The intriguing documentary of Killing Us Softly 4 by Jean Kilbourne, provides for a controversial topic of the basis of advertising in the media and how it affects women directly and indirectly. Consequently, harsh results are perceived from these advertisements. Of all the “factual” statements made by Jean Kilbourne during this documentary, many fallacies arose. The media leaves us extremely vulnerable to assimilating ourselves to all aspects of mass media. I can closely identify myself with the situation at hand because I am a part of a society that is raised up on a pop culture that is ubiquitous. We are constantly consumed in the media every single day with advertisements flooding our brains. In fact, I feel that women are not as materialized, dehumanized, or objectified as they are overpoweringly depicted in Killing Us Softly 4.…
Humanity is very unique in its ability to create things for reasons other than necessity. One thing that humans love to make is stories and other depictions of other humans. Such creations are called media. As media is not reality, sometimes aspects of them are twisted, ever so slightly, to tell a story that is not 100 percent truthful. Other times, people use media to dictate their actions and beliefs. Advertisements, a particular type of media product, even take advantage of some ideals of ideal beauty and use it to sell a product or an idea. Therefore, advertising, the appearance of people, and depictions of queers in media and their stories all contribute to an understanding of media.…
We could trace America's sense of gender inequality from the notorious Christian religion. Yes, their are many denominations of the religion, and generalizing them would be unjust, a summary of the religion for the sake of background information will have to suffice. We can start this summary of the religion with the first Pope of the Roman Catholic Church on 1 April 33. It wasn't by mistake that the one chosen to lead God’s kingdom on Earth was a male. No!…
Throughout the course of the Girlstories seminar, we have discussed many narratives that center around the environments that women develop in. These environments shape their beliefs, their thoughts, and their characterization. The films, Killing Us Softly and Thirteen, apply this idea to a realistic setting that many young girls experience. Around the time of puberty, many young girls find themselves in a vulnerable state as their bodies and their minds develop and mature. These films highlight the enormous pressure and dangers that adolescent girls face due to the environment that society provides.…
Women today have the right to get a higher education if they want; they are in high ranking positions within our government and military. Women today are not looked at as just a house wife, in today’s trend we are seeing more and more men staying home to run the household. Women today also do not just have jobs in a so called “women’s job”, for example if a women wants to be a welder, or a mechanic she can be. Those are two jobs that when people picture that worker it is usually a man but not anymore. Even though women have made a lot of changes the biggest thing that they are fighting for now is equal pay. A lot of the jobs tend to pay women less money than men. Female business majors, for example, earned a little over $38,000, while men earned more than $45,000 (Ellis, 2012).You see a lot of concepts or constructions of masculinity and femininity in media but not so much in society. The media has a lot for commercials that can be focused on gender related products. Even though the product is mad for a man you will not see a woman as the character in the advertising and the same for women. Now society on the other hand has evolved so that there are not gender specific roles, as a large amount of women have what was once a man’s job such as an engineer or a firefighter. When we refer to what society has deemed gender specific that is hard as the lines are somewhat blurred because gender does not play as much…
Although America is an ever-changing country some things never change. Within many years women have fought through countess barriers yet haven't gotten too far from the original stereotypes of them. The conventional gender identities shape women in present society, while creating a war within the women whether to be ideal feminine and motherly, or sophisticated corporate and selfish.…
The inequality between men and women still exist in nearly every society today. While there have been improvements and strides towards equality for women, there is still some distance to go before that goal is achieved. Even in America, we have yet to have a women president, women working in the same job as men often get payed less, and we have the added prejudice of women that are considered beautiful being afforded more employment oppurtunites and higher pay. This adds to the subjection of women on another level because women are being looked on by men as objects of desire and are less likely to be valued for who they are just what they look…
According to this article “clinical work led her to scrutinize how media advertisements set unrealistic expectations of girls' physical appearance” (Polce-Lynch, Mary, Barbara J. Myers, Wendy Kliewer and Christopher Kilmartin, 2001) This explains how even advertisement companies like Victoria secret can set high standards for young girls. They believe that they have to look a certain way to be accepted into society and how it distorts their brains. In the same article they state that they tested 116 girls in the grades 5, 8, and 12. The results showed that the girls had much lower self esteem than the boys did. Why is it that girls are found suffering with body images more than boys are? Are the standards set higher for girls? Or is social media having an impact on how they should look based on popular accounts on…
