Summary Of The Dangerous Ways Ads See Women By Jean Kilbourne

In Jean Kilbourne’s essay, “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt: Advertising and Violence” she goes into how advertisements sexualize women and how that can relate to violence such as sexual assault. Kilbourne starts out by telling us what we already know. Advertisements sexualize women and these advertisements have an effect on our society. When looking through the sexually charged advertisements Kilbourne had included in her essay, I was not surprised by any of them. I’m exposed to nudity and the sexualization of women every day.

Assuming that the audience of the magazine mostly consist of teenagers and young adults, the production and marketing target their desire to flaunt their appearance to their peers. The strong colours of the makeup effectively manipulate their mentality to evoke the desire to buy the product, thinking that they will look special with this product. Furthermore, another bias can exist when this advertisement associates itself with powerful diction to reflect the underlying idea of feminism. Therefore, when women read this ad, they can resonate with the ideals to become stronger, like the characters in the movie. This advertisement uses the popular culture and social movements in its favor to persuade more people to purchase its

Kilbourne’s speech talks about women being disassembled and brain washed by ads portraying what they should look like. She talks about how ads during this time and still to this day women are molded into what they are expected to be. Young girls are exposed to ads talking about if you want pretty skin or make-up that will make you flawless. Seems like from an early age, we are brained washed. How women are displayed as sweet and innocent but yet supposed to be sexy? There are so many ads in the world today making, woman into objects to sell a product. Recent ads in People magazine show an example of this. In the ad, there is a young woman dressed in yellow and green football sweater and knitted hat leaning against a red concrete column.

Within the advertisement they broadcast systemically reenforced and exaggerated a large number of stereotypes about both men and women. Some may wonder, however, how this really effects everyday life. If someone sees so many ads in a day what is one more, one that is just a bit more sexist than the typical beer ad. While this it is true that the average person is overstimulated by the number of ads as it is there is still something to be said for the content of the ads. Even if a person doesn’t mentally acknowledge them the brain still notes them and stores them in the brain. If time after time one sees women in the submissive role or treated as objects, chances are they will start subconsciously believing it. On the other hand if men are constantly portrayed as stupid and hormone driven then that bias will start to seep into reality. There are also significant moral issues with this ad, if time after time women are portrayed simply as a visual feast it changes how they will be treated for the rest of their lives. Next time they walk down the street theres a chance a man may catcall her, acknowledging the fact that she was in some way appealing to him. He doesn’t do this because she is smart, funny or kind he does this simply because he was pleased by her appearance and may even think he is complementing her. However, by doing this he reenforces what the media has

Jean Kilbourne analyzes two sides to the spectrum in which women are damaged. As the title states, these two ways reveal themselves as advertising and violence. She then dives deep into the dark world of advertising and exposes the vile nature of these productions. Kilbourne selected and criticized a large number of specific ads implying sexual behavior and aggression towards women. Looking through these ads, she then suggests how treating women in such a sexually degrading way may lead to violence and how these behaviors must be stopped. Many instances have been laid out including many female teens being emotionally abused at school and online. Women are seemly unable to escape these problems as long as men are around. In the

Advertising has been engrained in our lives since birth. It is something that is everywhere, whether be on a wall, on TV, or on a billboard on a busy highway. You might not think you are aware of its effects, but it triggers something subconsciously. Advertisement has been sexualized in a way that appeals and affects people in an unconscious level, it may also influence one’s view of gender roles. In the film Killing US Softly, Jean Kilbourne discusses how advertising has changed the way not only women, but also how man view themselves. A woman must look beautiful, be sexy and thin, while a man must be attractive, muscular and powerful to achieve the “perfect look” and in doing so, both gain acceptance.

On a daily basis people encounter dozens of advertisements. They might see them on television, on the internet, in a magazine/newspaper, or on even on a billboard. However, people never realize that these ads seen on a daily basis have an effect on our society; especially on women. Advertisers like to appeal to our fears, hopes, desires, concepts of success, worth, love, and beauty. When we focus on the effects advertising has on women, our results are mostly negative. The main purpose of an advertisement is to inform; however, advertisements also persuade negative views towards beauty and sexism

