Reflections on MissRepresentation
I had forgotten about MissRepresentation and not followed up on local screenings. But a friend found and forwarded a link to the full film.
Its wrung me raw. I just finished crying through the last 10 minutes, and I cried for the first 5 minutes.
Its left me thinking about my own goals and the place I may have in creating images of beauty for women. I know I have more to reflect and think on that piece.
But most of all I am thinking about their messages about how emotionally repressed boys are. How they have no role models, if they don’t see it in their fathers, of emotional maturity of how to view and treat women as complex humans. How they really start forming the ways they interact with women/girls around age 5-7.
And it terrifies me for my nephew. I worry about what if he just becomes another abusive male in my family line.. How I have no role in his life. How he is being raised by my abusive and emotionally stunted brother and his wife who I can only guess goes along with him and hasnt found her own voice. That he wont even have my father as another potential male role model. Who’s imperfect but is trying to find ways to improve with honesty.
What is he going to learn about women. about being a man, a human being? It scares me so much. And I feel such a loss that I don’t get to be a part of his childhood.
It does seem odd that a movie about women and girls I come away with mostly thoughts about boys and men. This is a tender subject for me and easily triggered, its not a huge surprise.
