[Note: I wrote most of this a few weeks ago and didn't publish it right away. I was waiting for my blog post to be published and then a lot of things happened very fast. Will explain at another time.]
Huffington Post published a short story about what a "normal" Barbie would like look if it was proportionate to the average 19-year-old girl. I was startled, because Barbie looks so good when she's "average!"
If you look at media today (i.e. movies, TV, broadcast, commercials, video games etc.) women are portrayed in a very sexual way and are not usually strong protagonists. The documentary MissRepresentation reveals this portrayal and how it actually hurts young girls ambitions.
I mention this documentary constantly to my friends and family because I have never seen anything like it. I am constantly thinking about how to change the dialogue about women in the media from a reporting stand point. It isn't just enough to change how I dress so I don't look, well, really overly sexualized because I don't feel comfortable or empowered by wearing that kind of clothing.
It shocks me though, because there are so many women in newsrooms now. The staff is pretty small in general at FAIR, about 6 people, half of which are female and all of the interns are too (and from Ithaca College!). At FOX a large number of the writers, editors and producers are women. About half of the talent are too. I have become very close to and really look up to many of the women I have meet over the past few weeks, but it still scares me how many women issues are down played by news outlets.
Here's one example. A month or so ago, I shadowed a reporter who was working on a story about a blog run by mothers' who are trying to stop mothers from putting down each other's child rearing styles and lifestyle choices. This is a really important topic, and the reporter honestly didn't have a lot of time to treat this story with the care it needs. Luckily the reporter had great interviews, but it failed to address that women are competitive with each other for a reason - that women put each other down because of stereotypes which are actually created by the media. It's hard to dive into that on a local news program, but hopefully one day it will be easier to discuss this more seriously.
Something really good though happened a few weeks ago at FOX. I researched women networking groups for a producer. She had pitched the story of "women leaders," in a staff meeting I sat in on, and then I suggested this to go along with it. She really liked the idea. We had to figure out how to flesh out the idea in full, like any news story, but I'm really happy that it went over well with the news director.
And sometimes women's issues aren't reported on in the same way, even though it might be the same exact topic. My recent blog post for FAIR explains how the coverage of Senator Wendy Davis received more coverage than the new Ohio budget, which creates new provisions for mothers seeking and redefines when a woman is actually pregnant. The reason the Ohio budget story isn't that big is probably because there isn't a figurehead trying to protect the women.
After working on this, I decided to write a longer study on the topic. It will be published soon, hopefully.
One thing that I would like to point out, though, is that these issues aren't just women's issues. They're societal -- men are greatly affected too. The creator of MissRepresentation is now making a film called The Mask You Live In which is about how men are depicted in the media. I'm very excited to see how it turns out! (I donated to the kickstarter... just revealing my bias!)
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