“Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt,” written by Jean Kilbourne, who is an award-winning author and educator, is best known for her lectures on the effects of media images on young people and specifically young women. In this essay, Kilbourne discusses the ways advertising constantly uses images that make sexual and violent situations against women and children increasingly normalized in our society. In order to support her argument, the essay is heavily filled with images of these particular advertisements that portray the sexual exploitation of women and children. Overall, the author uncovers that these advertisements do not promote self-love or confidence. In fact, these constant messages invoke self-hatred and open contempt among young women. …show more content…
This ad portrays three men attacking a woman. The men appear to be drawn towards the woman’s jeans, as it is apparent that one of the men is lifting the woman off the ground by the back of her jeans. The advertisement is strangely geared towards women as the targeted audience even though it is such a terrifying image.
In my opinion, the ad speaks volumes using ethos and pathos in a negative fashion. Ethos is utilized as the ad depicts men aggressively and forcefully handling the woman. Ethically we understand it is wrong to physically abusive anyone, but it also recognized to be socially unacceptable for a man to put his hands on a woman. Moreover, pathos is exercised in this ad by evoking the emotion of anxiety and fear because most women have sadly experienced some form of abuse. Subsequently, this ad speaks to the darkest and dismal emotions a majority of women share.
Furthermore, the author attempts to explain and decode the possible motives to use such a disturbing ad by stating that perhaps the ad is simply designed to get our attention, by shocking us and arousing unconscious anxiety. Kilbourne continuous by asserting that the plausible intent is subtler and it is designed to play into the fantasies of domination and even rape that some women use in order to maintain an illusion of being in control (496
The first ad she presents features a baby in the back seat of a car, while the carseat, which the baby is supposed to sit in, is filled with sports gear, implying that the gear is more important than the child. Instead of being concerned with the safety of the infant, the driver decides that his gear takes priority. Ads also objectify people, especially women. Out of the eleven ads that are included in Kilbourne’s essay, six of them uses women to promote their product, ranging from a cheap Butterfinger to precious jewelry. One particular ad shows a man gazing passionately at a woman whose face is obstructed by a car magazine.
In "Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt," the author, Jean Kilbourne, talks about how women are sexualized and mistreated in the public eye by advertisements. She contends that men and women in the media are distorted as sex images and instruments: Women are portrayed as mediocre in contrast with men. For example, she states that the woman is “rewarded for her sexuality by the man’s wealth.” The media has aimed towards promoting either women or men particularly. In one advertisement, she clarifies how a tie organization publicizes ties by having ties laid in a botched up bed — as though showing that this brand of tie will help you get laid.
The issues that Kilbourne is attempting to attack are highly sensitive ones. Therefore, it would follow that her essay would appeal to pathos more than usual. The violence that Kilbourne is talking about affects nearly all women and is something that demands attention. It is true when Kilbourne says, “Most of us become numb to these images, just as we become numb to the daily litany in the news of women being raped, battered, and killed” (430). While they are certainly important, all the statistics and data can appear disconnected from the reality of real life abuse women endure.
By presenting bruises and scares on her body, collapsefilms attempts to evoke pity from the viewers. This commercial perpetrates the stereotype that women are “weak,” but also demonstrates the false concept that only women are victims of sex
It is a belief that these kinds of advertising do not just attract people to buy their products, but they teach men that women are just an object that you can get by buying that product. “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt,” by Jean Kilbourne, she explains that advertising is damaging to the public and most often women by showing that man are using women for their sexual needs. She states that sex in ads is violence and that companies, commercials, and ads are using women to make more money. The author also contends that the posses, face expressions, and the
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.
Blinded Eyes: The Story of What’s Right in Front of Us Without close attention people tend to miss the way our attention is captured. Ads in today’s society are always attempting to sale a product by using sex, and through unachievable appearance only capable through a lot of digital editing. Jean Kilbourne often speaks out on the matter and has quite a point. A recent ad seen in a Cosmopolitan magazine a young, black woman is seen in a blue colored weight room.
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.
For example, the director asks, “When does ‘like a girl’ become an insult?” This appeal is showing the audience using “female” as synonymous with “weak” is damaging to girls. When it comes to strength, ability, and intelligence, women are viewed as inferior to men. The conclusion of the ad shows the young girls demonstrating their athletic abilities that may have been overlooked because they are girls. The emotional appeal draws in parents because they would never want their daughters to hurt by the phrase, and they could teach their sons not to use the phrase in a negative
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.
Advertisement has been a way to sell products for a long time, but it may not always come off as the best way to promote a product. Companies will do some of the most outrageous things to their advertisements just to make their product shine. In the documentary Killing Us Softly 4, Jean Kilbourne, she talks more about advertising and the negative impact it has on society and the negative messages it sends people. In the documentary, Kilbourne shows how advertising distorts the image of a women. They highlight horrible situations to make their advertisement pop.
The whole advertisement is a form of Pathos. The advertisement is appealing to the emotions of women watching it. The advertisement uses visual appeals to make the women want to do what all the other women are doing. The use of persuasion is very apparent in the Coke advertisement from 1953.
This paints a picture for society of how women are expected to be and portrays a sexist ideal of how women should act in a society that enforces the idea that women only exist for the convenience of others in a heavily male dominated society. The commercial enforces the idea that the man is always right based off of the wife’s interactions with her husband and Papa Eddie. The women in this commercial is clearly the victim in the situation and does not deserve to be treated this way, but society has conditioned women to believe that she is not the victim and that the unhappiness of her husband is all her fault which
Thigh gaps, flat stomach, big boobs, curvaceous hips. Something all girls dream of having and spend heaps of time and money trying to achieve it. In reality, it’s 99% impossible to get the super model “hot bod”. As an average, food-loving, lazy woman, I admire their ‘beautiful’ bodies and accept that my body will never be like theirs. Victoria’s Secret (VS) is a famous American retailer of women’s lingerie who’s widely known to use supermodels called “Angels” to advertise and promote the company’s lingerie.
From deodorant advertisements to clothes, women are shown as constantly running behind these hunky men as though they are a prized catch. This shows women in the worst light, that they would fall for the smell of a perfume or for a well dressed man. Men are barely portrayed as doing housework or taking care of children, since it has been stereotyped that this is a woman’s job. When sexual imagery is used, advertisements often consist of nonverbal cues as a signal to show that women lack control and authority than men. Women are shown as relatively smaller in height and their body language as being submissive, whereas the men stand tall and strong.