Miss Representation: Media's Influential Abilities

I would not consider myself a self proclaimed feminist. However, the documentary Miss Representation makes one reconsider just how differently women are viewed in society. I for one was astonished and didn't realize how completely clueless I was about this inequality. Some of the ways powerful women in society are disrespected are infuriating.

The film focuses a lot on the media and its impact on the way society views women, as well as men. One hears the same old argument about how media creates this unattainable look that every woman is after but never will achieve and how this affects the male ideals. Men expect women to look like those they see on advertisements and in commercials, even though majority of these women have had Photoshop and other special effects to help alter any "flaws."

This same old argument also emphasized something else though. In these same advertisements where women are portrayed as an object of appeal, men are being portrayed as these powerful, masculine individuals. This enforces an idea to boys early on that they must be masculine and assert a sort of dominance over women. You see this idea being introduced when a boy is told not to cry because it isn't manly. This lack of emotion is helping create a barrier between the male and female population. 

In politics, men are portrayed as these strong, put together individuals; so when a woman in politics is seen showing any type of emotion or compassion it is seen as over emotional and sensitive. Because of this display of emotions, powerful women are viewed as unable to handle a critical situation. In reality, all this proves is that men are simply emotionally constipated. 

This leaves me with a question. If women are viewed in such a negative light because they are not afraid to show how passionate they are about something, then how is the female population supposed to advance in powerful positions? The fight for women to achieve respect, by the majority of the male population, is going to be hard, so it's up to the women today to begin changing the misconception that the male must be dominant. Even though it would appear easier to let society continue on its current path, I believe it could lead to a better nation if action is taken.  

Miss Representation also argues that violence on video games and TV leads to violence in real life, specifically relating the idea of male dominance to rape. Studies have been done again and again proving a correlation between the two by organizations such as the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association. Even though multiple studies have agreed on this relationship between violence on television and violence in real life, nothing has been done by the government to regulate such violent programs.  

By eliminating these violent media types, there is the hope that crime rate would go down and as part of that the rape rate and level of dominance asserted by some men.

Feel free to leave a comment below discussing the points made in the film Miss Representation. 

A Glance at the Leading Meat Industries

This week I decided to watch the 2008 controversial documentary Food, Inc. This documentary led to a change in the way many Americans view the food they eat and buy in stores.

The documentary covers issues ranging from Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and patents on seeds for producing crops to the meat industries that Americans receive 80% of their meat and poultry from. I chose to focus this post on the way meat industries put our favorite proteins on our plates.

Have you ever wondered where the chicken you’re eating came from? Or maybe why chicken breasts today are so much larger than those from 50 years ago? 

Our society wants more and more lean, white meat; so chicken breeders have been forced to select birds that will produce the largest amount of meat in the smallest amount of time. By selecting and breeding the chickens that display these characteristics, we are hurting the chickens. With the increased amount of breast tissue, some chickens cannot even walk. Nutrients discusses some of the other health issues we are beginning to see in today’s altered chickens. Do you think we should continue to selectively choose which chickens are bred in order to achieve the largest chicken possible? 

In Food, Inc., one Perdue chicken grower allowed for her chicken pens to be filmed so that the world could see the awful treatment of the chickens. Below, you witness the harsh living conditions of chickens living back-to-back with no room to move and the capture of these same chickens as they are loaded onto trucks for butchering. The scary thing is, chances are, the chickens you see below, were something that ended up on your dinner plate. 

Although this post has focused on the treatment of chickens, this does not mean that cows and pigs are treated any better. Many facilities keep large amounts of cattle in relatively small, dirty pens as you can see below. No animal should have to live in the conditions that the big name meat industries, like Perdue, Smithfield, and Tyson, are putting them through. 

Please leave a comment about whether you agree or disagree with the government's efforts to put enough meat on the table for every American family. 

Should SeaWorld be Forced to Shut Down?

While bored over winter break, I was scrolling through Netflix when I found something called Blackfish. It’s a documentary that begins with the whale attack of a trainer at SeaWorld in 2010, but it uncovers so much more that made me question whether I ever want to visit SeaWorld.

In the film, SeaWorld participates in the capturing of killer whales to be brought back for training and entertainment at its facilities. In order to capture these whales, bombs and nets are used to herd these very intelligent mammals as seen below. This video displays both the intelligence of the whales and the brutal measures SeaWorld officials took to obtain them. When you here the crying from both offspring and family, it is heart wrenching.

As previously mentioned, the documentary begins with the attack of a well-known whale trainer. This whale trainer was attacked by one of the largest, if not the largest, male orca named Tilikum. When this happened, it seemed like a one-time occurrence in SeaWorld’s history; however, this was actually the third time such an incident occurred with Tilikum. Tilikum had previously killed, or is suspected to have killed, at least two additional people; but SeaWorld had managed to keep these incidents seemingly in the dark until the production of this film.

 Based on these actions, I believe that SeaWorld should be required to shut down because of all the questions that arise from Blackfish. It makes you wonder if other possible deaths may have occurred without the knowledge of the public.

If SeaWorld was to be shut down, the whales that live there would need to be humanely put down. This is a sad thought, but I say this because of the killer whale’s dependence upon its family as its main source of socialization. The whales that SeaWorld has on display are unable to be released back into the oceans because of their lack of a family and their need to be social. Unless the whale’s original family can be located, the whale would live a life of solitude in the ocean which is not good for such a social animal. However, some individuals, like the Whales and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), believe that whales that have been held in captivity do have the ability to be returned to the ocean. 

Leave a comment below if you have anything to say or questions in regards to the Blackfish documentary.