Thread: Men misrepresenting Women

"Miss Representation": Official Trailer - YouTube

This video claims that the media in general treat women sex objects and nothing more. The underlying premise is that the 'media' is ran by men, as though the media is a singular object one can mould as they see fit.

I disagree with the views expressed here because they seek to validate a women's worth in society by subtly undermining a man's value. It is the height of irony that they portray men as lustful perverts content with holding the key to a women's worth in their pocket(as if we have that power).

Let us examine a quote. A young girl recalling a typical experience in school say's "I have close friends that will go to the bathroom and put on ten pounds of makeup, yer know and you're at school to learn". Unless you attended a boarding school you are familiar to a fair degree of the dynamics within the sexes at this particular age. From my memory by the time most girls hit age 14 they are all wearing makeup to school. They notice the attraction from boys and see other girls doing it. This is all natural.

Some years later now in university I notice all of the females around me smeared in makeup, yet it is virtually impossible to judge one's mental capacity or how far they will succeed in the social ladder simply by noticing their attire. They could have been a slut at school or a so called 'bookworm'. The reason that I raised this example because the quote from this trailer insinuates that worrying about your looks at this young age affects your educational progress which is totally wrong. Insecurity is something that the majority of teenagers must face and most grow out of it by their late teens.

This illustration is compounded by Jane Fonda(Actor) bluntly determining that if what gets put out in the media is determined by men then we won't make any progress within society. But fellas how many times have you looked at your girl and told her that she looks beautiful without makeup or wearing her hair in a simple bun is just fine? Most men are appeased with a simple woman as we can tell the difference between photo-shopped models and real females. I have never ran across a guy telling a woman that her boobs were too small or suggesting she wear a weave; sure certain comments are exchanged in private to other guys, but never to the female in questions face. However I have witnessed guys many time 'checking' a woman straight indecency e.g. the other day at work a male colleague told a female worker that she needs to 'fix up' as her trousers sagged and exposed her ass crack(a fine one at that).

If anything these warped views of beauty and what a woman needs to be taken seriously in the corporate world is mostly perpetuated by other females. Who writes these love magazines? Who appears on America's Next Top Model? Who....hold up hold up, this is getting too long. Let me wrap this up.

It is important to give young ladies a sense of worth but you do not need to discredit their fellow man that they will grow up, work and have children with in the future. Alright I'm done. Thoughts?

Originally Posted by Intel

This video claims that the media in general treat women sex objects and nothing more. The underlying premise is that the 'media' is ran by men, as though the media is a singular object one can mould as they see fit.

The irony here is that the media in general portraits the "good man" as a self-destructive creature that lives for the sole sake of providing his family (women and her children, if the divorce laws are any indication of who owns them) with a great and fancy life.

On the other hand, the "bad man" is the alpha that just came out of the gym and is the fulfillment of their every sexual fantasy.

Everyone else are losers. Not much different from the way the media portrait women, or is it? And yet we hear stuff like that all the time, how women are always treated as objects of pleasure and nothing else. The difference lays in the fact that if you raise up this claim in public, the backslash caused by angry feminists (women with nothing better to do) will be horrendous.

I disagree with the views expressed here because they seek to validate a women's worth in society by subtly undermining a man's value. It is the height of irony that they portray men as lustful perverts content with holding the key to a women's worth in their pocket(as if we have that power).

Welcome to the Men's Right's Movement.

The reason that I raised this example because the quote from this trailer insinuates that worrying about your looks at this young age affects your educational progress which is totally wrong. Insecurity is something that the majority of teenagers must face and most grow out of it by their late teens.

Women have to worry about looks and whatever else that may be necessary to attract us (usually, nothing else). We have to worry about fitness, money, cars (guess the number one reason why teenagers drive underage) and whatever else that may be necessary to get girls to turn their eyes towards us. I fail to see just how they have it any worse when both genders have confidence issues at that age.

This illustration is compounded by Jane Fonda(Actor) bluntly determining that if what gets put out in the media is determined by men then we won't make any progress within society.

If Twilight and Justin Beiber serves as an example, I don't think it will be any better. In fact, don't they already pretty much run the media? The female audiences are larger, and there are more shows aimed at females than shows aimed at males. The only place in television where male content still dominates is the film industry.

But fellas how many times have you looked at your girl and told her that she looks beautiful without makeup or wearing her hair in a simple bun is just fine? Most men are appeased with a simple woman as we can tell the difference between photo-shopped models and real females. I have never ran across a guy telling a woman that her boobs were too small or suggesting she wear a weave; sure certain comments are exchanged in private to other guys, but never to the female in questions face.

Nope, that doesn't happen. All males are snobby, lecherous and potential rapists who only bother to look at 100-60-90 super-models. Not only that, but we all prefer that greasy makeup over an actual smooth skin.

If anything these warped views of beauty and what a woman needs to be taken seriously in the corporate world is mostly perpetuated by other females. Who writes these love magazines? Who appears on America's Next Top Model?

The female-supremacy activists that have run out of stuff to complain about. There is a certain group of women (and shamefully, men) that don't want men on the map, and they are in very high places, legislating unconstitutional laws in several countries. I kindly refer to you to www.avoiceformen.com . I think you will sympathize with what you will find there.

