Two Ways A Woman Can Get Hurt Jean Kilbourne Summary
Ronnie Fay
March 4, 2013
The Power of Media
In the text “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt: Advertising and Violence”, Jean Kilbourne, an award winning author and educator who is internationally recognized for her innovative work on images of woman in advertising, argues how media images influence our interactions and shape our social reality. Kilbourne’s sensible analysis of these powerful and harmful advertisements lacks a simplistic cause and effect relationship between the way we act and the images presented to us. With an analytic investigation of Kilbourne’s text one can locate several solid examples where she explains the relationship between images and actions. Kilbourne claims, “Male violence is subtly encouraged by ads that encourage men to be forceful and dominant, and to value sexual intimacy more than emotional intimacy”(460). Though this may be a valid claim one may agree with, another may also argue as to why the advertisement is to blame, and that is why Kilbourne specifically comments that, “Ads don’t directly cause violence, of course”(466). As we know, there are many different forms and styles of advertising such as television commercials, radio commercials, newspapers, magazines, billboards, and even on city benches; basically anywhere a victim could happen to …show more content…
A message that reads, “Don’t be such a good boy” is printed toward the bottom of the ad. Kilbourne’s response to the ad suggests, “Clearly the way to get beautiful woman is to ignore them, perhaps mistreat them” (460). The message that is sent to viewer from this ad can be considered quite sexual, and it is not hard to understand; again allowing premature viewers to get an idea of what should be adult content. Even though the appearance of the ad is clean, the message is
March 4, 2013
The Power of Media
In the text “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt: Advertising and Violence”, Jean Kilbourne, an award winning author and educator who is internationally recognized for her innovative work on images of woman in advertising, argues how media images influence our interactions and shape our social reality. Kilbourne’s sensible analysis of these powerful and harmful advertisements lacks a simplistic cause and effect relationship between the way we act and the images presented to us. With an analytic investigation of Kilbourne’s text one can locate several solid examples where she explains the relationship between images and actions. Kilbourne claims, “Male violence is subtly encouraged by ads that encourage men to be forceful and dominant, and to value sexual intimacy more than emotional intimacy”(460). Though this may be a valid claim one may agree with, another may also argue as to why the advertisement is to blame, and that is why Kilbourne specifically comments that, “Ads don’t directly cause violence, of course”(466). As we know, there are many different forms and styles of advertising such as television commercials, radio commercials, newspapers, magazines, billboards, and even on city benches; basically anywhere a victim could happen to …show more content…
A message that reads, “Don’t be such a good boy” is printed toward the bottom of the ad. Kilbourne’s response to the ad suggests, “Clearly the way to get beautiful woman is to ignore them, perhaps mistreat them” (460). The message that is sent to viewer from this ad can be considered quite sexual, and it is not hard to understand; again allowing premature viewers to get an idea of what should be adult content. Even though the appearance of the ad is clean, the message is