07 5 / 2012
Went to a viewing of Miss Representation tonight
And the director, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, was there afterwards for a panel discussion. I wanted to ask her a question. But I chickened out. Because I’m a stupid fucking chicken.
If I were articulate on the spot (I’m not), and had no filter, this is what I would’ve said:
The film features some influential women of color—Rosario Dawson, Condaleeza Rice and Margaret Cho, to name a few. But throughout the film, no one ever discusses or even references sexist issues/stereotypes specific to women of color. Not once. It didn’t even include the obvious disparity in wage gap between white women, black women and chicana women. That’s the hypocritical thing about ”Miss Representation” - it conforms to media misrepresentations as it disparages them. Where are the women of color, the trans women, the disabled women, the uneducated and poor women? They and their challenges within the kyriarchy are completely invisible in this film (as in most other spaces).
All this film taught me is that change is happening way, way, way, way too slowly.
