Copyright 2005
Girl's Best Friend Foundation

Respect Me, Don't Media Me!

"I was going to have plastic surgery before doing this project, but now I'm not going to because it taught me to be comfortable in my own skin." -- Jenny, 17, Sister 2004-5

Sisters do a special leadership project every spring. In the spring of 2004, the Sisters studied how commercial music videos (like the ones shown on MTV, BET, etc.) portray young women and how do these portrayals impact young women's lives. They conducted a participatory research project -- which means that young women were both the ones doing the researching and the folks being researched.

They collected lots of data from interviews with Chicago youth and music videos themselves, and pulled it all together in this report (Word, 72k).

Once they had this report and all of the rich information in it, the Sisters decided they wanted to create something that would get people talking and questioning more than just a written report: thus, they decided to create a documentary that could take their message to the next level, in the hopes that they would help raise people’s consciousness.

Respect Me, Don't Media Me is that documentary. It's a 30-minute film that looks at the representations of young women in music videos and other media and asks questions: How does it impact young women's decisions and relationships? And what can we do to change it?

"A lot of people my age are media-driven. It's kinda scary that some people believe what they see without thinking about it." -- Jenny, 17, Sister 2004-5.

Wanna watch a clip? Click here.

At the moment, there are free public screenings planned for various locations within Chicagoland. Call Yas at 312-266-2842 for more information. You can buy a DVD through Beyondmedia Education.


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