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[SOUND][MUSIC].
The media is the message and the messenger, and increasingly a powerful
one.
>> In a world of a million channels, people try to do more shocking and shocking
things to break through the clutter. They resort to violent images or sexually
offensive images or demeaning images.
>> When is it going to be enough?
>> There is no appreciation for women intellectuals.
It's all about the body, not about the brain.
>> You all saw the photo from the weekend,
of Hilary, looking so haggard and what, looking like 92 years old.
>> Breast implants, did you have them or
not?
>> If you water boarded Nancy Pelosi, she wouldn't admit to plastic surgery.
>> The fact that media are so derogatory to
the most powerful women in the country, then what does it say about media's
ability to take any woman in America seriously?
>> I have close friends that will go to the
bathroom and put on like ten pounds of makeup.
You know, and you're at school to learn.
>> As a culture, women are brought up to be fundamentally insecure.
>> Media creates consciousness and if what
gets put out there that creates our consciousness is determined by men, we're
not going to make any progress.
>> Little boys and little girls, when they're seven years old, an equal number
want to be President of the United States when they grow up.
But then, you ask the same question when they're 15 and you see this massive gap
emerging.
>> We're short changing voices that are urgently needed in public forums from
ever getting to the table.
>> As the most powerful country in the world, if you're not standing for the
right values or the right principles, that's a loss for the world.
>> You get a woman in the oval office, the
most powerful person in the world,[MUSIC] what's the downside?
>> You mean, besides the PMS and the mood
swings?
>> The media treats women like[SOUND] and it's horrible.
And it's like, I don't know how we survive it.
I don't know how we rise above it.
>> [MUSIC] You can't be what you can't see.
>> It's extremely important for women to be writing their own stories and giving them
to people to really emotionally be , impacted by.
>> The media can be an instrument of change.
It can awaken people and change minds. It depends on who's piloting the plane.
[MUSIC].
>> [MUSIC] You really can't be what you can't see.
I mean, how many of us see inspiration in the media's messages for our daughters
and our sons? We made misrepresentation to underscore
this point. When my daughter, Montana, was born and
my husband Gavin Newsom was mayor of San Francisco, not surprisingly, Montana
received many comments on her looks and lots of pink.
A little over a year and a half later when our son Hunter was born, Hunter
received fewer comments on his appearance.
Lots of blue and interestingly, quite a few bibs, onesies and silver cups all
displaying White House Insignia.
>> He even received a letter from the president and the first lady, and
>> [LAUGH].
separately, a letter from the vice president and second lady, welcoming him
into the world. Suggesting that the world was his oyster
and that he was it's pearl, he could do and be anything.
Well, we were extremely appreciative of such gifts, even though, secretly, I
wondered why the White House hadn't sent such gifts to Montana.
And then, I had an epiphany, whereupon in opening, yet another package for Hunter,
I discovered a blue t-shirt with messaging in large caps, Future
President. Wow, I thought.
Montana, our eldest, but also our girl, didn't even receive the suggestion that
she too could be president, that her opportunities in life are limitless.
It's innocent acts or non-acts like this that happen everyday that send very
subliminal messages to our daughters and sons right out of the womb about who they
can and cannot be. And our young girls who hear all those
comments about their looks and so few about their capacity to lead are
handicapped with the notion that their value lies in their beauty.
While their brothers and male peers, learn early on that they are our natural
born leaders. Our biological differences aside, it
really does start with something as simple as a t-shirt and dressing up.
Recently, I was perusing costumes available for my daughter's school
parade, and I noticed that all the girls costumes available relied on and sort,
and looked about, around sexuality and fairy princesses.
While the boys were all veered towards violence and power.
It struck me, the connection between how we raise our daughters to manipulate
their bodies and our sons to master their environments.
Remind you, I am not immune to our culture's messaging.
And thinking that I was more cautious than most, I decided to choose animal
costumes. And instinctively, I choose, chose[LAUGH]
a lamb for my daughter.
>> [LAUGH].
>> And a lion for my son.
>> [LAUGH].
>> Incredible, right? Gender norms are so normalized in all of
us that we're not even conscious of them. Rather, we're desensitized to them and
the marketplace just reinforces a culture that devalues our women and girls while
expanding the opportunities available to our men and boys.
And guess what? We're all complicit.
Especially those of us who are so busy running dual-income households and trying
to make ends meet that we forget about the other parent in the room.
We forget about media, the most powerful cultural messenger of all and its impact
on our kids. Did you know that today's teens consume
ten hours and 45 minutes of media a day? Well it's true.
Between the iPad, the iPhone, video games and marketers selling us at the bus stop,
in the magazine stands and on the freeways, our kids are being sold
violence and sex 24/7. And it's only gotten worse with the
advent of infotainment and reality TV. [LAUGH] Just look at TV shows like
Keeping Up With The Kardashians and Bad Girls Club and Jersey Shores.
And I shouldn't have to remind you that Americans aren't the only ones consuming
this bad behavior. But really, what's so dangerous and
interesting to think about. Is the fact that children are especially
vulnerable to the media's messages. In fact, children's brains aren't fully
formed until they're in, in their early twenties.
So, so, to suggest that a child as young as 12 years old has the same emotional
and intellectual maturity as adults is nuts.
They have different interpretive abilities.
They have different emotional abilities. And they're a much more vulnerable class
of citizens. So, is it any wonder that as the media
has become omnipresent in our society, we're seeing an increase in cutting,
bullying, eating disorders, plastic surgery amongst youth, depression,
anxiety and date ***, amongst our teens. I think it's pretty safe to say that the
media is harming our children. Truth be told, it's killing our daughters
ambition and destroying empathy and emotion in our sons.
