The film plays an integral in society as it acts as a mirror of society. Films, especially in the twenty-first century, depict people's culture and carry the history of a society from one generation to another. Miss Representation is an American film that delves into portraying the challenges women go through in the United States of America and across the globe (Newsom, 2011). The film pays a critical focus to the media that it regards as one of the causes of women's problems. Notably, Jennifer Newsom notes in the film that media underspent the role played by a woman and also the influential positions some women hold in the society that is the precursor of gender inequality, the social construction of masculinity and objectification of women’s bodies that leads to rape violence and suicidal thoughts and cases.
One of the critical themes that form the film is the social construction of masculinity. Over the years, men have dominated various positions in society and have been regarded as the head of families and other basic societies' basic units. According to the film, the social construction of masculinity has been further exacerbated by the media, which has continued to portray men as the superior gender. The female is an inferior gender (Newsom, 2011). As a consequence, therein of putting stress on one gender over the other, there has been deviant in the remuneration of employees as men have been offered attractive salaries while women have ranked lowly when it comes to the salary scale.
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Also, gender inequality is another theme that plays largely in the Miss Representation Film. Through the film, Newsom presents women as the disadvantaged gender where they experience pressure to match their male counterparts who are far ahead in terms of empowerment, education, or even remuneration (Newsom, 2011). When it comes to recognizing women's efforts, the media hardly highlights achievements but instead focuses on what men are doing to change the world with very little coverage of women's activities. It is also integral to highlight that the failure to give successful women coverage on mainstream media contributes to demoralizing teenage girls who lack mentors and role models that they can emulate when it comes to being per with their male counterparts. In retrospect, the media has failed to provide guidance on women's empowerment and instead has thrown the efforts of feminists to give equal access to women.
Furthermore, the objectification of women has been predominantly depicted by the film. Primarily, objectification of women entails the act of viewing women as objects in various cadres of life. Newsom (2011), through her film, has shown how the media is the biggest contributor to the objectification of women. Notably, media has the required image of women that they need to work on their screens. Most media houses prefer averagely slender women with a small butt, breasts, and symmetrical face instead of big women that are considered unfit for the role of news anchoring. The main aim behind employing small bodied women is to appease men who further view women as objects for sex.
From a personal point of view, the film has positively impacted my life, whereby it has given me insightful opinions about beauty, sexuality, and gender. I have been able to learn that the media plays an instrumental role in shaping the view of people about women's sexuality. Notably, media has contributed to the objectification of women by building the social construction of masculinity. I tend to think that there should always be that regulate the operations of media to ensure that they offer fair coverage about women issues such as success, empowerment, and violence.
The Mask You Live In Film Analysis
Culture forms an integral part of society as it depicts the beliefs and practices of the society. However, for culture to be propagated, there is always a need to have a system that propagates culture from one generation to the other. The film is one of the medium that depicts society's state and conserves the culture of society. Additionally, films serve as a reference point for assessing the dynamics of culture. The Mask You Live In Film is an American film that is produced by award-winning producer Jennifer Newsom that illustrates the skewed and biased definition in the United States of America.
The United States of America is one of the world's biggest countries in terms of economy and population. The US culture is not that different from the cultures of western countries that relate to masculinity. Jennifer Newsom uses the film to show how the US culture has different definitions of masculinity. The film features various personnel that provides different opinions on masculinity's discourse (Newsom, 2015). In retrospect, the film features psychologists, social scientists, teachers, and parents. The masculinity of men in the US is defined according to an individual's physical strength, sexual dominance, and economic prowess or what is commonly referred to as material wealth. The research paper reflects on the film and analyses the themes of media representation, the social construction of masculinity, violence, rape, and the effect on girls, boys, women, and men.
Media Representation
The media has often been known to tell stories that reflect the life of people. With the improvement of technology and innovation of computing devices, the operations of media have grown tremendously. The media has continued to shape people's opinions and culture as opposed to the listeners and viewers, shaping how news and events are presented in newsrooms (Newsom, 2015). According to the film, the media has continued to propagate skewed reports and opinions of masculinity that has greatly affected the lives of not only men but also society.
The 21 st media depicts masculinity as having physical strength. Most media companies employ men that are physically strong with a clear masculine body. The consequence of employing workers based on physical strength has a negative impact on the definition of masculinity (Newsom, 2015). Viewers and listeners learn and implement what they see on the screens since people tend to approve of the media's narrative-driven. Additionally, most men grow with the idea that a man should be physically strong to be regarded as a man, a scenario that drives men to engage in activities that endanger their bodies, such as drugs and the use of stimulants.
The media has also continued to push the narrative that strong men do not anchor news instead of engaging in physically demanding work. Most newsrooms employ female workers to present news as they are seen to bring views and profits to listeners as opposed to having men on the screens (Newsom, 2015). It is worth noting that the media objectifies women as sexual objects that are meant to entertain men. The media also gives extensive coverage to men who engage in work that is considered masculine, such as fishing and farming, and overlooks men in the fashion and beauty industry.
