Miss Representation

Thinking about opportunities, perceptions, performance, etc.

When you were…

…in elementary school… Were boys and girls equal?

In middle school…Were boys and girls equal?

In high school....Were boys and girls equal?

Are men and women equal? Provide examples.

Why is this?

71 countries in the world have had female presidents or prime ministers, the US is not one of them.

U.S. women earn 77¢ to every dollar that men earn.

65% of US women and girls report disordered eating behaviors.

The number of cosmetic surgical procedures performed on youth under age 19 more than tripled from 1997 to 2007.

Between 1937 and 2005 there were only 13 female protagonists in animated films...All of them except one had the aspiration of finding romance.

Forty-two percent of first to third-grade girls want to be thinner, while 81 percent of 10-year-olds are afraid of getting fat .

The American Psychological Association estimates that teens are exposed to 14,000 sexual references & innuendos per year on TV.

Twenty to 25% of women in college reported experiencing an attempted or a completed rape in college .

53% of 13 year old girls are unhappy with their bodies.

That number increase to 78% by age 17.

The US ranks 97th in the world for number of women in national government.

Men occupy 80 to 95-plus percent of the top decision-making positions in American politics, business, the military, religion, media, culture, and entertainment.

Why is this?

What historical explanations exist?

Ask students to think about any movies they seen recently. Think about :

The Protagonists; Women in the film;The men in the film;

How would you describe the characters of the leading male and females in the story? What do they look like? What do they do? What are they? What race are they?