Killing USftly Advertisement Analysis

Jean Kilbourne is an advocate for women and is leading a movement to change the way women are viewed in advertising. She opens up the curtains to reveal the hard truth we choose to ignore or even are too obtuse to notice. Women are objectified, materialized, and over-sexualized in order to sell clothes, products, ideas and more. As a woman, I agree with the position Kilbourne presents throughout her documentary Killing Us Softly 4: The Advertising’s Image of Women (2010) and her TEDx Talk The Dangerous Ways Ads See Women (2014.) She demonstrates time and again that these advertisements are dangerous and lead to unrealistic expectations of women.

The use of sexualization also reinforces a pattern of gender roles that are currently circulating throughout advertisements. More often than not, women who are used as ploys in ads are seen doing household chores like vacuuming, changing the toilet paper, or making coffee. Females are rarely ever seen in a work place, and definitely not in a powerful position. In fact, the directors of most of these ads place women below or behind the man to show who has the power in actuality. Women are seen as skinny, fragile, and immobile in high heels, while men are strong and powerful. By setting up such a strong binary between the two different groups, it is obvious that the majority of the American society will not be able to fit into these roles, and it leaves a sense of rejection for the average person. This rejection, accepted by the viewers, manifests

Gender role bias in advertisements has been so prevalent for so long that the untrained eye wouldn't even discern it. All the same, these biases, for the most part, put women in subordinate positions and men in dominant ones. This assumption on both the genders is unfair and demeaning. These ads portray women as subservient and play toys for men. Not only do the models depict an image nowhere near close to reality, but their bodies are scantily clad and what few clothes they are wearing are very revealing.

Sexist ads show that society is dominated by the same masculine values that have controlled the image of women in the media for years. Sexist advertisement reinforces gender stereotypes and roles, or uses sex appeal to sell products, which degrades the overall public perception of women. The idea that sexism is such a rampant problem comes from the stereotypes that are so deeply embedded into today’s society that they almost seem to be socially acceptable, although they are nowhere near politically correct. Images that objectify women seem to be almost a staple in media and advertising: attractive women are plastered all over ads. The images perpetuate an image of the modern woman, a gender stereotype that is reinforced time and time again by the media. These images are accepted as “okay” in advertising, to depict a particular product as sexy or attractive. And if the product is sexy, so shall be the consumer. In the 1970s, groups of women initially took issue with the objectification of women in advertisements and with the limited roles in which these ads showed women. If they weren’t pin-ups, they were delicate

Since the 1960s and the rebirth of the women’s movement, there have been rages against the way women are treated in advertising. Every day viewers will find themselves showered by explicit advertisements, images, slogans, songs, ads, etc., all that which have a major underlying issue within mass media: the objectification of women. Women were suggestively portrayed for the sale of all different types of products and services, from print in magazines to commercials on television. There is an extremely strong focus on women being a sexual object rather than what she is, a female human being.

Advertising has been engrained in our lives since birth. It is something that is everywhere, whether be on a wall, on TV, or on a billboard on a busy highway. You might not think you are aware of its effects, but it triggers something subconsciously. Advertisement has been sexualized in a way that appeals and affects people in an unconscious level, it may also influence one’s view of gender roles. In the film Killing US Softly, Jean Kilbourne discusses how advertising has changed the way not only women, but also how man view themselves. A woman must look beautiful, be sexy and thin, while a man must be attractive, muscular and powerful to achieve the “perfect look” and in doing so, both gain acceptance.

A lot of advertisements that involve females, their image is tuned, airbrushed, and cropped. Minimizing her waist, enlarging her features, raising her eyebrows, pronouncing her cheek bones, and airbrushing her skin are one of many examples of how a woman’s image can be altered. Most adults now are not aware of the fact that computers drastically change the way we see models. Because our society is regularly exposed to the media, young girls have no choice but to be brain washed by advertisements. Whether it’s through modeling, magazine advertisements or commercials, women are perceived as objects or sex symbols.