More often, the media is known to propagate that masculinity is defined by economic success. The mainstream media, especially television, is known to air documentaries about successful men in society (Newsom, 2015). Some of the men that are considered to be successful and receive widespread coverage include Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill gates. Small boys get the idea that being successful is possessing huge material wealth in terms of assets or money, which is not true. In a wider spectrum, success can be defined as achieving an individual's targets and goals, which may not necessarily be economic prowess.
Social Construction of Masculinity
The construction of masculinity is based on the media, social perception, and American people's culture. The film largely pegs men's masculinity to media that changes and develops a new definition of masculinity. The media advances the definition of masculinity as a source of leadership (Newsom, 2015). Most of the media houses such as CNN, ABC, and Fox News are founded and headed by men. Most women are given the lesser role that is seen to be less masculine such as presenting news, cleaning, and customer care relations. Few media companies are headed by women like Oprah Winfrey Network that cannot rival the male-dominated field. Consequently, men are known to believe that men are supposed to handle a huge task that requires strengths while women are supposed to be posted in positions that reflect the family duties such as cleaning and cooking.
Additionally, social construction is founded on sexual dominance. In most American organizations and homes, men are automatically given the power to head various cadres of life. From a tender age, men are meant to believe and understand that they are leaders and followers (Newsom, 2015). The perception of sexual dominance over women creates a conflict between men and women, especially in areas that women are elected to head large organizations such as corporates. There are numerous cases where junior employees treat women in corporate governance with contempt and are unwilling to follow the laid out instructions. The social construction of masculinity makes it hard for men to submit to women as they have grown, knowing that women's position is in the kitchen.
The social construction of masculinity has had detrimental effects on the mental health of men. The definition that a masculine man has physical strength, economic prowess, and dominates sexually plays an integral has been a precursor to the sudden increase in men with mental health-related issues (Newsom, 2015). It is imperative to underscore that from the film, it is at times impossible for a man to be economically successfully owing to the fact that there are cases of unemployment and racism that affect the prosperity of men, especially from minority groups such as blacks.
Though the film does not substantiate the connection between masculinity and mental health challenges, the pressure to be a man drives men into stress, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The most common cause of mental health challenges has to be an individual's failure to become successful (Newsom, 2015). Another consequence of the failure to adjust to the set code of masculinity is suicide. It is reported in the film that suicide in the United States of America is the third leading cause of death among men, and toxic masculinity has been linked to numerous cases.
Violence and Rape
Over the years, violence and rape have been associated with toxic masculinity. Notably, violence is mostly learned by boys when they are young and while growing up. In the quest to become men, boys are known to watch videos that are characterized by wars and violence (Newsom, 2015). Most boys play video games are filled with violent elements where one opponent is fighting the other. Once a person beats the opponent, they are considered to be the winner. The mentality of violence is basically cultivated by the use of video games, which transitions into adulthood, where some men engage in domestic violence to secure their position and sexually dominate over women.
Moreover, through the internet, the media plays a significant role in aiding and abetting violence and rape. Men or boys who watch pornography from a tender age get the notion that women are sexual objects that should be subjected to men's whims and preferences. Pornography is known to depict men as superior beings that domineer in sex matters. Once a woman turns down the sexual advances of a man, there is a high chance that the man will rape the woman to have sex forcefully. To counter the extreme cases of toxic masculinity such as rape and violence, the film gives examples of people like Ashanti Branch, who have clubs that help to change the views of masculinity among black and Latino young boys.
Personal Reflection
The film is a remarkable piece of art that has changed my perception of masculinity and women. I have come to understand that the media plays an instrumental role in the social construction of masculinity. The media has enabled me to learn that there is gender inequality between men and women, with the former enjoying more opportunities than the latter. However, masculinity has been misconstrued to the extent that it has become toxic. The effects of modern-day masculinity affect individual men and other people, such as women, children, and the elderly. Therefore, it is integral that the media changes the definition of masculinity from being based on physical strength and economic success to personal goals and happiness of both men and women.
Conclusively, the Mask You Live film provides a detailed account of the skewed definitions of masculinity that narrow down biased assumptions. Newsom underscores the media's huge role in defining masculinity in terms of physical look strength, material wealth, and sexual dominance. The films look at masculinity from different angles that are the social construction of masculinity, media, violence, and rape that hugely form the theme of the film. Besides, the effect of masculinity is far-reaching to women, children, and also to individual men.
References
Newsom, J. (2015). The Mask You Live In Full Film.[Video] Retrieved from www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_VjaI3xxkI
Newsom, J.S. (2011). Miss Representation Film. [Video] Retrieved from www.youtube.com/watch?v=3syOGl2nbbs
