Women in society feel they are being objectified, and feel as if they are not getting the same respect as men. Through many examples it is shown that not just women, but men are also being objectified. After the realization of men being objectified as well, there is a combination of objectification towards women, and men throughout all forms of media, for the reason of publicity. Firstly, to explain the objectifications of women, within today’s society. Kilbourne’s article, “Two ways a women can get hurt,” expresses in many ways the different kinds of brutality men has towards women. For example, she says “Sex in advertising is pornographic because it dehumanizes and objectifies people, especially women…” (Kilbourne 271). The two words in the quote to amplify are “especially women.” Sure women get objectified in advertisement, although so do men. Men and women both have a side to the objectification of each one another. For every ad a man and his cologne attracting women, there is an ad for women perfume attracting men. Although evidently, it seems, men are going to pay attention to the ad with pornographic images of women, more than women having the attention of an ad with a pornographic photo of a man. On the other hand, gladly to see that Kilbourne is not completely on the women’s side. Along with the Calvin Klein ad she quotes, “There is no question that men are used as sex objects in ads now as never before” (Kilbourne 278). She is exactly right with this
Jean Kilbourne’s film, Killing Us Softly 4, depicts the way the females are shown in advertisements. She discusses how advertisement sell concepts of normalcy and what it means to be a “male” and a “female.” One of her main arguments focuses on how women aspire to achieve the physical perfection that is portrayed in advertisements but this perfection is actually artificially created through Photoshop and other editing tools. Women in advertisements are often objectified as weak, skinny, and beautiful while men are often portrayed as bigger and stronger. Advertisements utilize the setting, the position of the people in the advertisements, and the products to appeal to the unconscious aspect
In the article “Two Ways a Women Can Get Hurt,” by Jean Kilbourne she writes about how women in our society are depicted as a sex other than a human. According to Jean, it’s the fact of showing women as objects in the media, which generates most of the violence or mistreatment women experience in our current society. Kilbourne later mentions recognizes that the role given to men and women in advertisement is such a representation of what is a norm “the popular culture idealizes a template for relationships between men and women that is a recipe for disaster: a template that view sex as more important than anything else, that ridicules men who are in control of their women”. Proving that Jean believes that if women are abused today, its only
Kilbourne’s support for her argument relies on the Appeal to Authority she makes, citing specific ads of big time companies and businesses to demonstrate how these ads are encouraging sexual aggression and violence. She alleges that ads affect us on an unconscious level stating we’ve become immune to the fact that these ads affect us (417). At the same time, she declares ads are pornographic, since they encourage rape and sexual assault. Kilbourne maintains that all women are vulnerable because “in our culture there is widespread objectification of women’s bodies, glorification of disconnection, violence of women, and blaming of the victim” (433). It all refers back to Kilbourne’s main claim that ads depict individuals as things which encourages sexual hostility.
Throughout Kilbourne’s documentary, men were mentioned in a position as they don’t live in a world where their bodies are constantly being criticized and judged by others. Something I found interesting in the ads that Jean’s presented in her sideshow of women, most girls in the advertisements were pictured with their hands over their mouths. And their body language would reflect a vulnerable state while the men in the ads stood with a different demeanor. Something that has dramatically changed over the years is the increasing of ads with men looking bigger and much more powerful than women.
Sexualizaton and objectification in the advertisements we see and the media we watch has become a very strong issue in our society. With the idea that “sex sells”, consumers don’t even realize that they’re not viewing the advertisements for what they are, but for the women (or men) that are being portrayed in a very erotic way, posed with whatever product they were hired to sell. Many articles have been written so far to challenge and assess this problem, but one written by Jean Kilbourne (1999), “”Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt”: Advertising and Violence” holds an extensive amount of authority. Using her personal experience with the subject, as well as studies she has conducted herself on the topic of sexualization, she talks about how the amount of sexualization in advertising affects how society views the culture and products consumers buy. She also notes that because of the quantity and prevalence of these ads, the rate of all forms of sexual assault, specifically rape (mostly towards women of all age), increase, as well as other forms of assault. It is important to examine Kilbourne’s use of rhetorical devices, such as ethos, pathos, and logos, and how effective these devices make her article. This way, it can be examined for its validity and her understanding of her own research. Kilbourne’s article is very effective through her uses of pathos and ethos, but at the same time, it loses its effectiveness through her absence of a counter-argument, as well as a lack
She does this by describing advertisements for different products. One example she uses is an ad for Possession clothing. She describes the ad by saying “Sometimes it’s ‘all in good fun’ as in the ad for Possession shirts and shorts featuring a man ripping off the clothes off a woman who seems to be having a good time” (492-93). This is an example of how most men in society see women as their property and how they can do whatever they want to them whenever they want. As well as describing the ad for the Possession clothing line, Kilbourne uses an example of a Pepsi commercial featuring Cindy Crawford. The commercial is of Crawford getting out of her car to go buy a Pepsi while being checked out by two young boys (502-03). This is showing how even from a young age, boys are taught that it is okay to view a woman as something that can just be stared at and thought about in ways that are nothing but sexual and objectifying. Kilbourne also makes a point to explain how if the roles were reversed in some advertisements nothing would change. She does this by using an ad for jeans. The ad shows a little boy lifting up a woman’s skirt and looking up it (507). She states “it may seem that I am reading too much into this ad, but imagine if the genders were reversed. We would fear for the little girl who is unzipping a man’s fly in an ad” (507-08). She does this to explain that no
Jean Kilbourne is an advocate for women and is leading a movement to change the way women are viewed in advertising. She opens up the curtains to reveal the hard truth we choose to ignore or even are too obtuse to notice. Women are objectified, materialized, and over-sexualized in order to sell clothes, products, ideas and more. As a woman, I agree with the position Kilbourne presents throughout her documentary Killing Us Softly 4: The Advertising’s Image of Women (2010) and her TEDx Talk The Dangerous Ways Ads See Women (2014.) She demonstrates time and again that these advertisements are dangerous and lead to unrealistic expectations of women.
