Feminism

I never really liked saying I was a feminist, because I've always felt like that word implies extreme feminism. But really, I'm a supporter of women and #fairnessforall.

A few weeks ago, I watched a video in one of my classes that really changed my perspective and was a Divine Signature of direction for my life. It was called Miss Representation, and is a documentary about sexism in the media and America. 

This movie made me want to be more active and involved in my community, family, and church. It just made me want to be a better, stronger, smarter woman! It made me want to teach others about the sexism in American media and start a movement to change the world! Such a great movie. (Warning: we watched it edited. There is pretty extreme content in it)

Here are some of my notes from the movie: 

• 65% of women and girls have eating disorders, and depression doubled from 2000-2010
• Women spend more money on makeup than on their entire education. 
• The media makes girls learn to see themselves as objects, making them more likely to be depressed and have lower GPAs, self-worth, political efficacy, and cognitive abilities
• While women are 50% of the US, only 17% of Congress are women
• There are 34 female governors compared to 2300 male governors
• Iraq, Cuba, and Afghanistan have more women in politics than the US does
• There are hardly ever girl protagonists, and even chick-flicks revolve around men's lives. It's always about getting a man 
• When women are shown as action heroes, they are still objectified and for male viewers
• If female leaders are shown, they sacrificed their family and life to get there
• 70% of all characters on TV are men
• TV was part of re-domestication (getting women back in the home) after WWII when women had taken over the jobs (Think I Love Lucy)
• There is a media gender bias. In news articles, journalists introduce male quotes as "stated" and female quotes as "complained" or another emotional adjective. Women are 2x more likely to be described as emotional
• Female newscasters are always objectified! Katy Couric tried to change this by being modest, and all of her reviews were about her appearance 
• Congress is comprised of the fewest amount of women in 30 years 
• In G rated movies, the women are just as likely to be wearing as revealing clothing as shown in R rated movies

So here is what I've gotten out of this. I need to be engaged in my community and church. I need to be a strong, confident, educated woman to be an example to those around me. I need to be a critical viewer of the media and the gender bias so that I can teach my future children to do the same. I need to be more involved in politics. Lastly, I need to share this information with others (hence the blog), because informing is the first step to fix all of these problems.