Review of Miss Representation (2011) by Edward S — 26 Apr 2012

The doc's exposé of the disgusting state of women in US media is a crucial one that we need to teach our children. Sadly, "Miss Rep" uses the cheapest graphical tricks from the book with overblown effects and childish editing to elicit pathos. In addition, though the message is precious, this particular doc implies that the blame is not in the people or culture, but rather in the elitist media tyrants that, it argues, control them; I don't think the term "Capitalism" was fully understood. And, the liberal bias becomes more and more evident when the only snippets of negative media come almost exclusively from right-wing outlets.

Yes, this doc is quite one-sided, even with the shoehorned, rushed alternate perspectives at the end. There are shots and montages of women being abused with little or no connection to the earlier trends in the media that it mentions; contemporary dangers demonstrated in our nation's youth are touched upon without much cohesiveness in surmising how they came to be. The doc mainly points out a problem rather stoically without much emphasis on the causes, tons of speculation on the effects, and scattered musings on a nonexistent solution.

The power of the media and the discrimination of women prolonged by its misuse is a very relevant topic that should be discussed. "Miss Rep," however, seems to have a casual disregard for science and context; its aim is to elicit emotion rather than discuss, thereby being a means of converting people to feminism, and, evidently, to other causes in its left, conspiracy-ridden mindset rather than concentrating solely on its premise. I'm not sure if that polar extreme is much desirable.