Killing Us Softly In today’s society, according to Jean Kilbourne, equality between men and women seem to be almost non-existent. As shown in Kilbourne’s talk series, it is widely believed that this is a man’s world, which had valid points. We are so used to seeing degrading images every day and degrading images of women that we simply overlook these things, which becomes normal in our lives. Advertising agencies surround us with this stuff day in and day out. Also seen in advertisements is sex portrayals which not uncommon to find. “Linking sex with violence in the most dangerous in ads” (Kilbourne). The objectification of women in our society is more established than many would like to believe. Women being portrayed as passive, easy, …show more content…
Advertisers sell their products in a that objects women, because it catches the attention of a male consumer, but it also charms the female consumer because it can make her look like the ideal figure of a perfect woman. The irony in this idea is that the “perfect women” or the ideal woman with the unblemished skin, perfect figure and perfect hair does not exist. Kilbourne also stated in her talk series that “women learn from an early age that they have to have a perfect figure. I personally do not think it is possible for a woman to possess all the perfect characteristics and features at the same time. All throughout different kinds of advertisements on television, magazines, etc., our culture has been molded to believe that there is a such thing as a perfect woman which is nearly impossible to become no matter how hard one tries. One thing that Kilbourne did bring to my attention that I had no idea about was that advertisement companies will take parts of about four to five women on a computer and make a result of a perfect figure. Advertising agencies continue to participate in the perverted thinking that is distributed throughout our culture by portraying women as the non-existent perfect woman. I also found it interesting that advertisers typically use sex in the form of a woman, specifically her body and if a man is not in the same image, the …show more content…
Violence against women, objectification of women including their body parts, and segregation of women as the weaker sex is used as a marketing scheme. This is simply designed to get our attention by shocking people and by developing unconscious anxiety. Both solutions are ultimately putting a concrete version of this inequality into our culture. Kilbourne mentioned in her talk series that we are exposed to hundreds and thousands of advertisements on a daily basis, if the majority of these advertisements somehow objectify women then we, as a society, become numb to the actuality of this problem and think nothing of these womanizing images. This is not to say that men are never objectified in advertisement because they too are captured with a woman concentrating on a certain body parts rather than the man himself. These images might be funny to see at first glance but either way there is no right in objectifying any human being. We, as consumers, buy these products because we believe in the messages these products, in essence, send off. We become obsessed with turning our bodies into the body of the bikini model on the cover
Kilbourne is aware of the varying viewpoints on these ads and seeks to be fair. She anticipated claims that she is reading too much into these ads and made sure to allow for more than one interpretation of the images. Furthermore, some critics point out that men are also objectified in ads. Kilbourne, again, reasonably acknowledges these critiques. She agrees that the objectification of anyone is not a good thing while still supporting her initial assertion that the objectification of women in ads is more harmful.
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.
Nowadays, not only in the advertisement industry, but everything has sexy appealing and everywhere. For example, on television, the internet, magazines and poster. In the article, “ master of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising” Jack Solomon agreed, “ Sex never fails as attention-getter, and in a particularly competitive, and expensive era for American marketing, advertisers like to bet on sure thing” (172). The aspect of advertising can be anything and there are no limits.
“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.
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.
In the book, The Rise of Enlightened Sexism by Susan Douglas, gives insight and knowledge that digs deep into pop culture explaining how the media portrays the appearances of women that are in powerful positions in our culture. The appetencies tent undermines the actual progress of women. Douglas is interested in what these pop culture ideals shows about our culture. The way we react to women in our culture with powerful influence. What do these shows do to the female imagine in our culture?
Dehumanization is the process through which someone asserts control and power, treating the person as an inanimate object with no dimension or surface; becoming an object means being acted upon rather than being the active subject. It is easier to be violent to someone who one already feels power over. Dehumanizing women and men is similar to pornography, where either violence or status (men over women) promotes “power over other” (Kilbourne 420). According to Jean Kilbourne in her essay, “‘Two Ways a Women Can Get Hurt’:Advertising and Violence”, advertisement is portraying women’s body as objects that both lead to dehumanization, violence, and mistreatment toward women. Considering the opposing characterization between males and females, femininity refers to submissiveness and vulnerability that is often depicted in advertisement.
