This Selection By Jean Kilbourne Summary

In this selection by author, Jean Kilbourne the constant escalation in the media advertisements is displayed. She begins the text by explaining the vast blanket that sexualized ads now cover. Kilbourne states that this incredibly out-of-control practice “dehumanizes and objectifies people” (456). She presents the idea that these dangerous ads are so commonplace that it creates a toxic environment in which we base our judgements on staged, indecent ads. Kilbourne goes on to explain that these new ideals that ads instill within us completely cross the boundaries of harassment. These advertisements, according to her viewpoint, are a mind washing tool that slowly convinces the populace to begin desiring these posed scenes of sexual dominance as

I’m not quite sure what the author was thinking when they added an overkilling number of examples. I find it rather presumptuous that the author thought that this was an effective tactic when communicating an idea in a thoughtful manner. The whole of the text just seemed as though it was a glorified number of bullet points, as that is how the prose read; it hopped from one picture to the next, offering a sentence or two of brief description before the next transition. In all, the tone of the essay came off as very patronizing, or even that, instead of the author trying to communicate a point of contention, Kilbourne was trying to convince herself that she was right by using such a plethora of pictured examples. Or perhaps, it was a way for her to raise the acumen of her persona by just throwing in picture after picture trying to prove that she had a valid point. Whichever it was, the sheer amount of cited examples more harmed the essay than helped it. It would have been best if she had left it to a handful of ads to prove her point while going more in-depth of the implications that the ads themselves posed, rather than what the reader can clearly see in the