On Monday, January 27, my social justice group doubled up with the sexual violence group to go to a class at the Paley center about women’s portrayal in the media. The woman who talked to us, Rebecca, was really nice, and shared with us many interesting, and some very horrifying facts about women in the media. She began with asking us what we thought some of the ways the media portrays are. We answered with ideas such as sexual objects, perfect, weak, and damsels in distress. She talked to us about how even from a young age; girls are fed the idea that they have to be pretty, and they can’t be strong, or saviors. This is shown through things such as toys, TV shows, and movies.

Rebecca told us how offending the Disney princesses are because of the fact that they are almost always damsels in distress, all of them fall deeply in love with a man, and they rarely are saviors. Also, they are beautified, and made super skinny. Even though she didn’t talk to us specifically about this, I found the fact that they have changed the looks of the Disney princesses terrible. They went from already skinny, pretty characters to glittery, even skinnier, and much prettier characters. Also, the people who remodeled the characters decided to make all of them just a tiny bit lighter skinned, showing that the only reason they are adding diversity is so they won’t be jeopardized.

Rebecca also showed us different video clips of examples of good portrayals of women in the media, and bad portrayals. One clip that really struck me was a clip from a TV show from around the eighties. The girl was watching TV, and her three brothers came into the room. Immediately, she tried to make it seem as if the TV was broken because of the fact she was on TV, being interviewed by a reporter. When she lost against her brothers, and the TV was turned on, her brothers started making fun of her because she was telling the reporter she thought girls could do what boys could do. She said everyone was equal, and deserved a chance. The adults in the house were called over by the boys to show that she was on TV, and everyone watched the interview. When it was over, the oldest of the boys laughed and told her she couldn’t do things that boys could do. She felt down, and when the boys left, and she was left with her mom and dad, she asked them in an unsure voice if they thought what she said was ok. They said of course, but when she left the room, her father said to her mother how crazy the ideas of kids were. The mom stood up for her daughter and said she believed what she said, but wasn’t the kind of person who would go out marching for her cause. This shows the half effort that people put into the issue of Women’s representation. People are willing to believe in equality, but not many people are willing to actually go out and take action. Overall, I thought the class was engaging, and I got some great ideas for our teach in that we are going to use. I hope I can go back to the Paley center, and learn more about women in the media.

Here is a link to their website: http://www.paleycenter.org/

This is the logo for the Paley Center