Jennifer Siebel Newsom wrote, directed, and produced the documentary, The Mask You Live In. The film explores our culture’s definition of masculinity and how it is harming boys, men, and society at large. NBC15’s Leigh Mills spoke with Newsom about the issue and how society can change its perception of masculinity.
NBC15, 6/21/16
The idea that men are less emotionally adept than women is, says director Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a stereotype that is reinforced throughout men’s lives (largely by mass culture), and to disastrous effect. Her latest documentary, The Mask You Live In, seeks to explain and provide solutions to what she calls America’s “boy crisis.”
Vice News, 3/14/16
The most dangerous phrase in the English language is “be a man”. To be a man today, says film-maker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, is to fight for success and sex, to reject empathy, and to never, ever cry. The result is depression, anxiety and violence.
The Guardian, 8/14/16
“The Representation Project partnered with Futures Without Violence and Obscura Digital, which launched their #BeAModelMan campaign over the weekend by projecting messages like ‘Domestic violence will not end until men stand up and put an end to it’ on San Francisco landmarks.”
San Francisco Chronicle, 2/8/16
“While revelers are celebrating the Super Bowl in San Francisco, two groups are aiming to capture those eyeballs to launch awareness of violence against women and children while promoting healthy definitions of masculinity. The hashtag #BeAModelMan is showing up in messages projected onto the façades of buildings all over the city, along with positive messages about masculinity, by Futures Without Violence and The Representation Project.”
Refinery 29, 2/7/16
“Jennifer Siebel Newsom, founder of the nonprofit The Representation Project, tells Quartz that shifts in advertising can correspond, and even encourage, important shifts in cultural attitudes. ‘Depictions of healthy masculinity and men being their whole, authentic selves are critical for modeling an alternative for consumers, particularly boys and young men,’ Newsom says.”
Quartz, 2/3/16
“In the 2015 documentary The Mask You Live In, director Jennifer Siebel Newsom examines the way gender stereotypes limit boys and men, with catastrophic results.”
BitchMedia, 2/2/16
