Americans commit 10 hours and 45 minutes to the media weekly, so the media likely has a deep impact on them, particularly in terms of how they view women.
That's according to the film "Miss Representation," shown Nov. 29 by students to help spread awareness about the negative portrayal of women in the media. A discussion followed the film.
Senior Elyssa DiRaffaele, organizer of the event, said that the purpose of showing the film was to promote "media literacy" and to make the campus more aware of the effect that the media has on women.
The film features numerous well-known women, astounding facts and interesting discussions about how the American media demeans, sexualizes and sets impossible standards for women. Since the media features misogynistic ideas about how males overpower females, rape and commit violent crimes against women have become more prominent.
In the discussion following the showing of the film, many attendees were astounded by the facts in the movie about the rate of rape, especially among girls age 10 to 14.
"When the media presents women as objects and takes advantage of them, it makes it acceptable to do this in the real world, and this is exactly what sexual violence promotes," Lauren Arnold, sophomore attendee of the event said.
The discussion made attendees think about sexism in college life, specifically at DePauw.
Catie Adams, a junior attendee, came to college not believing in sexism, because she had never witnessed it. However, after coming to college, she now believes in it.
"The idea that sexism isn't real is just a lie people tell themselves in order to deny any inequalities," Adams said.
Celia Kauth agreed, and said that sexism can be seen life on the DePauw campus.
"Sororities have many rules for their members, while fraternities don't," Kauth said. "I've always wondered why it has to be different."
Other attendees lamented about the rules within sororities. Many said that women are held to a higher standard than men.
Arnold also said that she sees sexism in terms of college majors.
"As an art major, I have been told that there is small amount of women in the field, which makes me scared for my future in the major," Arnold said.
Arnold was so inspired by "Miss Representation" that she created a piece of art that portrayed the "synthetic manipulation of the body to attain perfection that's never attainable." In the piece, she attempted to add a sense of hope and progression for women to begin to present their voice.
"If a person does not believe in following societal norms, they should speak up," Arnold said of her piece.
However, DiRaffaele wanted to make it clear that the goal of the film showing wasn't to promote hating men, but to educate people and help women think about how they can improve the media. As the film explains, the media will continue to portray women in this way if women don't support other women and take a stand against what is happening. Many attendees agreed that the "real crime is doing nothing."
"It's a long tradition of women thinking this way, women bringing down women," Arnold said.
The film also describes older women as role models for younger girls, who should set an example to be strong and not support the media that demeans and objectifies women.
"We must change the way we behave and think in order to change the future for other women," said Liz Weingartner, a senior and another organizer of the event.
Many attendees agreed that women must present themselves as something positive, with strong intellectual potential.
"If we don't show women as real people, no one else will," Arnold said.