In the article,”Two Ways A Woman Can Get Hurt”by Jean Kilbourne the author talks about how ads portray women and men in a way that damages society. Some of the ads with men advertising the author describes them as a betterer or date rapist as he is showing off the product. The authors says men are also encouraged to never take no for an answer and shows them the dominate one over women. The author talks in general how society looks at women needing to be more responsible and not being sloppy, but men on the other hand aren’t looked upon badly or judged if they are too drunk in public of make mistakes. The author talks about young girls that see other girls their ages being models that are skinny, they either try to be like them or afraid of…
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.…
In the article “Tow Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt” by Jean Kilbourne, which was published in 1999, describes how women are shown in today advertisements. Sex in advertising has taken a completely bizarre way to advertise about a certain product. Women are usually shown in inappropriate matter to attract consumer’s attention. Most of the advertisements today are based on pornography features. In addition, the use of sex content in advertisements has a negative impact on consumers because it shows women as a cheap tool in business. Those kinds of advertisements indicate that men are always the rulers and women are their easy target. Sexuality plays an important role in marketing and advertising today. Big companies earn…
The intriguing documentary of Killing Us Softly 4 by Jean Kilbourne, provides for a controversial topic of the basis of advertising in the media and how it affects women directly and indirectly. Consequently, harsh results are perceived from these advertisements. Of all the “factual” statements made by Jean Kilbourne during this documentary, many fallacies arose. The media leaves us extremely vulnerable to assimilating ourselves to all aspects of mass media. I can closely identify myself with the situation at hand because I am a part of a society that is raised up on a pop culture that is ubiquitous. We are constantly consumed in the media every single day with advertisements flooding our brains. In fact, I feel that women are not as materialized, dehumanized, or objectified as they are overpoweringly depicted in Killing Us Softly 4.…
With the advents of technology, advertisements depict women as desirable commodities this has poisoned the minds of many young women ultimately morphing values and beliefs. Women are shown in subordinate, submissive, and male pleasing roles. Media and advertisement representation reflects and reinforces sexism in society today. The social standards of beauty and feminism are set by Hollywood’s greatest celebrities. They do this by alluring women into buying cosmetic products affirming the concept of female beauty. Companies such as “bebe”, apply the same technique to persuade women in buying their apparel. In the ad “bebe”, the company portrays a woman holding a bright red lipstick getting off a taxi while flaunting a revealing dress. On the other side, she is shown obeying all rules, in bed with black revealing lingerie with an enticing text, “9pm to 5am obey all the rules, you miss all the fun”. The ad amplifies its message and allures its audience to disobey all the rules if they want to become “the bad girl” by purchasing “bebe’s” apparel.…
I watched Jeanne Kilborne's video speech, “Killing Us Softly.” The informative video expressed many themes of oppression against women in the media, making them seem inferior and seen as objects. First, she mentions and proves that women are demeaned sexually, physically and intellectually, a point that she talks about for a big chunk of time, you could say it’s the main point of her presentation. I definitely agree with this argument because we still see it now-a-days in burger ads, women and their bodies are used to sell their food. In New York, Times Square, all you see is women promoting things. I don’t agree with their use of advertising at all because it makes women seem more like things that are usable. Kilborne proves this by using…
In article “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt: Advertising and Violence,” Jean Kibourne argues that advertising encourages sexual and physical violence towards women. One example from her article that supported main argument well is the advertising about jeans. Jean discusses, “The ad that ran in the Czech version of Elle portraying three men attacking a woman seems unambiguous, the terrifying image is being used to sell jeans to women” (583). It a strong use of evidence for advertising encourages sexual and physical violence towards women because in the ad does not show any thing about jeans. Otherwise, on the image, there are three men attacking and having sexual abuse a woman. This ad will encourage men to aggressive towards woman, and let them…
The media today continually promotes a specific type of “gender role” and behavior for both men and women. It influences and corrupts the minds of both men, women and especially young teens when doing so. With that said it’s definitely a big part of creating social norms as well. Think about it, there are three common different types of media: television, films, and advertisements, which are shown almost everywhere. Like I mentioned before, gender roles for an example exist only because society chooses to accept them for what they are. Viewers must be aware of what the media is trying to push on them, especially females. For example, most women when appearing with their male actors on screen constantly are portrayed in roles that are…
