I hope that many of you got the chance to watch Miss Representation on HBO. It is truly a remarkable and eye-opening documentary. One of the most amazing thing about the film, though, is how it’s launched a movement to end negative depictions of women in the media: MissRepresentation.org. Recently they’ve turned their campaign toward Halloween, including this video that some of the Miss Rep interns made on a trip to a store selling costumes for children:
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVwz2CQ83K0&feature=player_embedded 425×344]Jennifer Siebel Newsom and her Miss Representation group have started a call to action about this issue. She points out the problem with the fact that women and girls are encouraged to display their bodies for Halloween, while boys and men are encouraged to wear costumes that evoke violence and power positions. There are few marketed costumes for girls and women that focus on authority figures, but this is a trend that can easily be changed. Miss Representation has started a Tumblr page where people can post pictures of their positive and non-gendered Halloween costumes, and then explain why they chose to wear the costumes. It’s a great reminder that costumes can be so much more creative than the “Sexy” section of Party City.
Head on over to the Miss Rep Tumblr and post your costume if you like. What’s everyone going as this year?
