Kilbourne, Jeane. “Killing Us Softly 4.” Tru Tube. Tru Tube. 2010. Web. 13 May 2014. In the video Killing Us Softly 4, Jean Kilbourne explains the effects of advertisements on women. Kilbourne shares insights she has gained throughout her career and points out the prevalence of advertisements and the ad’s emphasis on an unachievable ideal image. In the video Killing Us Softly 4, Jean Kilbourne explains the effects of advertisements on the body images of women. She mentions that “we are exposed to 3000 ads everyday” (Kilbourne). Many years ago, Kilbourne began to notice a pattern in which all the advertisements represented what society thinks a woman should look like. Although some may feel that they are not affected by advertisements, they certainly are. Jean Kilbourne mentions that “only 8% of an ad’s message is recycled by the conscious mind. The rest is worked and reworked deep within the recesses of the brain” (qtd. In Killing Us Softly 4). Kilbourne mentioned that these images replay continually, giving the perception that a person is supposed to look this way. She also mentions that when confronted with the photos that represent the media’s view of “ideal beauty” we are sold “concepts of love and sexuality, success, and perhaps the most important, [the concept] of normalcy” (Killing Us Softly 4). Kilbourne also explained that the idea of “ideal beauty” is one of complete flawlessness which is unachievable. She believes that “ideal beauty” is unachievable because the people depicted as the “ideal beauty” do not truly look like that in real life. Their photos are constantly altered until the media is satisfied with the unachievable image. Kilbourne also states that in advertisements, women are depicted as objects. Kilbourne e... ... middle of paper ... ...of media images on women at risk for body image disturbance: Three targeted interventions correlates directly with Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll”. Similarly in “Barbie Doll”, the character encounters the media’s standard of beauty, but through her peers. The character is similar to the women in the control group. The character is similar because she and the women weren’t shown that the media’s ideal beauty was unattainable. So, when the character found she couldn’t meet the standards of the media, it caused her to have greater body-image disturbance. This body-image disturbance causes the character to “cut off her nose and her legs/ and offered them up/”(line 17-18). This source was very difficult to follow. The source jumped around a lot. This source was not at all easy to find. On the Brightside, since I found it on the Palo Alto Databases, it was ready to cite.
In “Still Killing Us Softly,” Jean Kilbourne points out that advertising and media are partly responsible for the behaviors and attitudes expected of women.
Jean Kilbourne’s 2010 documentary, Killing Us Softly 4, discusses the idea that the businesses of advertising and commercialism have promoted specific body ideals for women in our modern day society by the methods in which they market towards their target audiences, specifically how women are portrayed in their ads. Throughout the documentary, Kilbourne is extremely critical of the advertising industry, accusing it of misconduct. She argues that objectification and superficial, unreal portrayal of women in these advertisements consequently lower women’s self-esteem. Ordinarily, women have many industries that try to gear their products towards them with apparel, beauty, and toiletries being amongst the most prominent. The majority of advertisements
The documentary Killing Us Softly 4 discusses and examines the role of women in advertisements and the effects of the ads throughout history. The film begins by inspecting a variety of old ads. The speaker, Jean Kilbourne, then discusses and dissects each ad describing the messages of the advertisements and the subliminal meanings they evoke. The commercials from the past and now differ in some respects but they still suggest the same messages. These messages include but are not limited to the following: women are sexual objects, physical appearance is everything, and women are naturally inferior then men. Kilbourne discusses that because individuals are surrounded by media and advertisements everywhere they go, that these messages become real attitudes and mindsets in men and women. Women believe they must achieve a level of beauty similar to models they see in magazines and television commercials. On the other hand, men expect real women to have the same characteristics and look as beautiful as the women pictured in ads. However, even though women may diet and exercise, the reality...
Nowadays, it is almost impossible to avoid exposure to advertisements. Since most of people are exposed to the advertisements, the advertisements and the values that they sell influence the society. In Jean Kilbourne’s essay, she asserts that “[a]dvertising sells values, images, and concepts of love and sexuality, romance, success, and, perhaps most important, normalcy” (126). According to Kilbourne, the advertisers sell not only their products but also the values and one of the most popular values that the advertisers sell is beauty. In today’s society, the effects of beauty are outrageous as people’s attentions to the physical appearance increases. In the past, generally women considered beauty as important value, but now, beauty became one of the
What is the perfect body type? Throughout our adolescence ages into the adult hood stage many of young women struggle to answer this question. Our idea of what the perfect body type is ever changing however it is always influenced by the Medias perception of what the perfect body image should look like. We all idolize these images we see on television and in magazines and some of us would do anything to look just like them. This image forces us to have self esteem issues.These advertisements are damaging both our mental and physical state of being Many young girls who take extreme measures to live up to the Medias perception of the perfect body type are more likely to develop one of the many body image disorders. The average age a girl starts to diet is eight ("Media and Eating Disorders" 1). When a girl becomes obsessed with dieting and looking better, they can easily become anorexic or bulimic. 79% of teenage girls who vomit are dedicated readers of woman's magazines ("Media and Eating Disorders" 2). The Medias standard of perfection puts stress and pressure on young girls to become skinner. Eating disorders, excessive exercise, and depression are a result of the Medias influence on their self image. The media have negatively influenced the self image of young girls by forcing their unrealistic perception of what women should look like onto them .
