Women in Politics

The film MissRepresentation discusses the roles of women in our modern-day American society, revealing the progress that still must be made until women are given the same value and opportunities as men. One portion of the documentary focused on the fact that female politicians are often represented by the media as less then men in some way. Instead of using full titles for women politicians, such as Senator or Mayor, a journalist may write "Miss." Dropping  a woman's title for "Miss" makes her seem less powerful. It is a sly way for media that claims to be unbiased to convey the message that women are inferior and should not be taken seriously. Other words can be used to convey the same idea. An article might say that a man "stated" his point while a woman "complained."The use of the word complained makes the woman seem more emotional than the man, and therefore less worthy of a high power job in government. Sneaky cues in media such as this one build up in our subconscious when we see them, creating a society wide underestimation of women. 

Another way that the media degrades women in political office is by focusing purely on a their looks rather than their accomplishments or ideas. In the past few year, two female politicians that have been degraded in the spotlight are Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin. Both of these women had extremely different  approaches toward the media and femininity. Despite the fact that Hillary Clinton never chose to talk about her looks, plenty of media outlets chose to talk about how she was "ugly," "old," "sick," and countless other derogatory terms. Her looks were always scrutinized while the looks of her male counterparts were never criticized. Sarah Palin on the other hand, embraced a traditional version of femininity in her campaign. She was almost the opposite of Hillary Clinton in that she became a favorite of young men who admired her only for her looks. She became a sex symbol to many throughout America. In both the case of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin, the media contorted their images so that they were mainly judged based on their looks or emotions rather than their actual politics. They men that they ran against were never criticized for either of these things. 

I hate the fact that the media has led us to think that women are only valuable for their looks. Even when women are considered "attractive," they merely become a sex symbol for society. In the last presidential debates, I even occasionally found myself criticizing Hillary Clinton for her outfit or her makeup and bitterly regretted doing so afterwards. I believe that women have to stand to gather to make progress in society. Women are extremely underrepresented in politics and I don't believe that the current state of society will lead more women to pursue political office. When women are constantly scrutinized for their looks rather than their achievements, it is unlikely that progress will be made toward a society wide respect for women, especially in politics. The media needs to project a more 3-dimensional image of women in politics in order to begin to change the damaging attitude toward female politicians. I long for the day when no woman politician will ever be asked about what designer she is wearing rather than what she plans to do in office.