Jean Kilbourne has spent most of her professional life teaching and lecturing about the world of advertising. She has produced award winning documentaries on images of women in ads, is a member of the national advisory council on alcohol abuse and alcoholism, and is a senior scholar at the Wellesley Center for Women at Wellesley College. Kilbourne has served twice as an adviser to the Surgeon General of the United States. Kilbourne has also written a book which is titled “The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids.” Another one is her book from 1999 “Can’t Buy My Love; How Advertising Changes the Way…
There is a saying that even bad publicity is still good publicity. This concept of “publicity” may sound absurd but that is what advertisements are portraying these days. When we see the advertisements, the impact is quite shocking and offensive for a normal viewer. However, this method of advertisement is still the best way to capture the consumer’s attention and increase the sale of products. Some people believe the messages sent out through media are the true representation of the real world they live in. Unfortunately, these messages create gender stereotypes, which have characterized both males and females about how to look and act. Otherwise, they will not be accepted in the society. In the essay of Aaron H Devor, “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender”, he explores the concept of masculinity and femininity that creates our sense of identity, and how these gender codes show a relationship to power, dominance and submission. Jean Kilbourne in “Two Ways a Woman can Hurt: Advertising and Violence” and Joan Morgan in “From Fly-Girls to Bitches and Hos” argue that how a woman’s image of submission is abused and exploited through the media, leaving women disempowered and marginalized. The attached advertisement “Ultimate Attraction”…
Zimmerman, Amanda, and John Dahlberg. "The Sexual Objectification of Women in Advertising: A Contemporary Cuitural Perspective." Journal of Advertising Resaearch (2008): 71-79. Print.…
Women were overrepresented in advertisements for cosmetics and were less likely to appear in advertisements for cars, trucks and related products. Seventy-five percent of all advertisements using women were for products found in the kitchen or bathroom, reinforcing the stereotype that a woman’s place is in the home. Women as compared to men were portrayed mostly in house settings rather than business settings. Women did not make important decisions and lastly women were depicted as dependent on men and were regarded primarily as sexual objects. Courtney and Whipple (1974) defined sexual objects as, where women had no role in the commercial, but appeared as an item of decoration. Jake Lake and Brad Wadden say, in the portrayal of women in the media that advertisements promote extreme thinness or a thin waist and big breasts, misleading because these models don’t represent the majority of the population. These advertisements have women in them looking good but very seldom are they talking. These advertisements put pressure on women to get that “thin look”. This extra pressure leads to low self-esteem and eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. Women are also portrayed as domestic laborers. Women are very seldom showing as career oriented in these advertisements. (Cited in Amber: 2002). Hall et al (1994) reports that in most of advertisement majority of women featured appeared in leisurewear or swimwear. Although the largest category of male apparel in work clothes; very few commercials showed women in work…
It is safe to say that through out history advertising has been a major factor to large corporations around the world. In order to sell their products while maintaining a successful business, these large corporations have become extremely smart on how to get the viewers attention. Women and men are both used in advertisements, but as the world changes and the media continues to grow even larger, it seems women are a bigger target of objectification and portrayed as sex objects in these ads.…
Women, beauty, sex, money--they may seem like completely unrelated words but when combined together create a powerful driving force within American society. This “driving force” is known as media, though, in this essay, I will be focusing mainly on advertisements. There are a variety of ads being made everyday and can be spotted almost everywhere; billboards, magazines, shops, and even online, just to name a few. However, many of these ads--ranging from food to fashion--have began involving women in them. Not just any women either; these women are the idealized women American society has conceptualized as they flaunt their bodies whilst also implying sexual themes. Individuals, literally and figurative, by into the way these advertisements…
Advertisements help feed into the stereotypical image of women functioning as housewives and caretakers. One might ask: is advertising simply mirroring societies view on the roles of females, or are they part of the reason why America still labels women as domesticated? Printed advertisements portray women inferior to men by the use of their context, imagery, and content. Companies use the conventional view of women in marketing strategies in order to sell their products.…