Award-winning lecturer, Jean Kilbourne, in her article, “’Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt:’ Advertising and Violence,” pulls back the curtain on how advertising may impact society’s view of women. Kilbourne claims the media portrays women as objects, which generates most of the violence or mistreatment they experience in reality. As a woman in today’s society, I completely support Kilbourne in every aspect present in this article that takes a stance on women’s rights and prosperity.
Kilbourne begins her piece by purposing that women are sexualized and degraded in modern society by sexually aimed advertising. She argues that men and women in the media are misrepresented as sex symbols and tools. But more so that women are characterized as inferior
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in English from Wellesley College and a doctorate in education from Boston University, Jean Kilbourne is a more than credible author. Kilbourne proposes the idea that women are sexualized and degraded in modern society by sexually aimed advertising. “When a beer ad uses the image of a man licking the high-heeled boot of a woman in clad leather, when bondage is used to sell neckties in the New York Times, perfume in The New Yorker, and watches on city buses…” (460). Kilbourne uses a large array of ads from beer to perfume to show that this is not just present in a few advertisements, but many advertisements seen almost everywhere. While mostly throughout the article Kilbourne bashes men, she also admits to some limitations and expresses good will. Kilbourne shows good character by also trying to appeal to the opposition. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, realizing the importance of relationships in all of our lives, we could seek to learn relational skills from women and to help men develop these strengths in themselves?” (461). Kilbourne established good credibility when she does this. She is taking a stance for women, but at the same time she is encouraging men to do the same and try to put themselves into a woman’s
It is obvious that media plays a significant role in our society. It affects every aspect of our lives - political, social, and cultural. In the various works including articles, lectures and films, Jean Kilbourne presents an insightful and critical analysis of advertising and its profound negative effect on all of us. She states that, “Advertisement creates a worldview that is based upon cynicism, dissatisfaction and craving” (p. 75). She discusses the issue in a very objective and impartial manner, “The advertisers aren’t evil.
Longaker and Walker identify how dehumanization effects emotion by discussing, “The Nazi pogrom, Jews were often made to do disgusting things—scrub toilets, relieve themselves publicly—to make them seem less than human and more deserving of cruel treatment and even mass extermination” (212). Similarly, advertisements can dehumanize individuals, like women, by portraying them in grotesque situations or environments. As a result, a society lessens respect for these individuals and creates a mentality that fosters abuse. Kilbourne tries to illuminate this issue by presenting various advertisements that are suggestive of women, and elaborates on the effects these advertisements have on society. For instance, alcohol companies tend to target women with advertisements like, “A chilling newspaper ad for a bar in Georgetown features a close-up of a cocktail and the headline, ‘If your date won’t listen to reason, try a Velvet Hammer’”
Annotated Bibliography Introduction: Examine different kinds of advertisements and the problem at hand with how they perpetuate stereotypes, such as; gender, race, and religion. Thesis: The problem in society today is in the industry of social media. In efforts to attract the eye of the general population, advertising companies create billboards, commercials, flyers and other ads with stereotypes that are accepted in today’s society. Because of the nations’ cultural expectation for all different types of people, advertisement businesses follow and portray exactly what and how each specific gender, race, or religion should be.
Consequently, she would likely challenge Cox’s description of the role that women played as the subject of advertisements in the 1920s as nothing more than objects whose sole purpose is to be beautiful. She would be more prone to state that instead of this harsh and objectifying image set forth in Cox’s narrative, women as subjects in advertisements during this time period were “the visual representation of a modern cultural consciousness that defined the 1920s” (Rabinovitch-Fox, 374). This is a very drastic contrast to what has been the narrative thus far regarding women’s status in society through the lens of the advertising companies. These companies have either been demeaning them as nothing more than housewives by pandering to that notion in their radio programming or outright objectifying women completely when they make them the subject of an
She discusses misrepresentation with a list of “ten enlightened sexism…pretense of simple, depicting reality.” (198) which reinforces these pop culture into own ideals of what gender roles should be in our society.
