The College of Charleston will offer two free public screenings of the film Miss Representation. The first will be Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. in room 235 of the Robert Scott Small Building and the second will be Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 3:00 p.m. in room 129 of the School of Sciences and Mathematics Building. A reception will be held after each screening. The screenings are sponsored by The College of Charleston’s Women’s and Gender Studies Program, the Libraries, The Graduate School, and the Center for Women.
The documentary Miss Representation, written, directed and produced by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, and aired on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network in October. The film explores how the media’s misrepresentations of women have led to the underrepresentation of women in positions of power and influence. The film challenges the media’s limited and often disparaging portrayals of women and girls, which make it difficult for women to achieve leadership positions and for the average woman to feel powerful herself.
“Why aren’t more women cultural leaders? That is one of the big questions we’re obsessed with in women’s and gender studies – and this film addresses it,” says Alison Piepmeier, director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at the College of Charleston. “Only 17-percent of elected officials in the U.S. are women, only 20-percent of op-eds in newspapers are written by women, and women still earn less than 80-percent of what men earn for the same jobs. I love seeing all the nationwide buzz this important film is generating.”
For more information, contact Alison Piepmeier at 843.953.2280 or piepmeiera@cofc.edu.
