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		Still from Miss Representation. (Siebel Newsom, 2011). Used with permission from Amy Zucchero.

issue 4.1 |

Journal Issue 4.1
Spring-Summer 2012
Edited by Agatha Beins, Jillian Hernandez, and Deanna Utroske
Editorial Assistant: A.J. Barks
Editorial Intern: Vera Hinsey

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Miss Representation. Directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom. San Francisco: Girls' Club Entertainment, 2011. 90 minutes.

Student Response by Tiffany Lo

After watching Miss Representation, a part of me was shocked, but at the same time I was not too surprised. I really love Jennifer Siebel Newsom's presentation of the information, providing her viewers with a balance of powerful statistics and deep insights from empowering women. Like almost everybody else in my class, I was initially aware of the general facts of the film: women are portrayed in excessively sexual ways in many media. However, it took watching the film for me to fully realize that that sexualized ideal, which has unfortunately become a norm in this day and age, is not a good one and should not be accepted as correct.
Although I myself never necessarily strove to show off my physique in a sexual manner while growing up, I can identify with other girls all around the U.S. and the world trying to fit in, to conform to these depraved standards that are molding the younger generations' norms. The degradation of females must come to an end. I think that by addressing this obstacle with film—one of the most popular media forms of our age—more and more people will also have a similar realization and hopefully take a stand.

Tiffany R. Lo is a sophomore at Rutgers University. She is majoring in biochemistry. This summer she will intern at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, a joint facility of the University of Medicine and Dentistry, New Jersey. Tiffany explains, "Although the Knowledge and Power: Issues in Women's Leadership course is unrelated to my major, I am grateful that I had to take the course through Douglass Residential College; it, like the film, taught me to be true to myself and to not be mis(s)represented."