In 2016, the United States spent 190 billion U.S. dollars on advertisements, almost double the amount of money on advertising than the next largest ad market (Statista). These ads advertise a multitude of different products. The ads are exposed to society in many different ways, from the breaks in between songs on the radio, to the ads shown online. Ads are targeted to a specific group of people, usually, the target demographic the brand wants to buy their product. Brands will often use women’s bodies in a sexual way to get people to stop and look at their ads. Over the last few decades, speakers and activists have seen advertisements becoming more sexual and more demeaning towards women. Activist Jean Kilbourne has been analyzing ads and has been bringing awareness to this issue for years through her four documentaries. In her documentary, “Killing Us Softly 4,” Jean Kilbourne asserts women’s bodies are often dismembered, portrayed with an unattainable, “ideal” body type, and despite advances in the women’s movement, the objectification of women in ads have gotten worse. The two images below illustrate these ideas.

Women have pursued careers and made changing roles in their families where they are sometimes playing the father and mother role for their kids. Women since then can be motivators and people that can inspire many that they can be anything and do anything they desire. Having woman be the center of attention towards other women, men, and just any one it inspires others to see that they can make a different regardless of their gender. Women regardless of what they are advertising can make a difference and catch the attention of any audience and the person creating these advertisements doesn’t just put woman because of the stereotypes to show skin, but to

Jean Kilbourne opens her discussion by explaining that she has been studying how women are perceived in ads for a time span of over forty years. Her personal interest in the subject came when she began modeling since during the 1960s, because options were very limited when it came to work. She claims that her experience in modeling was soul-destroying and sexual harassment and degrading came along with it. She says now, ads are much more advanced, explaining that a six month old baby can be seen representing a logo for a company. The main problem that she’s seen, however, is that the pressure for women to be young, thin, and beautiful is at an all time high. Kilbourne explains that the images in ads are not realistic goals for women to set for themselves, claiming that a cause for this unrealistic standard is photoshop. She says that boys also have high standards set in ads, but if the boys aren’t like the ads, there aren’t consequences like there would be to girls. For girls, we are sexually harassed and seen as sexual objects that boys are introduced to in very young ages now. She says sex has always been used in ads, but that it’s more graphic and pornographic today. A problem with this, she

In the video, Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women, the way women are portrayed in advertising is explored in great detail. The video exposes the gender stereotypes that are depicted in advertising on a regular basis. The effects of mass advertising are also explored particularly the effect of objectification of women on young girls. Young girls and women are affected by these constant and never-ending advertisements sexualizing women and marginalizing them to a desired look, which is unrealistic for most women. These advertisements send a message to women that if they don’t look like the women that are being portrayed on TV, they are not worth much. Young women and teenagers are influenced even easier. Media pushes the message to young kids that their self worth is determined by how they look and what they wear.

Advertisements can be found all over in our society. They are on television, in newspapers, on the Internet, and even on the sides of cars and buses. Advertisements greatly influence the way people shop and view products. Many companies use gender stereotypes as a strategy to advertise and sell their products. These advertisements show that men still have a more dominant role over women. Ads are openly sexist and objectifying towards both women and men and usually have a clear gender difference. After looking at many different ads for different products, one thing became clear. The advertisements used for adults and children help guide our society into the stereotypical gender roles we currently have and teach us that objectifying both men and women is acceptable.

When watching Jean Kilbourne’s documentary titled, Killing Us Softly I learned a lot of hidden secrets about advertising and what it does to women. Kilbourne touches on many topics like, women's role in society, how they are used in ads, and how it affects women. She starts of her talk by

In the documentary Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising’s Image of Women by Jean Kilbourne, she talks about how women are depicted in advertisement. The average American will spend 2 years of their life just watching advertisement, and most of these people will make the claim that the ads were not effective to them. Jean Kilbourne stresses that the advertisement companies make their ads quick and cumulative so that they almost seem forgettable. However, the advertisements will still resonate in your mind unconsciously. Kilbourne argues that the objectification of women in the advertisement industry: negatively affects the mental health of women with the societal need to be perfect, encourages the eroticism of violence, and tells women they need

Since the 1960s and the rebirth of the women’s movement, there have been rages against the way women are treated in advertising. Every day viewers will find themselves showered by explicit advertisements, images, slogans, songs, ads, etc., all that which have a major underlying issue within mass media: the objectification of women. Women were suggestively portrayed for the sale of all different types of products and services, from print in magazines to commercials on television. There is an extremely strong focus on women being a sexual object rather than what she is, a female human being.