People always look for someone else to blame for their own moronic decisions.

Elite if I knew that I was going to get an in depth critique I would have written this in much more detail. But I didn't want to bore anyone to death. It was only meant to be a quick analysis of this film trailer. When the completed film is released I'll probably write an essay on it. Thanks for reading. And I agree Dreamworks, it doesn't help blaming anybody else for your own perceived short comings.

Originally Posted by Intel

Elite if I knew that I was going to get an in depth critique I would have written this in much more detail. But I didn't want to bore anyone to death. Thanks for reading. And I agree Dreamworks, it doesn't help blaming anybody else for your own perceived short comings.

I'm sorry if it sounded like a critique, Intel. That was not my intention. I can get a little touchy on the topic some times.

Originally Posted by elite

I'm sorry if it sounded like a critique, Intel. That was not my intention. I can get a little touchy on the topic some times.

I did not mean that in a negative way. What I meant was I thought everyone was going to brush over my words so I didn't take much care with it as I probably should have or explored different areas. But I'm glad somebody took the time to read and respond to different points that I made and I agree you.

I guess it's all well and good then

Originally Posted by Intel

It is important to give young ladies a sense of worth but you do not need to discredit their fellow man that they will grow up, work and have children with in the future. Alright I'm done. Thoughts?

Intel is god.

For movie stars and media-associated people to discuss image problems—which they themselves perpetuate—among first-world youth is like a group of heroin dealers getting together to figure out how to dole out just enough heroin to the customers to keep them all addicted, but not to kill any of them. Also, it does a gross disservice to youth and females in un- or underdeveloped countries by presenting them with an extremely negative, and yet paradoxically seductive and compelling, impression of their more privileged peers.

(this is just a tiny part of what I started with; I've overdosed on tea this evening and I don't trust the long and heavy-handed post I found myself typing; maybe later...)

well it works both ways if the woman is willing then the man has to oblige.

The thing is, if women tool over all the media outlets, studios ad agencies etc. tomorrow, little would change. The old advertising adage “sex sells” mostly means images of idealized female beauty sell -- and both men and women respond to them. People who generate content and sell products are going to take advantage of that. No doubt this is detrimental to women. There’s something wrong with a society where 10 year old girls are dissatisfied with their bodies and want to diet. And because it works – the images and messages are getting more and more extreme. Over time we become more tolerant – so the bar is continually lowered. Some of what’s out there is really disturbing. But for the most part, men and women are complicit in all of it, and I don’t see it changing. It’s like Mark Twain’s take on the weather – everyone talks about it, but nobody does anything about it.

PS -- Kind of funny, Jane Fonda going on about this -- she revived her career and made a ton of money with her exercise videos and books -- all of which seemed to be about attaining that idealized look, which she embodied.

As far as magazines and TV go, women are the bomb diggity of the marketing arm. If women stopped buying magazines and watching shows dedicated to fashion, makeup, and other topics "keeping them down", they'd be canceled and replaced with what they wanted to watch.

I'm not saying men aren't complicit in the problem, but as far as the media is concerned women have the solution in their hands if they choose to act.

Originally Posted by JosephB

The old advertising adage “sex sells” mostly means images of idealized female beauty sell -- and both men and women respond to them. People who generate content and sell products are going to take advantage of that. No doubt this is detrimental to women.

I shall kindly refer you to Twilight, and any soap opera, and for that matter, any women's magazine, any commercial and any action movie. Look at those, then look at yourself, and tell me if male sexuality isn't idealized. Point fingers to rap music videos and playboy magazines if you want, but the female audience for those is rather small.

There’s something wrong with a society where 10 year old girls are dissatisfied with their bodies and want to diet.

And this is a female problem how exactly?

I haven't met a single male in my entire life that isn't insecure about his fitness. If they are thin, then they desperately want muscles; if they are fat, then they desperately want to get thin. Why does this go unmentioned? Why no one says anything about the thousands of males that are putting their metabolisms in disarray with protein drinks just to impress women with their bodies?

Women use their looks to attract the man with highest status possible. Men use their status to attract the most attractive woman possible. So technically men have a slight advantage, we can potentially increase our status regardless of age, whereas beauty and sexuality often fades with age.

Anorexia is more a White-American female problem. It's a much rarer thing among ethnic Black-American females. But in either case I'll hazard a bet obesity or simply putting of a few too many pounds is more epidemic among all U.S. women than anorexia.

From my observation most (vast majority) of U.S. men and women in their 30 really don't put extraordinary effort into their physical looks. Frankly, I'm not impressed with 99% of the 20 something age college women of any race I've seen on a campus in Milwaukee. I've seen 20 something year old white chicks coming to class with their hair undone, in pajamas (a new trend), no makeup on, and looking hung over. The bulk of these 20 year old people are physically slothful to boot.

At any rate.... the U.S. could use more women more concerned about their looks.


Girl football player sits out game after foe threatens forfeit - Prep Rally - High School*Blog - Yahoo! Sports

The 5-foot-2, 170-pound defensive stalwart may have been the first girl to play football for the academy, but when she got on the field, she was just one of the guys.

I'm jealous. Well, not really, but as figure of speech. I'm 5'7" and never weighed more than 155.