Things We Love: Miss Representation

In today's world, women are powerful. Women are influential. They've broken through just about every glass ceiling there is. And many are serving as role-models — think Hillary Clinton, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Oprah Winfrey — for the next generations of women leaders to come.

So why is it that in the media we see every day, from TV shows to movies to blogs and magazines, women of strength and character are not represented?

Enter Miss Representation, a documentary by Jennifer Siebel Newsom that takes the media's portrayal of women head-on, and asks us to explore what effect these misrepresentations have on women attaining "positions of influence and power." Miss Representation premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, and aired on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network.

It's message is powerful and potent, and it's a film we think every young adult should see. Which is why, this summer, we'll be showing it to our students at Explo at Yale. We can't wait to see what conversations and discussions come out of it.