Karla
Fauver Paper
3
In response to film, MissRepresentation: Modern Women in Politics
As small children, both boys and girls learn to assume gender
appropriate roles by watching our parents, grandparents, teachers and other
care givers go through life’s daily activities, although as we get older, our
focus tends to shift from immediate family and surroundings, to the media. We as a society have created these stigmas by
which our children live. In the
documentary film MissRepresentation, we heard from many prominent female role
models that media sends a message to women of all ages that there is a physical
standard to which they are held. Women
are expected to strive to be beautiful, thin, active and organized. Achievements on an academic level are seen as
secondary to being considered pretty by men.
As mothers, women have a special responsibility raise daughters and
sons, to be strong examples of female independence and also to diminish the
existing stereotype of the weak, needy female whose decisions are governed by
hormonal changes. It is important to be
an example of gender equality to our young people in the upcoming generations. This will require a basic reprogramming of
our own thoughts, ideas, and cultural norms to date.
It is quite common to hear
random comments on how beautiful a young girl is and how talented a young boy
is, for example, people often say things like “my how pretty she looks in that
dress, just like mommy” and “look how good he is at taking apart that lawn
mower and putting it back together, he will be a mechanic like daddy”. These types of comments are not consciously
intended to insinuate that girls are not able to be mechanically inclined and
that boys are not physically attractive.
Instead, it shows young children that the
first thing a person tends to notice are the physical attributes of a female
and the abilities of a male.
The career choices available to the female population today are
limitless, and therefore it is absolutely imperative that young girls are made
aware of that fact so they will feel confident to pursue levels of political
discipline. “Women — particularly the accomplished and successful ones who
would make the most appealing candidates — have been struck not by the
opportunity but by the toll that politics can take”. (Tumulty)
It is disturbing to realize that women are viewed in a less
serious political light as opposed to men.
Our leaders in government are supposed to symbolize and represent the
population as a whole. It stands to reason
that women would hold at least half of the seats in Congress, but they do
not. In fact according to Marie Wilson,
the director of “The White House
Project”, an organization geared toward the development of women in politics,
they hold less than 17% of this most important part of our law-making and
policy initiating department. “There
aren’t enough women who want to put themselves through the grinder of the
political process,” said Brett O’Donnell, who was one of Bachmann’s top
advisers. “We’ve got to stop everything about whether a candidate has cankles,
and how she does her nails, and does she wear her hair up or down.” (Tumulty)
The film brought to light many disturbing facts and statistics,
such as the United States is the only developed civilization without a standard
policy of paid family leave for employees. A policy like this would enable growing families to spend the necessary time at home with small children and new babies without causing a serious financial burden. Perhaps if the female voice was a bit stronger in our government the issue would be more likely to get legitimate consideration. It is startling to hear that there are 67 other developing nations who have elected/appointed a female president or Prime Minister, excluding America. There have only been 34 female governors in the US. “..Maybe the reason we have so many problems in our country is because we have chosen our leaders from six percent of the population...” says Marie Wilson, founder of “The White House Project”. She goes on to explain that women are harder to convince of the strength of female leadership than men are, as a whole. According to the film, women have consistently been paid $.77 to every $1.00 as compared to men holding the same positions in the same companies. Recently that policy has been modified, although it still brings pause to how it has been ignored for so long. Judith Saidel, coeditor of the report, emphasized the significance of this study, saying that historically women have been able to obtain better wages and benefits when working for the government than in the private sector. (The Nation, by Lawrence Panin)
Over the past few decades we have increased the female leadership voice
substantially, yet we are still so very far behind. The media consistently feeds into the notion
that women are happy to be objectified, which increases the public view that
women are not worthy of full human value. “While
the topic of gender, women, and political leadership has been widely explored
by
social scientists, little in depth research exists on how this generation of girls and young
women views political leadership and the forces that shape their beliefs and attitudes”. (Schoenberg). It is considered normal and sadly even acceptable to most young women today to see a woman depicted in sexually objectifying ways on TV, in movies and even in our news programs.
Women are the people often more guilty of perpetuating the
nonsense, as they continuously portray themselves in a dehumanizing light,
validating questions about their clothing choices and hair styles with an
answer in a news interview. Instead, it
would be wise to ignore those types of questions, and respond with a focused
and intelligent counter question that outlines their true contribution to the
world. The film discussed a city in
which a male leader appointed a female fire chief and a female police chief and
this gentleman explained that he had simply chosen the best qualified
individuals to fit the positions, and he was surprised at the negative response
by women specifically insofar as to voice a concern about the reliability of a
woman in those positions of power.
Gender bias goes both ways,
as men are more than likely to be affected by the same cultural expectation to
be masculine, as women are to be feminine.
These terms are best defined subjectively. Men do not really have to be strong and
overbearing toward women, as they are generally portrayed to be in the media.
It just isn’t practical.
We are inundated with media messages coming from every
direction; billboards, so-called ‘reality’ TV show, movies, commercials
internet and social websites, and video games.
The genration we are bringing up today will not have been afforded any real sense of a sheltered life, like many people in the age range of 40-50 today. It is nearly impossible to be at all aware of what our children are being exposed to by media. This makes the job of parenting all that much more challenging, as it is still a parent’s responsibility to guide their child in their processing and understanding of the information they are being bombarded with on a daily basis.
“Investment in young women needs to happen early. One of
the ways in which this investment can happen is by changing the cultural
perceptions of girls as leaders and women as presidents”. (Pace University) If
we change media messages, we can changes minds.
It is not a war between the sexes that is
being waged in our country, but rather an awakening to those who have been
living with the preconceived notions as to what is proper, acceptable and even
what is possible for a woman to accomplish. “…a
Democratic candidate is three times more likely to be a woman than is a
Republican candidate…it isn’t a gender gap; it’s a gender chasm.” said Gary
Moncrief, a political science professor at Boise State University.(Tumulty)
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