A documentary film aimed at challenging media representations of women and girls is now screening at a variety of locations and airs at 9 p.m. ET Thursday, Oct. 20, on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
“Miss Representation,” which first premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, is written, directed and produced by Jennifer Siebel Newsom. According to the film’s description, it draws attention to the ways the media’s “limited and often disparaging” representations of women and girls make it difficult for women to feel powerful or to move up into leadership positions. It includes interviews with a number of powerful and well-known women like Katie Couric, Gloria Steinem, Rosario Dawson and Condoleezza Rice, but also asks teenage girls about their experiences.
We’ll let the trailer speak for itself:
You can join the movement inspired by the film by visiting missrepresentation.org to take a pledge to help spread the film’s messages and to help challenge these portrayals. You can also follow @RepresentPledge on Twitter and “like” Miss Representation on Facebook.
Update: Here are additional links to coverage of the film:
- Exclusive: “Miss Representation”—Poised to Advance a Media Movement (Women’s Media Center)
- Why does the media hate women? (Daily Beast)
- Interview with Jennifer Siebel Newsom and Insights from Miss Representation Participants (Feminist.com)
- DVR Alert: TONIGHT, “Miss Representation” brings WIMN to OWN (WIMN)
- “Miss Representation” Shows Ugly Side of Women in Media (Mother Jones)
The Gender Report 