Too Bad To Be True

454

Too Bad To Be True

                This week in AP Lang, we watched a video called Miss Representation, which highlighted the agony of girls’ and women’s lives pertaining to achieving the perfect look created by society to attract men’s attentions.  Our teacher’s reason for having us watch the video was not so much just for fun or entertainment, but rather for us to evaluate its methods of argument and persuasion.  She frequently paused the video to alert us to something important coming up, or to ask us what just happened.

               What I remember the most is one time when she stopped the video, telling us what was about to happen next in it.  She explained that they were going to show us a few women on TV in positive actions or circumstances in normal time, and then show an incredible number of women in negative actions or circumstances, flashing by very quickly in a couple tenths of a second, to make it seem like TV’s portrayal of women is overwhelmingly negative.  However, many of my classmates and I noticed that many of these negative clips and images came from the same movies, and we quickly caught on that the makers of the video had manipulated that aspect in order influence us more effectively.

                There were abundant images and clips of sexual scenes, drugs, abuse towards women, and all kinds of other terrible things, and some of my classmates felt so uncomfortable, whether because of their faith or any other reason, that they needed to leave the room during parts of the movie.  Needless to say, the video was very effective in achieving its purpose.  To someone watching this video just out of curiosity or interest, I’m certain they would be extremely influenced.  The video also makes innumerable claims and shows statistics at a very quick pace, to the point that many of my classmates, including myself, thought that they probably weren’t all totally true.  We never really saw any credits, either because there wasn’t time, or there weren’t any, but we doubted that all those statistics and claims could be accounted for by reliable sources.

                However, to people like us that were primed to watch this video from an impartial, critical viewpoint, the video wasn’t as effective and influential.  Don’t get me wrong; I think the ideas presented in the video were important, and I agreed with them, and I am horrified by the way society abuses women.  But, the video did a good job making it seem even worse.  For many of their statistics, I don’t even know how an accurate sample could realistically be taken.  As most viewers aren’t watching with the critical view that we were, many of their logical fallacies and exaggerated statistics could be overlooked.

                For further information on the film, its website can be found here.