For this weeks blog prompt our teacher is helping us think through our upcoming essay. We were asked to pick between a few different movies and talk about the single story it discusses in comparison to Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. I chose to compare the documentary "Miss Representation" to Things Fall Apart, however, I am going to make the opposite point then perhaps he expects me to make. Miss Representation is about how women are portrayed in the media, and how their representation in media affects them.
The single story that the film is trying to portray is that women are being degraded, everyone believes that girls are taught from a very young age that looks are all that matter, and boys are taught only to judge a women based on her looks. It is constantly said that if only women could break away from this stereotype then maybe we could have powerful women as leaders. Here is the problem I have with this statement. It would be simple for women to make that change, not easy but simple. Change is never easy, and is never comfortable. Revolutions were held to free from oppressive governments, and slaves rebelled when there was inequality. These revolutions and rebellions were not easy, they were not comfortable, but they did happen. Why can't women do the same thing? It has been talked about for generations that the media is responsible for the digression of women. But the media is only showing what people want to watch. To be fair would the majority of the population rather watch a show where all women are dressed the same, in unflattering clothes, with a unflattering lack of makeup, and where they all are peacefully debating intellectual questions, or would you rather watch a crap TV show with four beautiful girls backstabbing each other in comedic plot twists and fighting over hot romantic leads? Blaming the media for the digression is not fair, really blaming the entire population would have better results.
There is another fault in blaming the media for the bad example that is being set for women, history. If one were to look back in history before the media was even a concept they would notice the vanity that was important among women. Examples as early, and earlier, as the French Revolution show that women were judged by their looks, in addition to women being judged by other women, men made assumptions of a women based on her looks and demeanour.
I chose this film to write about in my essay because I believe there is a false accusation being held against the media in terms of women gender stereotypes.
The title is a quote from Perks of Being a Wallflower by ― Stephen Chbosky