(Jhally, Kilbourne, Rabinovitz, 2010) The amount of money put into advertisement worldwide in 2011 was $464 billion. (Pavlik, McIntosh, 2014, p. 268). In our society, sexism has become a normal part of our everyday life based on the ads we constantly see and because of the society we live in. Women are represented in ads as objects and not as human beings. The advertising is convincing us that the most important goal for a woman should be to become “the perfect woman” and for a man to find one. Dove has a commercial called “Evolution” demonstrating the idea that “the perfect woman” does not truly exist. They show the transformation in which models go through before photo or video shoots. The makeup applied to create a flawless face and the hair extensions attached to create the ideal look are only the beginning of the issue. After the photographs are taken, we are taken through a visual process of the editing done to the images: Bigger eyes, smaller nose, bigger lips, higher cheekbones, slimmer face, bigger chest, smaller waist, smoother skin, these are only a few of the changes they make while editing these pictures. These ads create an unrealistic and unattainable idea of
The goal of an advertisement is simple: to convince an audience to think a certain way. Advertisers will use a variety of techniques to persuade the consumer to buy a product. One such technique is the “beautiful person” technique, which uses a stunning model to present a product to the audience, who believes that they too, could look beautiful if they had that particular product. This is common in media, as companies use celebrity endorsements and models all of the time. However, society’s view of “beauty” is a small, and unrealistic goal, which many people- especially women, try to achieve. The models that are considered “perfect” and “the standard of beauty” are in reality, photoshopped, tweaked and made over until they transform into the unrealistic goals plastered across almost every media platform. However, women...
Shrek --- “ugly” princess is green, overweight, and more masculine and the “beautiful” princess is thin and extremely feminine influences kids at an early age that fat is bad and thin is good.
“From children's toys to TV programs, images of the idealized body have permeated every level of our visual culture” (Swinson). As the Advertisement industry continues to grow, the focus on looks is increasing as well. With around half of the advertisements using beauty as an appeal to sell their products(Teen Health and the Media), the pressures to be 'perfect' are causing women to become dissatisfied with their looks, driving them to turn to unhealthy measures. The average teenage girl gets a significantly greater amount of media time each day compared to the amount of time they spend with their parents, this is usually around 180 minutes of media per ten minutes spent with their parents (Heubeck). With so much time spent on media influenced activities, and the constant exposure to unhealthy models, it is no surprise that women are being influenced. Most female fashions models wear a size two or four, while the average American wears a size twelve or fourteen (Mirror-Mirror).When advertisements manipulate the photos of their models, it alters the way that women view themselves. Advertisers should not be allowed to promote unhealthy body images because it leads to an increase in self-consciousness, eating disorders, and suicide.
Knight, Becky, MPH. "Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising's Image of Women." Contemporary Sexuality Mar 2012 2012: 8-9. Print.
To begin with, one way the media influences both men and women body images in a negative way is that it can lead people to have doubt in their appearance. In today's world many people, even children, begin to feel ashamed of their appearance because of the media showing a certain type of body image that is considered "perfect". From early times the media has influenced everyone that there are body types for both men and women that are considered to be perfect (Fast Facts, Teen Health). For example, in one situation elementary students were asked if they were satisfied with their appearance, and the students replied by saying that after they watch music videos of celebrities, such as Britney Spears, they felt self-conscious about their appearance
Although this is still true today, the element of advertising has switched from informational to symbolic connotation. Advertisements are preying on the emotions of people, such as, desires for health, wealth, social status and, in particular, body image. Much of the advertising tries to promote a product in a way that defines an "ideal" body image. This strategy affects both men and women but has a larger impact on women. Women in advertising are often shown in an unrealistic light. These distorted images are setting a standard of what is "attractive" in today's society and, in turn, send a negative message about acceptable body image. Women feel under pressure to have an unrealistic, unattainable and unhealthy body
4) Kilbourne, Jean. Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising’s Image of Women. Dir. Sut Jhally. DVD. Media Education Foundation, 2000.
The average American is exposed to hundreds of advertisements per day. Advertisements targeted toward females have an enormous effect on women's thoughts, attitudes, perceptions, and actions. Most of the time, women don't even realize these advertisements are formulating self-image issues. These ideals surround them daily and they become naturalized to the ads. Advertising creates an entire worldview persuading women to emulate the images they see all around them. In order to create a market for their products, companies constantly prey upon women's self esteem, to feel like they aren't good enough just the way they are. This makes women constantly feel stressed out about their appearance (Moore). Advertising has a negative effect on women's body image, health, and self-esteem.
“Towards a New Paradigm in the Ethics of Advertising” is a scholarly essay written by John Alan Cohan. Cohan aims to identify the unethical ways women are portrayed in advertising today. This essay explains common ways that women are exploited in advertising and why is each is hurtful and wrong. Then after outlining the unjust practices in women’s advertising, Cohan call for a “paradigm shift” in advertising, where he claims that ads can still be profitable, without harming women in the process (323). Cohan in writing this essay recognizes that women are being misrepresented and harmed by ads. He feels that this issue needs to be brought to advertisers attention, his main audience, and hopes for women’s representation in ads will be healed.