Message of Hypocrisy in Miss Representation

     The message of media manipulation of women that the documentary, Miss Representation, was trying to spread was simultaneously a very good message but also contained flaws in the argument. The documentary definitely raised some good points. There definitely is an exploitation of women in the media, only for their bodies rather than any message of substance. This sends a wrong message to girls growing up, that their bodies are the only thing that defines them, which leads to less women leaders and women in positions of power. Men are also trapped in a cycle of what women are like in real life, and how women are presented in media. They are then unsure how to treat women like human beings because women are presented as two dimensional in media. Media causes there to be an actual influence in society in how women are viewed, treated, and how they act and who they become. Miss Representation clearly showed the links between how women view themselves, from ideas of self-objectification to insecurities, and how the media portrays women. Women are definitely degraded to become either sex objects or emotional and non-credible, both two-dimensional views of who women really are. Women begin to reflect what media presents and media reflects what it wants women to be back, creating a vicious cycle.
     However, though the documentary raised good points, it also had a tone of hypocrisy as well as not necessarily always presenting clear links between the argument made and the evidence shown. Miss Representation definitely had an undertone of "slut-shaming" throughout the documentary. Yes, it is bad that women are presented in an objectifying way. However, the documentary seemed to ignore that women often find power in their own bodies and showing their body is not always necessarily a bad thing nor does it say anything about the woman's character. The documentary was definitely showing women in media that willingly would show their bodies with an air of disgust, and then show clothed, powerful women in politics next to that to show a stark contrast and send an implicit message that intelligent, more modest women are somehow better. I do agree that objectification of women and showing an inaccurate version of a woman's body is bad. However, I do not think that a woman finding power in her own body, and being proud of her sexual prowess is not a bad thing as the documentary seemed to think.
     The documentary also had some arguments that weren't backed by the best evidence, or showed a clear link. For example, the documentary showed violent video games and one character in one video game beating a woman (when this wasn't even the point of the video game), and then linked that to news articles about young girls and women being raped and assaulted. There was nothing in the news articles that said that the boys or men who did these acts were influenced by violent video games, nor was there any clear link shown between violent video games and sexual assault. In addition, the documentary's sources weren't always the most credible. The documentary placed Hilary Clinton on a pedestal, which may have had something to do with the fact that the documentary's creator's husband was a Democratic mayor of San Francisco. The documentary conveniently ignored that Hilary Clinton had lost fair and square, and instead only focused on her gender and the fact that she lost to a man. Exploiting one's gender to get ahead isn't something I think is necessarily good. Yes, women do not get nearly as half of the chances men get in life. However, succeeding by one's own talent and merit truly shows that women are equals to men.