Feminism Club spreads awareness through “Miss Representation”

By Ashley Han,
Bluedevilhub.com Editor—

The Davis High Feminism Club hosted its first ever community movie night on May 23 to educate students about the negative side of media and how women are portrayed.

The club put a lot of effort and preparation to make this movie night possible. They had to visit the Farmer’s Market to fundraise, and the LEAD class helped them organize and sponsored this event.

“We had to raise the money to buy the rights to the film; since [Miss Representation] is a documentary it costs a lot more than regular movies […] We raised about $275,” Feminism Club member junior Casey Harris said.

Many students, male and female, came to watch the movie. Students like juniors Atalanti Pitsillides and Emily Schroeder came because they were interested in Feminism Club.

“It’s really impressive actually. We’re really happy that there are a lot of people here,” Harris said.

The majority of the audience was engaged with the film. The documentary revealed shocking statistics and amusing comments that made the crowd murmur and laugh.

“I thought it was really good. I really liked that they had a lot of evidence that there is […] sexism in the media and everyone was gasping. It was really entertaining,” Pitsillides said.

Schroeder liked how the documentary had both male and female representatives talking about the sexism, rather than just women believing it is an issue.

“One thing that I did learn was […], I don’t notice how much [the issue] affects [me], it’s sometimes just normal in society that I don’t notice that it’s actually affecting how it’s influencing me, to act a certain way,” Schroeder said.

Junior Yasaman Bayat thought the movie “was amazing; it said everything about women and their pain.” Junior Lydia Chung agrees with Bayat but also believes more men should watch the documentary “because it would help get rid of women stereotypes that men, influenced by media, usually accept.”

“Women already are aware that the media is destroying and exploiting women; however, since it’s the men that don’t know our point of view and women exploitation is usually used in media to appeal to men, it is crucial to educate more men with documentaries like tonight’s,” Chung said.

Junior Cole Yambrovich felt the documentary was enlightening even though he already knew “a lot about the social media issues.”

“I thought it was really interesting about all the specifics and the facts they actually put on the screen, and also the interviews of women in the media and government,” Yambrovich said.

Yambrovich felt the film impacted the audience in varying degrees.

“Judging by the clapping at the end, most people seemed enthusiastic about it. I thought it was really cool, but I also hope that other people in the audience also think it was motivating because as the title says, misrepresentation is actually a big problem and I think even just one room full of people watching the movie will actually help make a difference,” Yambrovich said.