Media Analysis: Race, Gender, and Sex

Each film explains how society, whether in the past or present, has dealt with race, gender, or sex. Gendernauts interviews transgender men and women using their life as a template to get their viewpoints across. The documentary asks many people to share their experiences on the issues they face as a transgender. Society plays a large role on how transgenders are represented so this documentary aims at answering those questions and changing those stereotypes. This documentary is less engaging from the other two, but is full of information on a topic that society is not familiar with. Like stated before, this film uses many men and women to share their experience. That embodies a huge portion of why this documentary is so captivating. Many of the men and women are filmed in locations such as their house, the mall, walking down the street, at their job, etc. and I feel this helps with the progression of the documentary. Gendernauts uses images and short films throughout the documentary to help get information across to the viewer and show how transgender men and women live in this society.

White Like Me interviews men and women who have an intellectual point of view on the racial tensions that are present across the country, but it is focused on the acclaimed anti-racist educator and author Tim Wise’s opinion on the matter. Short films from movies, comedy shows, and news reports helps get many ideas across by visually explaining the information Tim Wise was saying. Images were also used, especially for the earlier forms of explain racism and depictions on how it was handled. The documentary uses a time line to show how race in society has changed in politics, economics, and through social factors. I found the wide range of examples they used for explaining racial opinions was very important. That range in ideas shows how far we are on finding a common ground for those who think so negatively on racial issues. Their lack of understanding about the other races, by African Americans and whites, shows how “the history of racism continues to shape the present”.  Tim Wise does a great job at asking questions that many men and women have never heard or thought about themselves. Opening the viewer to questions like this, could create some approach to understanding.

Miss Representation uses women and girls to explain their experience growing up in a culture that portrays women as objects. Objects that must be perfect, with their weight, their hair, height, complexion, pretty much their whole body from head to toe. Media is a huge culprit in this representation, and girls growing up get this false idea that being a woman involves a futile pursuit to be “perfect”. Miss Representation uses many stats and scientific documents to show how girls growing up are affected by this false media representation. Girls in middle school are interviewed on this matter, and further interviews show how society can still have a role in a young woman’s development into their 20s and beyond. Many women are interviewed, and the documentary does a lovely job of interviewing women of different races. This shows how no matter their background, society has an overarching influence on women. The documentary also uses men and their voices on the issue, to understand their opinions on the matter. Images and short gifs are shot across the screen throughout the film to help visualize what the interviewee is sharing. I feel this form of expression in the documentary, was very important in understanding key points. These key points all go back to the false representation media has portrayed women as.