Think of your favourite Hollywood and Disney love stories - the rom-coms, the tragedies, the classic fairy tales. The ones you were brought up on. The ones you loved.
Now take a closer look at what role the women have in those films and stories - the likes of Snow White, Cinderella, Grease, Dirty Dancing.
What messages are those Hollywood films and Disney fairy tales giving to us about what makes for a good, successful, attractive woman and what doesn't?
Because when you take a closer look at how women are portrayed in the vast majority of Disney animations, Hollywood films and the media, a shocking reality starts to emerge: women are still, by and large, being treated as objects. In fact even more so than we were in the last century. The message is loud and clear: as women, looks are still valued over intellect, values and character. We're not being seen, our true power and value as women isn't being recognised and the narratives we're being offered as women by these hugely influential powers are at best limiting and at worst damaging.
And if you think you aren't hugely influenced by these messages then think again.
This is what the the incredible star-studded documentary film 'Miss Representation' is all about.
Watch it and prepared to feel seriously fired up!
You'll see just how much your beliefs and judgements about you and other women and what makes us attractive or not attractive have been shaped by these limiting female narratives offered to us by Hollywood, Disney and the media.
You can watch the trailer here:
And you can either buy or rent it here ($3.99 to rent) or watch it on Netflix if you're a subscriber.
Miss Representation had a huge impact on both of us when we watched it. We dedicated a whole podcast to it.
It really drove home to us the shocking degree to which our beliefs around what we thought we had to be like to be considered attractive and womanly, had been shaped by the media and the film industry. And not in a good way.
There is a serious lack of powerful narratives for women and it's having a huge and detrimental impact on the way we view ourselves and the way men view us. And men don't have it that much better.
This documentary set us both free in so many ways and we encourage everyone to watch it - women and men alike.
Because once you realise the limited and often damaging narratives that you've been fed by the media and film industry and how much these narratives have been influencing you, you have a choice.
You can choose to unplug from those narratives and start to write your own narrative of what it is to be a woman.
Narratives that empower you rather than limit you.
x Selina
P.S. when you watch it come back here and let us know how you found it!
