Your future, our focus
POWELL, Wyo. - The 2011 documentary “Miss Representation” will be shown at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 1, in Room 70 of the Fagerberg Building at Northwest College.
The film, written and directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and aired on the Oprah Winfrey Network. It explores the media’s misrepresentation of women, leading to the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence.
In a society where media is the most persuasive force shaping cultural norms, the film suggests the collective message young women and men overwhelmingly receive is that a woman’s value and power lie in her youth, beauty, and sexuality, and not in her capacity as a leader.
The movie points out that while women have made great strides in leadership over the past few decades, the United States is still 90th in the world for women in national legislatures.
“Miss Representation” pairs interviews with famous women with facts that aren’t so widely known: women hold only 3 percent of clout positions in mainstream media, and 65 percent of women and girls have disordered eating behaviors.
The women interviewed in the film are a who’s who of politicians, journalists, entertainers, activists and academics, featuring Katie Couric, Margaret Cho, Geena Davis, Jane Fonda, Rachel Maddow, Nancy Pelosi, Gloria Steinem and Condoleezza Rice, to name a few.
The “Miss Representation” screening is sponsored by the NWC American Association of University Women, NWC Diversity Awareness Committee and Hinckley Library.
Admission is free.