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Newest Miss Representation Trailer (2011 Sundance Film Festival Official Selection) from Miss Representation on Vimeo.

watching this trailer for the documentary MissRepresentation, about the ways women are portrayed in American media today, gave me goosebumps

"It's extremely important for women to be writing their own stories" -Rosario Dawson

"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any" -Alice Walker

It is easy to feel powerless on set when working as a model, when chances are that at least one person you're working with is under the impression that you are being paid to take theirs and everyone else's shit with a smile, and acquiesce every demand. Working friendships/relationships with stylists, photographers and hair/makeup artists help communication, but when this is absent a set can quickly become one of the worst working environments in the developed world (#firstworldproblems). "Why do people purposefully make others on set feel like shit? It's like they go out of their way to do it, or feel as though they have to in order to seem important." --actual paraphrasing from memory of an industry friend's thoughts.

Sometimes modeling can be such a shitshow I want to get out of it altogether. Other times I prize the opportunity to model for the travel and life experience it brings me. When I'm feeling really strong I like to dream that I can keep my integrity as a human being while modeling, and in doing so make a statement about who a woman is and how she deserves to be treated. Because honestly I think a big part of the shitty way people treat models reflects the shitty ways people treat women. Oh, but it's not only women, and not only models, who get treated like shit on set. The hierarchy of director/client/producer, photographer, stylist, hair and makeup artist, assistants, model is pretty obvious and ingrained. Most people aren't happy about it, and everyone takes it out on each other. STOP TREATING OTHER PEOPLE LIKE SHIT!!! Everyone works better when they feel appreciated. duh.

#stoptheshit

xTVE