Miss Representation: Film Analysis

The title Miss Representation is significant because the documentary revolves around the representation of women in media and how their portrayals are oversexualized, placing a misogynistic lens over how women are represented.

The argument that the title makes is that women are shown primarily as weaker, less cerebral, and more useful as physical objects than men, and therefore are highly misrepresented by TV shows, movies, and advertisements which focus only on the physical aspects of women and not on the academic or mental aspects. This is pervasive throughout the documentary, as seen through interviews with various women and young girls providing examples of the misrepresentation of women. One such example is when a young girl discusses the fact that

This distinction is ingrained in the minds of young people very early on with children’s shows and animated films. In fact, between 1937 and 2005 there were only 19 female protagonists in animated films, and all except one had the aspiration of finding romance. It is no wonder that young girls grow up believing the societal constructions of gender roles as these portrayals of women waiting for their knight in shining armor have been spoon-fed to them since infancy.

Another example in the documentary which highlights the misrepresentation of women is the portrayal women in films of the 1920’s through 1940’s juxtaposed with the women in films today. The female characters written in that time period possessed much more complex identities, encompassing power, femininity, and maternal qualities at the same time.

Today’s films often limit women to one stereotypic quality: the prude, the young sexual object, the desexualized mother, and so many more. When women in movies and television are limited to one quality as their all-encompassing character, this limits young men and women to