As mentioned in my previous blogs, the gender roles that are set in society are perpetuated in many different outlets one of which being the media. Advertisements are constantly using women as sexual objects to market their products while the film and television industries give women empty roles that do not inspire young women. Women are indirectly told that they need to fit a specific mold that encompasses particular characteristics. These kinds of messages can be extremely harmful to girls and young women who are going through identity construction and strongly influence the choices they make. Men also have these gender roles set for them that can also damage their self-esteem and overall self-concept. Many of these roles come from the idea that they should not be like women. Therefore, many of these identity issues stem from the societal expectations on women that have been amplified through the media. It is crucial to combat these restrictive gender roles so that children can grow up feeling free to explore both their masculine and feminine qualities without the fear of being stigmatized.
Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a filmmaker and former actress, founded The Representation Project after producing a film called Miss Representation in response to how “the media’s misrepresentations of women contribute to the underrepresentation of women in positions of power and influence” (The Representation Project). This film received an overwhelmingly positive response which inspired her to launch a campaign and she has worked to produce two more films since then. The overall aim of this non-profit organization is to expose the limiting gender narratives in our society and to use media as a tool to bring about cultural change. The film, The Mask You Live In, works to expose the limiting masculinity narratives. Therefore, Miss Representation became The Representation Project in order to call people of all genders, races, beliefs, and so on to work towards healthier cultural narratives.
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| The Movie Poster |
Marie Wilson, Founding President of “The White House Project”, mentions in one of the short clips on the Miss Representation website: “you can’t be what you can’t see” (The Representation Project). This simple phrase cleverly points out the issue with letting young women be influenced by a media that under-represents powerful women. They do not have any role models to look up to and the strong women who are featured in the media are asked unimportant questions or given derogatory remarks on their physical appearance. Because little girls and young women “can’t see” their role models and are shown sexualized images instead, they are brought up to be insecure and seen as objects.
In order to bring about this cultural change, it is important that both women and men share their narratives so as to create a more comfortable environment for others to share theirs too. This can be looked at as disclosing stigmatized identities in order to inspire others to do the same. If people disclosed the masculine and feminine qualities in them and kept receiving support, then there would be some emphasis on creating a value in feminine and masculine qualities in each person (Chaudoir et al., 2010). By taking the behaviors that have been feminized such as being in touch with one’s emotions or cooking and creating narratives that make these behaviors less undesirable, we can encourage others to show these behaviors that they normally would have hidden in order for people to achieve their full potential.
References:
Chaudoir, S.R., Quinn, D.M. (2010). Revealing concealable stigmatized identities: the impact of disclosure motivations and positive first-disclosure experiences on fear of disclosure and well-being. Journal of Social Issues, 570 - 582.
The Representation Project. (2014). Retrieved December 10, 2014, from http://therepresentationproject.org/about/mission/
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