Each day we are constantly being bombarded with hundreds of advertisements every way we turn. Advertising has become something that is impossible to escape even if we try. They are so common that one does not even stop for a moment to realize that they are looking at them. Unfortunately, the ads have evolved over time as more sexualized, objectifying, and sexist particularly toward women. The most disturbing aspect of it all is that nobody seems to really mind the display of such ads. People are less offended or concerned that the portrayal of women as sex objects in the media is becoming more and more typical. Because so many of us look to the media for answers on our appearance, clothing choices, and actions this becomes a terrifying thing

Gender roles are a conception of femininity and masculinity. The gender roles for men and women in society are partially constituted of individual thinking. These conceptions and gender roles are not completely biological but also social and cultural. Women are earning advanced degrees and are entering careers which have been traditionally dominated by men. But women are still depicted as images of beauty and sexuality in movies, video games and advertisements. This paper explores the ways in which women continue to be depicted in society; specifically how women are portrayed in advertisements, the negative impact they make on women and the patriarchy that they depict. Highly sexualized images of women’s bodies put them on centre stage to be looked at, judged and evaluated. Not only does it put women in vulnerable positions, but hypothesizes male dominance. Women are being objectified and taken advantage of in advertisements by being presented as a “fantasy element”.

Facts and others similar to this one shed light on the fact that gender stereotyping is still evident in our society. Women in advertisements are often portrayed in a harsh light, dismantled by the media. Majority of females’ are presented specifically as sexual objects, weak; who exist primarily to serve men. Majority of the advertisements that portray women in a degrading manner, which is done through the model’s poses or clothing, immensely outnumbers those that portray women in progressive styles, progressive advertisements depict women in non-traditional roles, showing they are capable of performing a variety of social functions. There is a thin line between pornographic images and advertisements and it continues to grow smaller everyday

Women in today’s society, young and old, are threatened by the abundance of today’s advertisements, which perpetuates loss of self-image in women by the sexualized standards of the media. Women are pressured to look “perfect” and meet the image advertisement sets, which usually depicts unrealistic models with small waists and flat bellies that are portrayed as hypersexual females and even advocating women working in inferior job positions such as secretary jobs opposed to executive level positions. The outcomes of these advertisements affect women mentally and physically thus changing the way they live, think, and see themselves in the mirror. Examples of this oppression can be seen in mostly every type

Individuals are flooded with about 4,000 to 10,000 advertisements each day according to Digital Marketing experts. The advertising and marketing industry have created a society where everywhere you look there is an advertisement, from commercials on television to ads on our cellphones. These people’s job is solely to sell a product, idea, or service and at many times in a creative way to catch the attention of the consumers. Many ads unfortunately come out to show ideas about devaluing of women. The issue is that advertisements place impossible standards for women in society, so it should be addressed to stop it because objectifying women is dehumanizing.

The construction of women in today’s advertisements has unfortunately reinforced gender stereotypes of teenage girls around the world, because the media portrays women as being everything they are

Women across the nation are constantly being sexualized, dehumanized, and objectified due to the use of ads in our society today. We can see this in any ad possible; fast food ads, clothing ads, and even makeup ads. Makeup ads are used to sell brands of makeup to a variety of ages ranging between teenagers through middle aged women. When looking at these ads through any era in our society there seems to be a constant theme in each era; to please the desires of men. In this particular ad selling “Seventeen” makeup in 1947, this theme is apparent. With the main image of the ad and the text provided within it, women are portrayed as objects for

The roles of males and females in society have significantly changed, as opposed to the predominant roles in our history. In the modern culture of today, women have begun to break out of the mold that which society has placed her in. This much can’t be said when it comes to modern gender representation in mass media advertising. It can be safe to state that woman are seen as sexual, fragile, exotic—whereas men are portrayed as tough, in control, and aggressive. This trend can be one seen as an inhibitor to the advancement of our culture, because especially for women, it is hard to pull away from the stereotypes that are continuously represented. As examples of the given trend, the following