Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt
Celena Maxwell
Lifson, Beth
WR 122
April 16th, 2013
Predator versus Prey Advertisements are an everyday part of our lives, whether we look at them subconsciously or consciously they influence us. Imagine how many ads you have seen in your lifetime and how they have affected you over time. “Two Way a Woman Can Get Hurt” by Jean Kilbourne is an article about how the objectification of women in advertising can lead to violence because ads shows a truth and this truth is that women are more likely to get abused. Jean Kilbourne successfully attempts to inform women that objectifying people in advertisement makes violence seem acceptable by using logos and pathos. However, her weakness is that she writes with too many hasty generalizations and also with some post hoc. Even though Jean Kilbourne has a couple flaws in her article, they could easily be fixed. Her arguments and writing overall is effective. Her strongest strategy in her article is how she uses logos towards women. She uses effective citing and true cases or events to prove her point that objectifying people in advertisements makes violence seem more acceptable. She uses former surgeon general Antonia Novello “Battery is the single greatest cause of injury to women in America… and more than one-third of women slain in this country die at the hands of their husbands or boyfriends. Throughout the world the biggest problem for women is surviving at home.”(428) She also uses a very strong argument from a 1998 study by the federal government that “…one in five of us has been the victim of rape or attempted rape most before our seventeenth birthday. And more than half of us have been physically assaulted, most often by the men we live with.”(430-431) And also in that study is states that, “three of four women in the study who responded that they had been raped or assaulted as adults said that the perpetrator was a current or former husband, a cohabiting partner or date.”(430-431) These
Lifson, Beth
WR 122
April 16th, 2013
Predator versus Prey Advertisements are an everyday part of our lives, whether we look at them subconsciously or consciously they influence us. Imagine how many ads you have seen in your lifetime and how they have affected you over time. “Two Way a Woman Can Get Hurt” by Jean Kilbourne is an article about how the objectification of women in advertising can lead to violence because ads shows a truth and this truth is that women are more likely to get abused. Jean Kilbourne successfully attempts to inform women that objectifying people in advertisement makes violence seem acceptable by using logos and pathos. However, her weakness is that she writes with too many hasty generalizations and also with some post hoc. Even though Jean Kilbourne has a couple flaws in her article, they could easily be fixed. Her arguments and writing overall is effective. Her strongest strategy in her article is how she uses logos towards women. She uses effective citing and true cases or events to prove her point that objectifying people in advertisements makes violence seem more acceptable. She uses former surgeon general Antonia Novello “Battery is the single greatest cause of injury to women in America… and more than one-third of women slain in this country die at the hands of their husbands or boyfriends. Throughout the world the biggest problem for women is surviving at home.”(428) She also uses a very strong argument from a 1998 study by the federal government that “…one in five of us has been the victim of rape or attempted rape most before our seventeenth birthday. And more than half of us have been physically assaulted, most often by the men we live with.”(430-431) And also in that study is states that, “three of four women in the study who responded that they had been raped or assaulted as adults said that the perpetrator was a current or former husband, a cohabiting partner or date.”(430-431) These
Cited: Kilbourne, Jean. “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt: Advertising and Violence.” Rereading America. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2004. 455-75.