Watching  Jennifer Seibel Newsom’s documentary, Miss Representation on OWN last night made me remember why Oprah is one of our leaders. It’s the type of change-your-life programming that OWN has been lacking from the beginning—save for Our America with Lisa Ling and a few wonderfully nostalgic episodes of Oprah’s Life Class (essentially repackaged The Oprah Winfrey Show episodes), the offerings have been hard to swallow—vanity talk show projects galore and a few docu-series that border on the sensational. I was beginning to wonder if we’d lost the “Oprah” in Oprah.

But this film—required viewing for every American (and especially parents)—held up a magnifying glass to a problem that’s been glaringly obvious yet systematically ignored for decades. In short: Women get fucked in the media—both literally and figuratively. It’s something we like to brush aside or pretend doesn’t exist when we tune in for our guilty-pleasure TV watching of The Bachelor or Gossip Girl, not wanting to acknowledge the misogynistic messages these shows send; or wrap our heads around how a young girl might view herself if the only images she sees of women are over-sexed, abused, backstabbing, underfed, man-hungry celebutards.

Understanding the impact of our actions—even those we want to be frivolous and “harmless,” like watching television—is at the heart of feminism, but should be the basis for decent human behavior, period. Miss Representation is the wake-up call we all need. The film details the harrowing facts about how women are so starkly undervalued in this country, but doesn’t shy away from the impact the anti-girl media message has on boys and men—a point made particularly profound by testimonials from a handful of teenage boys who believe in words like “fair” and “equal” and don’t subscribe to the super-masculinized ideal they’re being force fed. This was such a key point; boys are all-too-often left out of the conversation, but they have everything to do with it. Teaching our boys how to be their best selves is as important as valuing girls for more than just their bodies; the two go hand-in-hand.

As much as this documentary highlights the shortcomings of our society in terms of supporting its females (78% of teenage girls are unhappy with their bodies; 65% of women and girls have an eating disorder; women make up 51% of the population but only 7% of Congress; more than half of working women are mothers, yet the U.S. has no federal maternity leave or flex time policy; a female protagonist in Hollywood means a half-naked, DD-cup babe carrying guns and a grudge) it also showed the beacon of hope that lies within the beautiful, ambitious, unrelenting, not-yet-vapid minds of young girls. These ladies want to be president, restart the space program, fight for gender justice and help their communities. They remind us that every generation truly does get to start over and do better. To see such inspiring zeal in young girls today, despite the all-out assault they’re getting from the media, should be enough to make everyone stand up, take action, and help ensure a brighter future for them.

Few networks would likely show this film, despite its Sundance wow factor (my guess is none of the others would). So, thank you, Oprah, for giving us this and making the world see, listen and hopefully act. You’re one of the few who can actually make us do that.

We know The Office and Grey’s Anatomy are on Thursday night, but we’re begging you to skip those — or at least make some extra room on your DVR — for OWN’s documentary Miss Representation, which chronicles the ways the media, well, repeatedly screw women. In it, you’ll get a startling reality check about how far we still have to go to attain equality for women in America: Yes, it feels like there are more female candidates running for major office every day, for instance, yet we hold only 17 percent of Congress. Cuba, China, Iraq, and Afghanistan have us beat in the realm of women in office. (I mean, seriously.) Miss Representation makes the case that the fewer women we see in power, the fewer we’ll have in the future; even more importantly, if our media keep haranguing female candidates for their ball-busting (see: Hillary) or drooling over their sexuality (see: Sarah), the last thing girls will envision themselves as is President.

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