I remember when I started out in Hollywood at the ripe old age of 28, and
yes, that is old by Hollywood standards. I was told at the time, by my agent, to
lie about my age and to take my MBA off my resume.
Well, I didn't do either, but my confidence was really shaken as I realize
that everything I had worked for and done in my life had no value in that town.
And I'm talking about a town and an industry that informs American cultural
values. And then, exports those values to the
rest of the world. So, forget the Stanford BA and MBA.
Forget having worked with Bushmen and indigenous communities in Africa and
Latin America, and forget being a starter on the Junior National Soccer Team.
If you can make a sex tape and party with the best of them, you can be catapulted
into celebrity-dom overnight. And that's success in our country.
At least that's what Hollywood media tells us.
And as I go back to the reality shows, I need not remind you that Americans aren't
the only ones consuming this tabloid trash.
A Harvard study conducted, discovered that when Melrose Place and 90210, two
American TV shows in particular, arrived in Fiji, a country that embraced fuller
bodies as the norm, the Fijian population experienced for the first time an
epidemic of eating disorders. All because it appeared that American TV
was celebrating one body type, a very skinny body type.
Is this really the impact we want to have overseas?
As one of them as innovative and powerful countries in the world, do we not have a
moral, standard, do we not have a role to be better ambassadors?
Well, many in positions of power and influence in media, apparently don't
think so. They base their decisions solely on the
mighty dollar, regardless of the cost to society.
One wonders why this is. Well, simply put it, it's because we have
so few women and such limited diversity in our media leadership.
And of course, not all men and women think alike.
But if we know that 3% of media positions of clout of the decision makers in media,
are made by women, then that means that 97% of what you watch, read and hear
comes from the male perspective. Well, that's wrong.
It's wrong because media creates culture. [SOUND] And as a mother of two very young
children, I'm extremely frightened by this all.
In fact, I'm so discouraged by it all, that I started to ask some questions.
First and foremost, I wanted to know where have all the fly girls gone?
The ones who my daughter would aspire to be like.
The ones who my son would grow up to respect.
The ones who are outperforming and outgraduating their male peers in college
and graduate schools. The ones who should be in the running to
lead Fortune 500 companies and sit on their boards.
The ones who deserve to grace the covers of our national magazines and star in
their own television shows. Something wasn't adding up and when I
looked at the facts and the way media represents women, I noted that women's
progress in our country had stalled. In fact, it has gone backwards and this
is pervasive way beyond Hollywood. In fact, men occupy 80 to 95 plus percent
of the top decision making positions in American politics, business, religion,
military, culture, media, and entertainment.
A disparity that is, is, is hard to to pay attention to when one women makes it
to the top which brings me to the 2008 Presidential Campaign.
I was appalled by the press's double standard, their denigrations, and their
demeaning attacks on both Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin.
For instance, Hillary Clinton could have a breakthrough speech on health care
reform or foreign policy, and what are the headlines?
Has she gained or lost weight, and what hairstyle is she sporting these days?
Meanwhile, do you remember the cover of Newsweek Magazine and Sarah Palin's short
shorts? There is no question that aesthetics
trumped substance. To quote the president of Fox News, Roger
Ailes, the only reason I put her, Sarah Palin on, was because she was hot and got
ratings. Seriously?
Ladies and gentleman, we are in the middle of a major cultural backlash
against women's progress. And the media is wittingly or unwittingly
leading the charge and holding us back. This is serious and this is dangerous.
And you know what? We all should be appaled.
And I decided to do something about it and you should too.
So, we may misrepresentation to be a catalyst for cultural change, and we are
changing behavior, one individual at a time.
In fact, all across the country and increasingly on the globe, people are
screening this representation and recognizing their power to affect change.
In Park City, Utah, a father who saw the film was so, so enraged that he called
into our office to make sure the film was available to his local community and he's
currently raising money for a national father-daughter public service
announcement. And in Manhattan, New York, a woman was
so enraged by a pornographic ad at the bus stop at her daughter's school, that
she called into Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office.
And the next day the ad was pulled down. And in San Francisco, California, a
working mother was so upset about an ad, a commercial that demeaned motherhood,
that she wrote a letter to the CE, CEO of Proctor and Gamble.
And that ad was pulled down the next week.
Meanwhile, all across the country, youth are signing up to be misrepresentation
reps for social change. And they are educating, empowering and
activating their peers to stand up to sexism in their daily lives.
This is what happens when we recognize our power as citizens.
And misrepresentation further reminds us to recognize our power as consumers.
As 86% of consumers, we, women need to consume better.
We need to consume more consciously. We vote with our dollar and we vote with
our media choices. We stand up when we witness an injustice
in the marketplace, whether it's an ad, a commercial, the news or TV program.
And we say, we don't have to consume that.
We say, this is a disgrace to our culture.
In fact, we could put a product or program out of business overnight if we
so choose. So, we support the good media, the media
that uplifts and encourages us. And we challenge the bad media.
The media that limits and de, and demeans us.
There is too much at stake to not consume responsibly.
We, all of us, are in the drivers seat here.
At misrepresentation.org our core mission is to awaken consciousness and shift
behavior toward media. Whether we like it or not, we're all in
relationship with media. And like any good relationship, you only
get out of it what you put into it. So, let's demand a media culture that
uplifts us all. That inspires my daughter and your
daughters to be president of the United States.
That encourages my son and your sons to be emphatic, nurturing partners.
It's really up to us. But it requires action and it requires it
now. Each and every one of us has the capacity
to affect change. So, join us.
Together, we will succeed. Thank you.
[SOUND].