To me, this movie is perfection.

Nice effects though.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

"Miss Representation" gives new light to the ongoing put-down of females as an over-sexualized gender role and sparks in the consumer a need for change. As a whole, this film is long overdue in the revolution to bring back a strong feminist movement to contend with the mass media. Through the personal and intimate interviews with teenage girls, the connection between exposure to mass media and low self-esteem is forged and throughout the documentary is supported. This forged connection includes the link between young women's self-esteem and ambitions to become leaders, which is covered by "Miss Representation" in the form of Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton's mass media coverage. Both are completely stripped of their political ideals and morals and instead given attention for anything cosmetic or physical attributions. The mass media's focal group of interest is towards young men, thus leaving women with the sexualized female gender-role that exists today. "Miss Representation" does an excellent job in making this concept a viable and very obvious one, and caused me to really open my eyes to what the media is doing to my gender. In conclusion, I believe that this documentary uproots a decades-long issue that lies within the mass media, and that this is only the beginning to the uprising of a new-age feminist movement.

Miss Representation address, mostly, the important issue of how women are represented in the media and the impact such representations have on how society perceives women, how it affects the ability of women to reach higher echelons of media-related positions, and how that in turn affects programming, choices in advertising, and perpetuation and certain stereotypes and patterns. On this aspect, it delivers quite a powerful message. However, there are also serious flaws, some of argument, some of execution.While I myself fully support gender equality, and otherwise agree with the problem of glass ceilings and reduction of professional women to their sexualized attributes, I think it is very, very worrying the suggestion for some level of censorship and regulation of media content, especially the implication that some government agency should step in to enforce "family standards" in online content production and broadcasting. As a viewer, I was left with the impression the producers really didn't have a clue about issues concerning freedom of speech and were incredibly naive on their pro-censorship stance (since it doesn't resonate with the rest of the documentary).Editing also could have been better. Some of the short testimonials could have been consolidated in longer shots focusing just one subject, instead of having too many parallel interviews clumsy moving forward on little bits that often got lost. Finally, I think they could have better explored the hook on how sexist attitudes are bad not only for girls and women, but also for men. That would make the documentary even more interesting, although it already lacks, fortunately, a us vs. them tone.

I give this a 4 because it was professionally done, in terms of editing and photography, but in terms of content, it really is sub par. Basically this documentary tries to build the case that media is an insidious influence, whenever it is convenient to their case, but ignores any evidence that doesn't fit their theory. For instance if media were so influential, Americans would be thin and fit, but we all know that isn't true. But more to the point the issue with this documentary is that it is not concerned with looking at its arguments in any depth, instead a cheap slogan type of declaration or testimony is put out by some talking head and in a few minutes of selective media clips they try to cover the lack of depth by jumping from topic to topic flooding you with a barrage of clips and speakers. It reminds me more of a political campaign advertisement than a serious documentary really interested in honest examination of an issue.They make points claiming that other countries have had women leaders before us because we don't depict them in the media, but does that even pass quick inspection? Benazir Bhuto who was a female prime minister of Pakistan lead arguably one of the most sexist countries on earth. So how does that argument even pass muster before they put it in the documentary? It epitomizes the level of thinking in this film.Margaret Cho for example claims that sexism was the reason her sitcom failed, but is that really true? Maybe she just isn't funny. It doesn't matter to this film because all they do is throw these statements out there one after another. Statements claiming that shows like jersey shore are sexist because they show women in a bad light are made entirely ignoring the fact that the male cast in those shows are hardly considered respectable either. This type of poorly thought out argument is the basis for the entire film sadly, and because it is so paper thin, they cut from topic to topic in a hyperactive manner.TV networks like FX have even been known to do things like pass on hit shows like Breaking Bad because they rejected the show based on their quest to break into the lucrative female demographic. Apparently the middle aged white lead was enough for them to pass on the show. But such facts do not matter to this film, which assumes sexism is always the answer to every question in the most simplistic way.My problem with films like these is that they are more about employing techniques of propaganda with selective evidence and shallow one sided argument rather than encouraging critical thought about a subject. To promote this as a feminist film is really to give women no credit at all.If one is going to claim that media does women a disservice, I would suggest this film is the most harmful of all. To use the words of Erika Falk PhD from the documentary against herself and the film itself, women like her and this film paint themselves as "more fragile, emotional, and more gullible than men, therefore they are irrational and cannot be trusted in positions of power".

I just wanted to write a response to the Review floating around from TVGUY that said it was "OK". First off, just because you're showing images of sexualized women, doesn't mean it's going against what the film is for. THEY'RE showing you the exact images that are being consumed by the masses, and THEN backing it up with evidence of how detrimental it is to women and men. If you don't want your girl seeing it in the context of it being negative then that's your prerogative; but at least they aren't glamorizing it... you think your little girl won't see it somewhere else? It's basically PLASTERED in our minds.This was a great movie... it broke down the stereotypes and misogyny in the industry and really dissects the machine that controls the masses; media. Not only does it focus on Women's oppression, but also on the monopoly that the media has become... it's quite scary how controlling and how much dominance this institution has on the masses and consequently the public realm and government. This is no man hating by any means, they even draw the connections on how men are oppressed because of the oppression of women. EVERYONE should watch this... truly enlightening. If you think misogyny and female oppression is the only thing the Machine pushing and is the only problem going on then you're wrong... Oppression and violence will not be rid of in societies until we begin to hold the media and said institutions accountable. Anything corporations get a hold of turns into complete crap. Start thinking with your own minds, maybe then will you truly live a happy life and provide a safe place for both daughters AND sons.