The objectifications of a woman have been known to be centered around the actions of a man. Cat-calling, slut shaming, and men being in a superior position while women are inferior or counted as their ‘objects’ are all parts of the dehumanizing nature of objectification. This indicates that women are centered around their appearance and feminine demeanor, and nothing else needs to be accounted for. However, there are other influences that have contributed to the vicious cycle society has on degrading women. Women objectify other women over similar matters as men, but not similar relevance in sociocultural context. Another contributor to women objectification is women’s self-objectification, in which they internally reflect on their appearance and demeanor to seek the approval of the observer. The last and most dominant factor that has been deemed the main culprit of turning women into objects is the culture of advertisement. Advertising has sexually objectified women for years, and is the backbone of the degradation of women in the real world. It also depicts unrealistic images of the female body and attitude that no female human being can actually live up to. The media has introduced the actions of sexual discrimination and harassment, and has influenced the ideas of how women should be treated. The combination of these three components are continuing the cycle of the objectification of women.
It is also noticeable, that in a lot of ads women appear dominant and aggressive. They make the first move and men apparently play victims, or a "sex object", as Kilbourne noticed. Advertisements for the body spray for men, Tag, say, "WARNING, the makers of Tag Body Spray will not be held liable should your attraction to your Tag wearing boyfriend cause you to engage in behavior that grandma may consider unladylike'"; the picture is as impressive as the warning. The first thought that popped in my mind was "would only the grandma consider such behavior unladylike?" I do not think so. The second one was about the actual capability of a man to attract a woman. The real picture occurs if we reverse the subject and the object. Imagine a man on top of a woman, as it is shown in the ad, the result will be terrifying it would look like a rape. Kilbourne says, "Although these ads are often funny, it is never a good thing for human to be objectified. However, there is a world difference between the objectification of men and that of women. The most important difference is that there is no danger for most men, whereas objectified women are always at risk," pointing out a very interesting fact: nobody would take seriously an ad where a woman abuses a man., but if reversed, it would be very realistic and true (464). Men are never concerned about daily protection,
The use of sexualization also reinforces a pattern of gender roles that are currently circulating throughout advertisements. More often than not, women who are used as ploys in ads are seen doing household chores like vacuuming, changing the toilet paper, or making coffee. Females are rarely ever seen in a work place, and definitely not in a powerful position. In fact, the directors of most of these ads place women below or behind the man to show who has the power in actuality. Women are seen as skinny, fragile, and immobile in high heels, while men are strong and powerful. By setting up such a strong binary between the two different groups, it is obvious that the majority of the American society will not be able to fit into these roles, and it leaves a sense of rejection for the average person. This rejection, accepted by the viewers, manifests
Everyday we expose ourselves to thousands of advertisements in a wide variety of environments where ever we go; yet, we fail to realize the influence of the implications being sold to us on these advertisements, particularly about women. Advertisements don’t just sell products; they sell this notion that women are less of humans and more of objects, particularly in the sexual sense. It is important to understand that the advertising worlds’ constant sexual objectification of women has led to a change in sexual pathology in our society, by creating a culture that strives to be the unobtainable image of beauty we see on the cover of magazines. Even more specifically it is important to study the multiple influences that advertisements have
The purpose of this experiment was to determine the extent to which women are presented as sex objects in magazines. Previous research by Stankiewic and Rosselli (2008) resulted in 51.80% of advertisements in magazines that featured women, and portrayed them as sex objects. The particular way in which objectification is defined, and thus the resulting rates at which women are portrayed as objects, had varied by study. The objectification of women in advertisements also varied by magazine type.
In Jean Kilbourne’s essay, “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt”: Advertising and Violence, she paints a picture of repression, abuse, and objectification of women. Kilbourne gives an eye-opening view to the way American advertisers portray women and girls. Throughout the essay she has images that depict women in compromising poses. These images are examples of how often we see women in dehumanizing positions in advertisements and how desensitized we have become. Kilbourne implores us to take the media more seriously. She is putting a microscope on society and showing that the objectification of women is acceptable.
Sexist ads show that society is dominated by the same masculine values that have controlled the image of women in the media for years. Sexist advertisement reinforces gender stereotypes and roles, or uses sex appeal to sell products, which degrades the overall public perception of women. The idea that sexism is such a rampant problem comes from the stereotypes that are so deeply embedded into today’s society that they almost seem to be socially acceptable, although they are nowhere near politically correct. Images that objectify women seem to be almost a staple in media and advertising: attractive women are plastered all over ads. The images perpetuate an image of the modern woman, a gender stereotype that is reinforced time and time again by the media. These images are accepted as “okay” in advertising, to depict a particular product as sexy or attractive. And if the product is sexy, so shall be the consumer. In the 1970s, groups of women initially took issue with the objectification of women in advertisements and with the limited roles in which these ads showed women. If they weren’t pin-ups, they were delicate
Today's media is increasingly pornographic, and the notion that 'sex sells' has infiltrated the advertising of virtually all products and services. Both men and women are sexualized in contemporary media, but the extent to which women are sexualized is far greater that men are. Jean Kilbourne states in her talk, The Dangerous Ways Ads See Women, "There are stereotypes that harm men, of course, but they tend to be less personal, less related to the body." The stereotypes that drive the portrayal of women in the media lead to the repeated objectification, particularly sexual objectification,