QUESTIONS TO DISCUSS: MISSREPRESENTATION (documentary)



1) For the filmmaker, what was the impetus for putting this film together?

2) What are the problems that women face in society as articulated by the film?
For women and girls' sense of self?

For women in power?

For women in the media?

For women in the news?

For men?

3) The film offers a critique of women's own role in the objectification of women - what is that
critique?

4) An underlying argument in the film is that you can't be what you can't see - what does that mean
for women? In society? In the media? In politics?

5) The film compares education and beauty in a number of ways throughout the film?

a.) What are at least 2 examples from the film where this comparison is made?

b.) What is the underlying argument made by these comparisons?

6) What is the link between self-objectification and political efficacy?

a.) Why might this link matter in terms of women's sense of self and in terms of societal views
about women?

7) What is the underlying bias in Hollywood today?

a.) How does that bias impact roles that women play in Hollywood?

b.) What is the difference between films in the 20s, 30s, and 40s, versus today?

8) One of the arguments made in the film is that media representations of men and women follow a
1950s model of the family and of gender roles?

a.) What does this look like?

b.) What term have we used this semester that would define this 1950s model?

c.) One of the women interviewed in the film argues that under this 1950s model nobody wins - what
does this mean? For men? For women?

9) The film offers a critique of the news media and its role in the objectification of women - what
is that critique?

10) What is symbolic annihilation?

11) What role has media deregulation played in the representation of women and girls in the media?

12) Where are men in this story?

13) What is the political economy of the media?