The development of gender inequality is a mystery of the world. It is an explanation of what real contrast we have between opinion, stereotype, and reality. The different sexes are unique and amazing each in their own ways, but many parts of society proclaims its different levels. Gender inequality is not really a development, it is more of a label of the flaws and enhancements of each sex. But scholars, professors, and even historians argue to this day: was gender inequality produced by cause or was it the effect of history? In means, was it created by early humans, or by the natural events of the milestone of all of human history?…
This plays a huge role in how young girls perceive themselves. In the presentation by Dr. Sosin, she stated that the average model is 5”10 and 110lbs. This is what the world wants our young girls to see as the norm. She also stated that the real norm for girls is 5”4 and 145lbs. This is just another example of the lies that are fed to our daughters that causes them more stress than what they are already dealing with. Advertisements like this in my opinion are what leads to young girls having eating disorders and having strong issues with self-image and how they look. A lot of times these ads have them aiming for a goal that is unrealistic to obtain. The advertisement for young men could mean something altogether different. When watching the commercial the writer noticed that most of the men in the commercial did not have their shirts…
The media puts an overwhelming amount of pressure onto females, in magazines and on television to look, act and dress a certain way essentially for the male gaze which Gauntlett discusses. In each teen magazine there are a number of advertisements about plastic surgery, dieting and fashion which could lead to depression, eating disorders, suicidal thoughts and negative labeling of other girls in society…
To begin with, no one knows the true definition of beauty, but from a young age children start worrying about their appearance. One girl feels “being pretty or beautiful is the highest accolade, one that usually makes her parents proud; to be pretty is to be approved of, liked and rewarded”. She also mentioned that in “infancy, females are judged by standards of cuteness and prettiness and shifts with age into standards of beauty and glamour.” The media negatively affects young women with unrealistic body images presented or reflected by the media. This image forces us to have self-esteem issues. These advertisements are damaging both our mental physical state of being of many young girls who take extreme measures to live up to the Medias perception of the perfect body type.…
Our country was founded on the principle that “All men are created equal.” While this notion sounds wonderful in theory, it is fundamentally flawed. Nothing could be farther from the truth in reality of the United States of America. Every aspect of our society, whether it be race, education, sexual orientation or gender, there has always been at least one thing that separates and initiates a certain group to face discrimination. Throughout history women have always been discriminated by men; even in the statement which our Declaration of Independence was grounded upon separated men from women. Nowhere in that document will you find, “All men and women are created equal.” However discrimination of women goes back in time further then that; for centuries women have been denied advancements in social authority due to unfair gender roles. To clarify, gender roles are established behavioral norms that are considered fitting for a particular sex. Although these roles vary from different cultures, in America most men adhere to masculine gender roles while women obey feminine gender roles. This system of gender roles generally causes men to dominate women, although the feminist movement has begun to change the status quo for women. Despite the feminist efforts for gender equity, Linda Hirschman proclaims “Feminism has largely failed in its goals. There are few women in the corridors of power, and marriage is essentially unchanged” (402). Gender roles are a form of social segregation aimed towards women that forces them into household responsibilities, causes them to be seen as objects and allows advertising to objectify them which dehumanizes all women.…
This book highlighted a lot of the vexation and anguish women felt when it came to social and politic inequality to men and it sparked the beginning of the women’s liberation movement (feminism) and second-wave feminism, which was a period where feminism was spread around the world. Protests followed soon after, giving way to new laws like the Roe v. Wade trial, which ruled that women had the right to have an abortion. American Society slowly changed its views and treatment of women, which was one of the biggest changes made when it came to gender…
In this era, both men and women are obsessed with beauty and obtaining perfect bodies to be accepted by society. The majority of the population can be found on social sites or watches numerous hours of television a year, which contain advertisements and product placement. The media is responsible for creating the idea of what body image and beauty standards are accepted. Body image plays a very important role in our society in shaping our identities. Advertisements can have both benefits and damages depending on the illustration, model, and message. In the United States, the damages associated with negative body image is a significant problem as young adolescents, in an effort to adhere to the supposed criterion of beauty, consequently develop…