Miss Representation

Watching Miss Representation and reading Breslin's article brings about new insight on this raging battle among girls and women of all ages. What I recall most strongly is the diction used in articles to explain a woman's reaction (ie, she "complained" about an issue) versus a man's reaction (he "stated"). Why are verbs with negative connotations used to reveal a woman's thoughts? Why did people yell at Hillary Clinton to iron their shirts? And honestly, why is this such an issue? Didn't we take care of this decades ago? Women have been part of the work force for a long time and men clearly know that we are not going anywhere. The sexualization of young girls, on the other hand, is definitely an issue that needs to stop. I remember hearing about the push up bikinis for young girls and thinking, "Are you kidding me?" Who do young girls need to impress?! The young boy who's probably to busy with his sand castle to even notice her!?! I think another issue is that girls feel the need to show more skin out of competition against those girls who are "confident" in their bodies and do show more skin and receive more attention from guys because of it. And then the battle of dressing to impress and dressing like a slut comes into play. It never ends.

I think being in a single-sex environment at such a crucial age really does play a part in gender and identity formation. I hate it when girls pretend to act stupid to "impress" guys because quite frankly, I don't know how stupidity impresses guys. I've been able to voice my opinion without feeling judged or being berated, and I think a single-sex education provides a solid foundation for girls to transform into women. It enables women to hold their ground and not to be intimidated by a little challenge.

I hope to be a physician and honestly, I don't think my gender will affect my work because as health professionals we would all have the same job: promoting patients' health and saving lives. It's my job to do my job and do it to the best of my abilities, not to be better than the male doctor next to me. It's my job to work with him to provide patient care. Being surrounded by plenty of female physicians, I haven't heard anything about a woman being degraded because of her field.