From my perspective, if women can look pretty enough and yet do the same things that men are doing, is like seeing the strong aspect of a women because it shows that women are more prepared, very confident in what they’re doing and there’s no better gender when it comes it to, for example, running for president. As long as both genders have equal amount of education, the gender should not play a role.

It is unfair that we don’t have as much power as men just because we are women. We were not born just to work for men and give them sex. Women are not sex. Yet we see that women are so often treated as a sexual object through media including television, computers and magazines no matter where we are. Women are often depicted as sexually attractive while men are depicted as powerful and dominant on the media, and these images indicate gender rules. Advertisements like the Dole & Gabbana ads (in the middle of the article) clearly show us what our society expects us to be as a man or woman. We are negatively influenced by the gender rules society creates and it seems that we are not allowed to be whatever we want. In other words, women are forced to be beautiful and attractive instead of being strong and tough because our society defines that is how women are supposed to be. If they do not follow the rules and act like a man, they are seen as strange.

When I watched this film I was shocked about how many believed that women are just for show and have no intelligence. In our society, it is hard for women to come to power because of the stereotypical view of women. Sex does sell because obviously things are being sold, but I wish there was another way to sell things rather than sexualizing women. Men do feel empowered and want to be in charge and that is why men have higher ranking jobs. Others see women as too emotional to carry a job that is too stressful or high in rank. Women have had some progress on making them seem powerful and able to carry a job like men.

Aw darn you already wrote an article about it! I just discovered the Miss Represenation trailer a couple days ago and was going to send it in to you. I see that I’m too late!!
I’m really excited for to watch this film and I’m so glad they’re getting a documentary out there for all the girls and women out there who’s voices haven’t been heard. I would hope that for the women out there who do give into the ‘social norm’ of having to be a sex object or being emotional, that they’ll be able to see that it doesn’t have to be that way at all. We’re coming into a new age where women are finally going to step up and say “No, I’M in charge here.” I’ve come to see this behavior amongst my women peers today. I hope they’ll watch the movie to learn something that could open their eyes to something bigger. I can’t wait to see the day we finally elect a woman president for our country.

Miss Representation: Girls are Pretty, Guys are Powerful

I am speechless as I write this, because some part of me is tired of fighting for no cause, and then at the same time, I think it is essential for both girls and boys to hear the reality of things. Or rather, hear anything outside what the media, society or traditional gender roles says is so. I say this because I had a conversation with my grandmother on Thanksgiving, and she was telling about all the hardship she had to go through as a woman born in the 1920s-30s. Mind you, she is a well educated Caucasian woman who I think is smarter that some of the congressmen, and yet she could not work in certain jobs, she was not allowed to wear pants and so forth. Then she said something really simply like: “you know with all that oppression against women, we still had hope that thinks would some day change. And this all comes with the inspiration of women like the first lady Abigail Adams, Mary Wollstonecraft and Florence Nightingale,” who rebelled against her family for the expectations they had on her as a women. These words broke my heart, because women have come so far and have fought so hard for us to have a better life than what they had. But is life really better? “because this is not what we fought for,” my grandmother said.

It’s really easy for me to judge that the girls are the one’s that are exploiting themselves. However, with the knowledge that both a girl and a boy are born into a society that ALREADY HAS socially constructed gender roles, it’s really hard to point fingers. On the other hand, especially the models and video girls, they themselves need to draw the line irregardless of what’s expected of them, because if they don’t then they create this circle of women having to look like models, act like models and so forth. In fact, I took my boyfriend out to go watch Miss Representation because I wanted him to know that yes society want’s you act this way, but I wanted him to know that I am not that kind of girl. And I also wanted him to learn that such ill-treatment is not okay.

Why are we missing the obvious here? Women are 51% of the population. The people that have to change the way society views women are women. So what if society gives us stereotypes that say women should be attractive and submissive; our job if we want to change things is to rise above these stereotypes and to achieve great things despite the challenges society provides. African Americans did this in the civil rights movement; women already did this in 1920 when they earned the right to vote. Someone made a nutcracker out of Hilary Clinton, so what? She should be proud that she is so intimidating that whoever did that felt so threatened by her that they had to take a cheap pot shot. As one of my favorite powerful women, Eleanor Roosevelt, said ” No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. “

I think woman and men should be powerful. Why does it come down to men having power and not women? Women in the media are as powerful as men are. Hilary Clinton ran for president and did a great job but did not win people votes. She opened doors for other female politician to have strength and the will to want to run this country. Women have the same mentality as men do and more. Now and days you see women in the media, playing sports, presidents of CEOS and run big companies. I do not agree that woman are all body or have to sell sex. There are ads and magazines were women could look sexy and classy without the negative image that they are sex objects or just all bodies.

First off, I feel compelled to comment that I found the Hillary Clinton nutcracker really funny. Of course, I also find dead baby humor hilarious, so I’m probably not the best judge of what qualifies as “appropriate humor.” Still, it made me chuckle. Hillary *is* taking on a traditionally male role in leadership, and she earned that position by (ideally, not going into the vagaries of our election system now) being a better candidate for the job than any of the other (presumably male) options. So, in that sense, she *is* a “nutcracker,” but I don’t see that as a bad thing. We could use more people doing demonstrating that there’s no innate advantage to either gender when it comes to leadership roles.

I suppose when seeing that nutcracker goes from “Haha, that’s terrible” to “I don’t get it” then we’ll have done our jobs.

I’m also not really sure why people find weakness sexy. I would vastly prefer to spend my time with someone that thinks about what I say and offers dissenting or assenting opinions based on an analysis of facts rather than someone that meekly does what I want. One’s a good grounding for building understanding and a long-term relationship, the other is mildly useful for manual labor.

Because I am a man my perspective may be a little different than most. I believe men should be powerful. Men are known to be the head of households, the providers, even the masters of certain situations. Women on the other hand are naturally sexy to men. They posses curves and body parts that are looked at and appreciated for being sexy. Not that all a women has to offer is sexiness, but it is a natural part of human thinking to combine women and sexy. I actually respect a women more for being powerful and sexy at the same time. Now sexy in my mind is not “model type”, or gorgeous face and long hair, sexy can come in all types and shapes. It is up to the man to determine the type of sexy he appreciates. Some men like bigger frames, some like smaller frames, short hair or long hair, etc. Society has many stigmatisms for what people should look like. That doesn’t mean we as society have to fall into that and strive to be perfect in other peoples eyes. We should except who we are and love ourselves not worry about what other people think is right or wrong. When i look at a women I see many things that i think are sexy. The way she walks, talks, or maybe even stares into deep thought. To me its not about how big her breasts or butt are, or what kind of clothes she wears. Yes automatically women are sexy to me, but that doesn’t mean i look at them as sex objects. I respect women for the human beings they are. I respect them as well for the accomplishments and goals they want to achieve. As a man I want to be powerful in order to provide for my family, and accomplish goals in my life that i have. Nothing i do is based on what society says about me, if i did I would be a thug, in a gang or in jail, being that i am a young black male.