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.
This constant fixation on physical perfection has created unreasonable beauty standards for women, ones we cannot possibly achieve on our own. Such standards permeate all forms of popular media, particularly fashion magazines and advertisements. Women are bombarded with the notion that we must be thin in order to be desirable. These images project an
As well as feeding off of the sources and material presented earlier in this paper, the analysis to come will also use Erving Goffman 's categorisation of gender to analyse how the women (and some men) are depicted on the front covers of Playboy and Good Housekeeping within said timeframe. In his study Gender Advertisements (Goffman, 1985), Goffman gathered hundreds of advertisements from magazines in various positions and poses and analysed poses and how they portrayed masculinity versus femininity. His way of analysing advertisement differentiates itself and makes a broader distinction of what is considered sexist or not, by showing much like the Heterosexual Script earlier on in the paper, what was considered appropriate roles for men and women. In Goffman 's ' analysis of advertisements, he suggests several variables used when analysing a depiction of both men and women.
In this society, the equality which stands between men and women is almost non- existent. It is widely believed that we live in a man’s world. Even something as common to our culture as the English language stands guilty to the possession of a rape content. With the “language of rape” surrounding our everyday lives and yet still being ignored as an issue seeking attention, it is common for many people to overlook the equally degrading images in which advertising agencies surround us with day in and day out.
Your decisions to comply with society’s view of “beauty” are no longer subconscious, but rather are more conscious-driven decisions. Barbie’s slender figure remains idolized; however, it has evolved from a plastic doll to a self-starving model that is photo-shopped on the pages of glossy magazines. You spend hours in front of a mirror adjusting and perfecting your robotic look while demanding your parents to spend an endless amount of money on cosmetics and harmful skin products to acquire a temporary version of beauty. Consider companies such as Maybelline, which have throughout the ages created problematic and infantilizing campaigns and products for women. More specifically consider the “Baby Lips” product as well as the company slogan, “maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s Maybelline,” that reiterates the male notions of beauty to which women are subjected.
Advertising is displayed all around the world for everyone to see and it sometimes gives a bad message to the viewers. Advertisements tell us that there is only one dominant way to be feminine and only one dominant way to be masculine and if you do not conform to these gender codes that is not considered normal. Unfortunately, I have caught myself following these gender codes that are shown in advertising, it has affected me with the way I see people and myself. By using a sociological perspective I have started to look into the advertisements that I see and understand how women are portrayed as helpless and weak while men are portrayed as powerful and dominant. I also looked into how advertising supports hegemonic masculinity, which is the idea of masculinity being dominant.
Advertisers utilize this particular influence to advance their products and reach consumers in an effective and profitable way. Pamela K. Morris (2005) states that “Advertisements guide thinking, action, and behaviours as people come to accept mainstream ideas through visuals. The most crucial of these is what it means to be a man or a woman. Ideas about how to feel, dress, look, and behave, and how to interact with other men and women is the bedrock of the culture in which we live”, this means that advertisements provide knowledge which assists society in forming perceptions and expectations of what is classified as feminine and masculine; these perceptions are incorporated into culture and are then reinforced by more advertisements promoting the same stereotypes therefore being reinforced and leading to gender roles. Because of its influence, it is evident that advertising plays a dominant role in redefining and forming gender roles and gender stereotypes.
Jean Kilbourne advertises about the ideal body for women and how they need to present themselves. Women fear to be themselves because they are afraid they won’t be recognized. Due to this idea of needing to come out as appealing and in a way pleasing within their looks it causes women to be restricted because these looks weren’t mastered. The advertisement of female models affects women, they are used as sexual objects which is insulting. The ads show a form of worth, affection and being sexual.