MissRepresentation

In the film, MissRepresentation, there were many parts that stood out to me, but only one that affected me the most. That part affected me the most was where the film talked about how when young boys see sexualized women or women being less than men in the media, it leads them to treat women that way in real life. While this was not something that I didn't already know, it is still something that hit me because of how much I experience it in my life. This is noy just something that people experience in stories or movies, it is something that affects real people every day.

At a young age, from playing video games or watching movies where men abuse and sexualize women, boy will reciprocate those actions onto their female peers. On playgrounds you will see boys being physical to girls, their actions defended by adults by saying it just means that the boy “likes” the girl. But those defensive adults are just another reason that boys grow up continuing to be affected by the media. As boys begin watching and playing even more graphic things and noticing the way men treat women around them, the behavior only gets worse.

By the time boys are high school age, they have the sexualization of women built into their minds and view violence as not a huge deal. Not every boy is like this, but such a huge amount of them are that it is obviously something that needs to be dealt with soon. I hear awful stories of peers who have had boyfriends hit them or belittle them or pressure them into doing things they are not comfortable with. The reality of this happening to so many of my peers is horrifying because I have to live with the fact that this will more than likely happen to me one day as well. Fior my generation, we are past the point of fixing the entirety of how boys have been programmed to view women, but media reform/restriction could greatly benefit the women and girls of the near future.

I think that by really analyzing the things we are feeding our young boys and then changing the things that are having negative effects will help end the unrealistic sexualization and objectification of women in the media and real life.