“The rarest thing in the world is a woman who is pleased with photographs of herself.”  ~Elizabeth Metcalf

NOTE TO READERS: For An Empowered Spirit, some of you may wonder why I’ve chosen the following topic - how mainstream media affects the self-esteem and values of young people worldwide.  After all, I started promising to write about issues affecting people aged 50 and over.  I believe this subject directly affects us, so I hope you will read on to find out why…

Last night my husband and I watched an insightful documentary entitled “Miss Representation,” a film produced, directed, and written by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a remarkably bright and articulate young woman who is a filmmaker, speaker, former actress, and advocate for women, girls, and their families.   It was a powerful film discussing how mainstream media portrays girls and women in a negative and often demoralizing light.  Pat Mitchell, the President and CEO of The Paley Center for Media, said, “The media is the message and the messenger, and increasingly a powerful one.”

Women are sexually exploited in music videos, television commercials, reality shows, movies, and print media.  Entertainment magazines are brimming with movie and television stars that are either too thin or have had plastic surgery to make them more “beautiful.”  One young woman interviewed asked, “When will it be enough?”  Another one said, “There is no appreciation for women intellectuals.  It’s all about the body, not about the brain.”

“I've reached the age where competence is a turn-on.” ~Billy Joel

Let’s face it - sex sells; advertisers have known this for years.  Put a pretty girl in an ad for jeans, and women run out to buy them. Remember the Brooke Shields commercial when she asked, “You wanna know what comes between me and my Calvin’s? Nothing.”  That double entendre – boy, did it work! I remember strolling through Times Square in New York City, where there was a gigantic billboard of Ms. Shields wearing a pair of Calvin Klein Jeans.  Her derriere was greatly exaggerated as the focal point of that billboard; she was 15 at the time and looked flawlessly sexy and beautiful. NOTE: I must plead guilty here – very guilty.  I was part of the targeted demographic – a young collegiate at a small, private school.  The ad worked.  I promptly purchased a pair of Calvin’s and proudly wore them, sort of a badge of beauty and sexuality.  I admit it; they made me feel good.

The Calvin Klein ads of the 1970s, and others like it, were gentle compared to today's ads.  We are now deluged with scantily clad women in aggressive situations, appearing in all types of advertisements that subliminally (yet most times outwardly) suggest to young women that you need to have a certain body type to be happy, popular, or successful.  We need to stop and ask ourselves – is the mainstream media’s portrayal of women the portrayal we want our young women to grow up accepting as appropriate and normal? (To be fair, ads also suggest to young men that they must have a certain look or attitude to fit in; they should want to own a cool car to be happy and successful.  Having a son, I was always cognizant of advertising geared toward young men.  Ads in both print media and on the screen portray and dictate how teen boys should look, act and feel to be cool enough to be accepted and popular among their peers.  This is unfair and inappropriate.)

“Reality TV is the contemporary cultural backlash against women’s rights…one of the worst is this notion that women exist to be decorative, women exist to be stupid, women are considered golddiggers, bitchy, catty….” ~ Jennifer Pozner, Executive Director, Women in Media & News, Author Reality Bites Back, in an interview for the film Miss Representation

Beyond the world of advertising, we are constantly inundated with the onslaught of reality programs such as Keeping Up With The Kardashians (as discussed at MissRepresentation.org.)   Why is America so fascinated with this sort of reality program?  Again, we must ask ourselves - are these the kind of role models we want for young people?  Are having money, beauty, and fame more important in our society than teaching values like the importance of education, leadership, accountability, and responsibility?   Girls learn at a young age that their body – how they look and not how they think – is what gives them value.

In high school, I witnessed peers working very hard at trying to be accepted based on their appearance.  They went on many unhealthy fad diets to be thin, constantly believing a treadmill of misconceptions about what provides true happiness and success. Some became clinically depressed, anorexic, or bulimic. Some used casual sex as a way of trying to gain approval. Today's young women need to be better educated about gaining a strong sense of self-esteem, confidence, and pride.  They need better role models enabling them to value themselves enough to reach for the stars, understanding that they are good enough to become our leaders of tomorrow.

Women in leadership, particularly in government, are lacking.  In the film Miss Representation, Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker explained that because women are not well represented in governmental roles, we are “shortchanging their voices” by not being heard.  As Gloria Steinem explained, we are choosing our leaders from 6% of the country of married/over 35/college educated with professional degree males.  According to Jennifer Lawless, Associate Professor of Government Director, Women & Politics Institute at American University,  “There is something fundamentally wrong with our political institutions.”  If we don’t have women in leadership positions, how can we possibly have women’s points of view on political issues?

“Women make up 51% percent of the population, yet comprise only 17% of Congress.” ~ Miss Representation

Many issues directly affect women, yet we don’t have enough women in leadership roles expressing their points of view and voting on the issues that matter most to women.

I always loved Sen. Barbara Mikhulski (D-Maryland) for her outspokenness, her feistiness, and, well, her chutzpah.  She is the longest-serving female senator and the longest-serving woman in the history of the U.S. Congress, having served since 1977.

In Miss Representation, she discusses an important women’s issue in a short clip of her speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, saying, “It’s an absolute scandal that America’s women continue to earn just 77 cents for every dollar men earn.”

“More countries have understood that women's equality is a prerequisite for development.” ~Kofi Annan

Another important issue touched on in the film is domestic abuse.  Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) spoke about women who were victims of domestic abuse being denied coverage because their abuse was considered a pre-existing condition.  Absolutely shameful!

Aside from interviews previously mentioned, Miss Representation also interviewed a group of high school girls and boys, as well as luminaries such as Condoleeza Rice, Nancy Pelosi, Gloria Steinem, Katie Couric, Rachel Maddow, Rosario Dawson, Geena Davis, Carol Jenkins, Margaret Cho, Lisa Ling, Jane Fonda, Senator Diane Feinstein, Dee Dee Myers, Candy Crowley, and Susan Molinari - and too many others to mention here.

I believe we can empower each other, including our children, by using the strength of our voices to tell others that women deserve to be portrayed with dignity and intelligence.  As some suggested in the documentary, by boycotting movies, television programs or magazines displaying disparaging portrayals of women, we are proclaiming that women are important - we have value and we matter.

Our responsibility – and our legacy – is to leave this world a better place for our children, a world where we are all truly equal.

 “Children… are our legacy. Our responsibility.  They are our destiny and we are theirs. The extent to which we fail as parents, we fail as G-d’s children.” ~Dirk Benedict

*A special thank you to the people at MissRepresentation.org for their permission to write about their film in my blog.  Go to their website and sign up to get involved in one of their campaigns.  As they say: ”MissRepresentation.org is a call-to-action campaign that seeks to empower women and girls to challenge limiting labels to realize their potential and to encourage men and boys to stand up to sexism. Join the movement. Start taking action today.”

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