Couric:
Television's a very

visual medium, obviously,

and it's kind of

how do you walk the fine line

of looking pleasing and attractive

but also looking professional'?

I look back

on my "Today" show interviews,

and I think,

"Geez, my skirt is way too short."

I sometimes worry

that I started this thing

with my legs and everything,

that I have sort of started this trend

of trying to look, you know...

I don't know.

There is so much pressure

to look a certain way.

When I'm on television,

I never try

and explicitly dress sexy.

I don't want to distract from

the stories that I'm telling.

I want you to focus on

what I'm saying.

There's a lot of words in my show,

and I work really hard on

getting them in the right order.

For some people I will always be

too hideous a creature

to be on television.

That's fine.

But if you can get over that

on day one,

it's gonna stay the same

for the whole time

that I'm on the air.

I think it's really hard

for women today.

Siebel Newsom:
The emphasis

on woman's appearance

affects more

than just women on screen.

It's affecting woman's ability

to participate

in the political process.

Ironically,

the more power women gain,

the stronger the backlash

against them.

And this phenomenon is most evident

in the way the media disrespects

our female leaders.

She's irresistibly cute,

let's put it that way,

in the way she presents herself.

Obviously,

she's attractive and all that.

Beck:
Sarah Palin

looks really hot in that hat.

She just said that

she doesn't know how oars work.

Oh, that's crazy.

You seen the hat on her'?

Both you and Sarah Palin

are good-looking women.

I mean, you're attractive, young...

relatively young...

women.

Savage:
Kagan... he's gonna put

on the U.S. Supreme court'?

Is there such a thing about

the aesthetics of the appointee'?

Let's put it to you this way...

she's not the type of face

you'd want to see on a $5 bill

I think I'm gonna send

Sotomayor and her club

a bunch of vacuum cleaners

to help them clean up

after their meetings.

Cynthia McKinney, the former

Congresswoman from Georgia,

was another angry black women.

Rodgers:

Look at these ugly skanks

who make up the female leadership

of the Democratic party.

You know that ugly hag,

Madeleine Albright?

Remember her'?

A psycho.

She was the Secretary of State

under Clinton.

Remember her'?

Like a fat moron'?

And now we have

the Wicked Witch of the West,

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