Film criticizes media portrayal of women

When filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom sought entry into the world of acting, she was told to lie about her age and to take the Stanford MBA off her resume to avoid “intimidating” potential employers.

Newsom did neither. To date, she has played numerous roles throughout film and television, appearing in “Rent” and “Mad Men” among a slew of other productions. But she didn’t stop there: While in Hollywood, Newsom also founded Girls’ Club Entertainment, an organization whose aim is to “develop and produce independent films with strong social, political and cultural significance focused primarily on empowering women.”

The most recent of the company’s releases is “Miss Representation,” a documentary exploring the misrepresentation of women by the media. A pre-release screening of “Miss Representation” was shown on Friday evening in the Friend Center, presented by the nonprofit organization REACT to FILM College Action Network, and sponsored by the Department of English, Wilson College and the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies.

The documentary featured the voices of prominent women in media, film and academia, as well as male perspectives and personal statements from high school students. The young girls in the production shared their experiences with eating disorders and the pressure to keep up appearances, asking, “When is it gonna be enough? How long is it going to take for someone to take a stand?”

To demonstrate evidence of the pressures faced by these girls, the film showcased images from the Photoshop controversy around Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton amid statistics such as “67 countries have had female presidents or prime ministers, but the United States is not one of them.”

Additionally, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, activist Gloria Steinem and current Lieutenant Governor of California Gavin Newsom contributed to the many insights shared in the film. One such insight came from Occidental College associate professor of politics Caroline Heldman, who noted that even where women appeared to be empowered in action films, their objectification for male audiences still exists.

“You discover that it’s not really about their agency. I call this archetype the fighting fuck-toy,” she said.

After viewing the documentary, Rachel Buckle ‘13 said in an email that she felt the film effectively shocked the audience, but was limited in its portrayal of a successful woman.

“I feel like I would have been more inspired to act if the film had depicted female accomplishment and trials in more than the political sphere,” she said.

Meanwhile, former Princeton Township mayor and Executive Director of the Women’s Fund of New Jersey Michele Tuck-Ponder said that she felt “reinforced”.

“I think it’s gonna open a lot of people’s eyes that a lot of girls — women my age as well — take their cues from the media, and it’s skewed, and it’s wrong and it’s gonna be up to us ... to do something about it,” she said.

After the screening, Tuck-Ponder, New York Times bestselling author Megan McCafferty and Mathey College Director of Studies Kathleen Crown led a panel discussion about the film, speaking on such topics as female role models and personal responsibility.

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REACT to FILM was founded by Dennis and Coralie Paul as their passion project. They select films for screening to an audience of influential people and media members, engaging with the film director or producer in conversation. They also helped integrate the films into high school curricula that are currently in place in six public schools in the United States, with the aim of teaching each student “how to be a skeptical viewer, how to not accept what is shown in front of you knowing that someone is always spinning something to you.”

The College Action Network branch of the organization is young, but Dennis Paul believes that “awareness is the most important thing on college campuses.”

Nicholas Ellis ’14, student leader of the University chapter of REACT to FILM, hopes to spark some of this awareness among students at the University, noting that he feels that University students are apathetic toward activism.

“You don’t have to go out of Princeton to start caring about issues,” he said.

Ellis is also a contributor to the Street section of The Daily Princetonian.