Advertisements: Exposed When viewing advertisements, commercials, and marketing techniques in the sense of a rhetorical perspective, rhetorical strategies such as logos, pathos, and ethos heavily influence the way society decides what products they want to purchase. By using these strategies, the advertisement portrayal based on statistics, factual evidence, and emotional involvement give a sense of need and want for that product. Advertisements also make use of social norms to display various expectations among gender roles along with providing differentiation among tasks that are deemed with femininity or masculinity. Therefore, it is of the advertisers and marketing team of that product that initially have the ideas that influence
Notions such as “sex sells” are not necessary true, for the observers recognize the damaging images in which women are portrayed. Advertisements that depict possessive and violent men toward women are should not be selling. For example, “no”does not mean “convince me”, when taken otherwise may lead to sexual abuse. Despite that both genders can be objectified, it is women who are more at risk due to the already established idea that women are more vulnerable.
Can advertisements really cause violence in people’s lives? Jean Kilbourne’s “Two ways a Woman Can Get Hurt: Advertising and Violence” talks about how advertising and violence against women can cause women to be seen as objects. The author discusses how pornography has developed and is now part of social media, which glorifies its violence that permeates society encourages men to act towards women without respect. Kilbourne uses logical and emotional appeals as well as ethical arguments to effectively convince readers to ignore specific advertising techniques. Jean Kilbourne author has spent most of her professional life teaching and lecturing about the world of advertising.
The mother, in the midst of all of the other demands, enforces that the daughter should behave a certain way “in the presence of men who don’t know [her] very well,” so that they don’t recognize her as “the slut [the mother has] warned [her] against becoming (Kincaid).” This, as well as the many other guidelines given to ensure the daughter’s reputation in society, shows the stereotypes of the time, that women should act respectfully no matter the case, dress modestly, and stick to the domestic sphere of the home in order to be seen as “innocent” and not a slut. An analysis was done on the portrayal of women in print advertisements during the 1970s and the results highlighted the same stereotypes demonstrated in “Girl.” The representation of women in mass media didn’t change until feminists criticized their actions for not representing the full range of female activities. However, the comparison done in the analysis of 1958 ads with those of the 1970s showed that the same standards of expected behavior remained the stereotype for women of the decade (Belkaoui and Belkaoui).
Being a young woman in America, I have stared eye to eye with the guidelines that the media has handed to me. The documentary, Miss Representation, directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, discusses how the media’s objectification of women impacts the lives of girls and women across America. Miss Representation shows that as a girl watches other women
Women has greatly suffered in society from the beginning until now and no one seems to notice this prolonged issue that women have to endure in their daily lives. The media played a major role to how women are perceived in todays society. Nevertheless, in todays world more and more individuals are attempting to address the problem to solve this issue once and for all. Jennifer Newsom effectively convince her audience in an American documentary film: “Miss representation” to embellish the denigration of women in society and persuade the audience through the use of logos, pathos, and explicit visual images.
In conclusion, this essay should have been of support to Erving Goffman’s theory of gender codes dealing with femininity and masculinity in media advertisements. Although, more woman in the media are portrayed through the codes of infantilization and licensed withdrawal, the men are also shown with the code of masculinity. The way in which these models and their environments are positioned supports the communication through body language Goffman
Advertising, as it is known today, took its start during the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. A rapid increase in the manufacturing output enforced advertisers to find new methods of selling on such a large, previously inexistent scale, most of which are still found in today’s advertisements. At all times, the role of women in advertising has been indispensable; however, their portrayal had never been the same. Until the-near end of 20th century, it had been changing from one decade to another reflecting the current idealistic role of women in society. Then the role of women in advertising was limited to humanization.
Mass media represent a powerful force in modern societies as they shape public discourse and influence public opinion by transmitting social, political and cultural values. For decades, women’s representation in mediated popular culture has been a central problem because of the gendered ideologies it circulated. From the 1880s to the 1970s, American women’s magazines played a significant role in disseminating the dominant ideology and patriarchal order, perpetuating the myths of female disposability and domesticity, maintaining traditional images of femininity. They promoted the idea of women’s emotionality, vulnerability and beauty ideals.
The representation of gender in mass communications has been a hugely debated topic for years and will continue to be one for many more years to come. The media plays a big role in how they want to portray a gender to the public. They create certain stereotypes through the role of a gender in order to attract a large audience and interest to sell a product, brand or image. Media is so important in today’s society, people spend hours and hours each day watching TV, browsing the Internet and reading magazines. There are so many images of men and women in the media today that it certainly has an impact on the viewer’s thoughts and sense of identity.