Wanted: Representation
{Trigger Warning: rape, violence, homophobia}
Last week, ICWIC brought out a classic to watch and discuss. Miss Representation is a film that looks at the ways sexism in society is shown in media. The film tackles politics, heroism, and stereotyping. The film is available on Netflix, so maybe watch it before reading what WIC members had to say.
We noticed that even though the doc was made in 2011, not much has changed. At the time of filming, only 16% of movie protagonists were female. Today, except for some notable exceptions, many forms of content still don't focus on women or tell women's stories. Women are usually put in the secondary roles of supportive best friend or love interest, and are simple enough that they can be boiled down to a single phrase like "the supportive best friend" or "the love interest". The genre that women dominate as protagonists are so called "chick-flicks". In these films, instead of focusing on a man, they focus on a woman focusing on a man. Stories of females that don't depend on the existence of men in the plot are few and far between.
Women are still overtly overly sexualized in film (please see Halle Berry as Cat Woman). Something we discussed was the "headless-woman" trend in movie posters.
Many movie posters over the year are guilty of the trope. The women in the posters are shown without their face, separating the person from their body. This trope is seen everywhere from comedies (Hot Tub Time machine is guilty four times over) and satires (Kingsman posters are a lot to unpack) to movies where women are supposed to be strong and complex leads. The style allows for the women to objectified and sexualized. They can't be seen as a complete person because they are literally not a complete person.
{TW} Another thing we discussed was the use of rape and violence as a plot device. More often than not, women are portrayed as the victims in these situations. This trend has only gotten worse with time, seeing as violence in media has increased in general over the years. Popular shows like American Horror Story dole out rape scenes at least a couple times a season, using them like filler when a plot has fizzled out. The way these films are shot also highlights the danger of putting women in these victimized roles. More often than not, rape scenes are filmed to excite, fully putting the women through the male gaze, like a sex scene would. The obvious problem with that is these are not sex scenes. The overuse and poor direction lead to a dangerous blurring of lines when it comes to women and violence.
While the doc focuses on women in media, we talked a little about how media represents the LGBTQ+ community. One key thing we talked about was the difference between a gay character and a character who is gay. Many times the defining characteristic of a character who is gay is that they are gay (see almost any rom com). They are usually stereotypically flamboyant. They are painfully archetypal. While actual people in the LGBTQ+ community have many more defining characteristics, gay is usually the defining, if not only characteristic for their fictional portrayal.
Even though some media is trying to break away from that (see Star Trek Wrath of Khan), theres still a void for realistic characters who happen to be gay.
While representation is becoming more relevant in discussion, the media is seriously lagging. Media is still a straight, white mans world and everyone else is fighting for their spot.
I know this was all kind of a bummer so heres a list of shows we came up with that feature positive representation:
- The Bold Type
- Happy Endings
- GLOW
