Hollandsworth and Kilbourne both address gender issues, though each focuses on a different aspect of that problem. Hollandsworth and Kilbourne both talk about the exploitation of females in their articles, one being about the exploitation of little girls and pageants and the other about the exploitation of women in advertising. The articles find common ground talking about the exploitation of females in multiple situations.
I believe that Hollandsworth is trying to show not the dark side per se, but the other side than all of the dangers of pageants. But I do believe that Hollandsworth is against beauty pageants. Hollandsworth talks about how wrong it is to teach your children that their successes in life will be based upon their appearances. These girls that are involved in pageants have nothing else in their lives, they eat, sleep, and breathe pageants. At the age of 5, a child really should not be doing something that encompasses their whole life basically 24/7. The parents throw thousands and thousands of dollars into one pageant, are judged by who has the prettiest dress on, and if they don't win they are heartbroken. I personally believe it is a horrible move on the parents’ part because they try to win and gain popularity through their child. I believe a lot of the reason why parents enter their children into these pageants, is because they feel like they missed out on a part of their own life, so they need to live through their child. This article also talks about the crimes that go on during child beauty pageants, because if you think about it, who's going to watch a show with little five year olds walking around in a skin bearing outfit? Pedophiles will. And that seems to be the problem coming up recently with ch...
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...s article, “Two Ways A Woman Can Get Hurt”: Advertising and Violence”, Kilbourne talks about advertising and media, but not really advertising and body image. She looks at a lot of real world instances with body image in the media.
Although Kilbourne's piece covers X, Y, Z, this part drew my attention
It explores the way advertising exploits women and shows how that exploitation can be violent.
She mentioned repeatedly that both men and women are strongly encouraged to act a certain way or do certain things. Women are encouraged to solicit themselves or yield to a man’s needs when they buy a product. Men are encouraged to objectify women and be aggressive and possessive toward women when they buy a product according to advertisements. She also emphasizes the subliminal messages the certain advertisements provide. She is correct in that they are indeed present.
In a consumer-driven society, advertisements invade the minds of every person who owns any piece of technology that can connect to the internet. Killbourne observes that “sex in advertising is pornographic because it dehumanizes and objectifies people, especially women,” (271). Advertising takes the societal ideology of women and stereotypes most kids grow up learning and play on the nerves of everyone trying to evoke a reaction out of potential customers, one that results in them buying products. Another point made
According to Jeanne Kilbourne essay, Kilbourne talks about women being abused by men in visual advertisements and the consequences of those representations. I for one, argue with Kilbourne that women are being too exposed and hurt when they are in advertisements. So using Kilbourne 's analytical perspective and my own perspective we can give our insights on why we feel women are being treated badly and unequally from men with the following pictures. From the past till today women in advertisement pictures have been mostly victimized by men, and Kilbourne and I feel this sort of action needs to come to an end.
In “Still Killing Us Softly,” Jean Kilbourne points out that advertising and media are partly responsible for the behaviors and attitudes expected of women.
Many mothers who allow their children to participate in beauty pageants would argue that performing in the pageants isn’t as stressful and serious as the television shows portray them. In fact, “the pageant industry promotes this idea by advertising pageants as family affairs that are great for a child’s self-esteem and poise” (Wolfe 445). Also, in an article written by Lise Hilbodt-Stolley, a mother of a pageant princess stated “that while pageants may be ‘politically incorrect’ they are drug, alcohol and gang free” (3). However, many parents push their children to win because they are either greedy for the money and fame that accompanies a win, or are living through their young children because of their own feelings of inadequacy. These same parents who are blinded by the possibility of their baby...
Kilbourne, Jean. “‘Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt’: Advertising and Violence.” From Inquiry to Academic Writing: A Text and Reader. 2nd ed. Eds. Stuart Green and April Lidinsky. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2012. 459-480. Print.
In her essay, she describes the effects that sexualized advertising has on the psyche of the viewer and what it implies for the society that accepts it. Kilbourne asserts that by creating such advertisements, it is both encouraging and allowing one to downplay the effects that sex has. She claims, “sex in advertising
There are so many codes of cultural context to learn, social rulebooks to observe and accept norms to understand. It’s flung at us in disjointed bits and pieces, seemingly offhand phrases and at informal moments. Maybe the core stereotyping role we are all passed from birth is based on gender and the norms that surround it, that never leaves our side. Director Siebel Newsom is no newcomer to gender issues. With 2011’s “Miss Representation,” a study of the damaging effects of mainstream media on women and girls, she addressed the frequently accepted underdog gender in an inspirational
First, Kilbourne’s research should be praised tremendously for bringing to light the unhealthy impression of true beauty in today’s culture. Kilbourne challenges the audience to reconsider their viewpoints on advertising that is sublime with sexual language. The evolution of advertising and product placement has drastically changed the real meaning of being a woman. According to the movie, every American is exposed to hundreds and thousands of advertisements each day. Furthermore, the picture of an “ideal women” in magazines, commercials, and billboards are a product of numerous computer retouching and cosmetics. Media creates a false and unrealistic sense of how women should be viewing themselves. Instead of being praised for their femininity and prowess, women are turned into objects. This can be detrimental to a society filled with girls that are brainwashed to strive to achieve this unrealistic look of beauty.
Jean Kilbourne’s “Two Way a Woman Can Get Hurt: Advertising and Violence” is a section of a book titled: “Deadly Persuasion: Why Women and Girls Must Fight the Addictive Power of Advertising” that was originally published in 1999. It is about the images of women that advertisements illustrate. The central claim or thesis of the document is that: “advertising helps to create a climate in which certain attitudes and values flourish and it plays a role in shaping people’s ideas” (paraphrase). The author wants people by all genders and young children to acknowledge a right attitude towards what is shown in the advertisements so that the standards of behavior will not be influenced. As a result, it enables the negative contribution from the advertisements to be limited or eliminated.
Also, the film revealed women empowerment and how superior they can be compared to men. While demonstrating sexual objectification, empowerment, there was also sexual exploitation of the women, shown through the film. Throughout this essay, gender based issues that were associated with the film character will be demonstrated while connecting to the real world and popular culture.
4) Kilbourne, Jean. Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising’s Image of Women. Dir. Sut Jhally. DVD. Media Education Foundation, 2000.
Child beauty pageants are a quite controversial topic, not only in the United States but all around the world. Beauty pageants teach young girls bad lessons and causes them to grow up too fast. The people who are strongly opposed to child beauty pageants view the children involved as being objectified and treated more like eye candy than little girls. Many people have had enough of the exploitation and are starting movements for change. