After seeing the film Miss Representation, my awareness of the popular media's portrayal of women to both women and men increased. Sometimes something becomes so regular as we see it or experience it that we take it as a norm. The film brought my attention to the normalization of the "perfect" women as well as the way the "perfect man" is supposed to act or treat such women. Many of the issues presented seemed more present and real as I saw not only young female students and adults talking about their issues, but also the input from more powerful or recognizable backgrounds. The political section of the film also made a lot of sense to me as I connected the previous things I have seen. Such as many TV politicians being old white males such as Bill O' Reilly. The comments that such people make on women and politics help set the bar for the normalization of women themselves. When I really thought about it, there aren't many female or diverse politicians currently that we see on a regular basis. This brings about the assumption that women don't want to take part in such jobs that are seen as meant for men, and that the media is just giving out what people want. However I see the real issue is that media's portrayal of women make it so that younger females think its taboo to hold primarily male jobs. The film was made in 2011, so some of the information is either outdated or not relevant any longer. I think the documentary focused too much on one perspective instead being more open to ideas. What could've made the message a whole lot stronger was having men influenced by a certain view by the media being interviewed and questioned. The main speakers of the film were women and men oriented to the cause, however the film didn't go find those types of people who were part of the problem. Still I found that the documentary was right on a lot of issues and certainly brought my attention to them.
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