In light of our recent discussion about how gender roles and expectations are played out in our society, I'd like to bring up a question that we didn't really address. I completely agree that the media plays a large role in how we perceive gender, what's offensive and what's not and why, but I think it could be very skewed.
Now, this is not to say that women and men are seen or treated completely equally at all; I know there statistics that show that women hold much fewer higher-level, governmental, etc. roles than men. But what if it's because they don't want to be in those positions? I can't speak for every woman, but I think it's fair to assume that some women actually do just want to have a standard, 9-5 job or even just be a stay-at-home mom. And that's completely fine! Isn't it possible that the media could be portraying the statistics of the number of women in power in a way that might be over exaggerating the seriousness of the situation? That's all I could think about when we watched this Miss Representation trailer.
It's like giving a survey and only giving the recipient one decent answer to choose; the media gives us only one conclusion to reach--that women are being undervalued in society. And maybe we are. But I think it's important to think about it from the perspective that just because there aren't as many females in Congress doesn't necessarily mean that a man took a woman's place. Maybe not as many women were interested in having that position. Or maybe females are used to such a male-driven society that many of them don't feel compelled to try and attain those higher-level careers. Either way, I think it's important to consider the possible reasons behind the statistics we are given.
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