Women in Mainstream Media

Women are a big part of society and almost everything we see or read is controlled by men. When we see women in mainstream media they are either misrepresented or not represented at all. When they are represented they are looked at as the sexy, trying to get the man, fighting with others to get what she wants type of woman. It’s not often when we see that strong female example, it’s because Hollywood is considered to be the “boys club”. There are far more male directors getting recognition for their work than females. For every 15 male directors in Hollywood, there’s one female director.

From the Bell Hooks reading of “Making Movie Magic” she talks about films having the power over us and reinventing what’s real. When we go to the movies we go there to simply enjoy ourselves while forgetting about the real world and letting the movie take over us. I would say most people who go there to enjoy themselves would not look at the movie critically and just take the movie as is and decide whether or not they liked it not based on whether it’s believable to you as the audience. If it was a film that is so far from reality that would be noticeable but when we reimagine what’s real, we just tweak it slightly to make it more pleasurable to watch. When we put women in these films and make them more pleasurable to watch we make them sexy and beautiful with hair and makeup. People like to watch beautiful women, it gives you an easy feeling. Distressed women are always the ones who can’t seem to put themselves together. But real women are not being portrayed. Real women are not always flawless, we work, we have children and much more going on. Mainstream films create this fake reality for women. Audiences are so used to seeing these films that we don’t have the power over them and if we did these films would lose their magic. Bell Hooks writes that we should watch a film more critically, we would have the power to see beyond what is just shown to us.

Recently I had watched Entre Nos, an independent film that is directed and written by Paola Mendoza and Gloria La Morte. This film stars Mendoza as a Colombian immigrant, Mariana, who travels to New York City with her two kids to be with her husband. Mariana’s husband leaves to Miami after he had found another job but he doesn’t return to his family. Mariana is faced hardships and tries to make ends meet for her family. This film depicts a day to day struggle of a mother doing what she has to do to survive in the city with her kids.

This film, for me was a realistic look for women. Not all women go through what she went through but it related to me and many others. The struggle of real women are not always depicted in media but it’s so prevalent in society. Why aren’t these stories told more often? The film portrays women as responsible, hardworking, strong and powerful. Mariana wasn’t working the typical male job but she did what she had to do to overcome the struggle. This was a semi autobiographical tale of Mendoza’s mother arriving in the United States.

Female writers and directors are creating wonderful stories that can relate to woman. We don’t have to see the same idea of women in mainstream and we don’t have to see a man’s view of a woman’s story. This film has been praised by critics and has won awards so it shows you that you can have success without having a mainstream idea.



This 2013 article talks about the gender gap in independent film.

 http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jan/21/entertainment/la-et-mn-sundance-2013-women-lag-men-even-in-independent-film-study-finds-20130120