I believe I saw the trailer for this before and posted it, but this trailer looks different. Anyway, I've been thinking about this topic for a while and I just hadn't gotten around to putting it down on paper or on my blog. As I posted before, I saw The Help a couple weeks ago and I liked it and the other day I was remembering what one of the main characters, Aibileen,  was telling the little girl she looked after:

She never said "You is beautiful." It's not to say that the child was not beautiful, but it was not important. In fact those attributes - being kind, smart and important - is what everyone should be aiming for, both women and me. It got me to thinking that at some point in our development from child to woman, we are hardwired to believe that we should thrive for beauty to the detriment of our intelligence and our character.

Now don't get me wrong, I like to wear nice clothes and when I go out I would slap on some warpaint, but I'm seeing it more as something I'm doing for myself. I like to look pretty every now and then, but it should be one part of the whole and should be balanced. That's the crazy thing about life, you can find serenity in balance. If one can balance the amount of time they spend in the mirror with developing their character more power to them.

I think I'm rambling again, so here are my thoughts on the trailer below: I think it's great because it reminds us of the things we have become numb to, for instance the excesses of sexual content in the media, the fact that men possess most of the jobs that really affect the population namely in government and media and that there are more women in the US than men. Give the video a gander and question the status quo.



Miss Representation 8 min. Trailer 8/23/11 from Miss Representation on Vimeo.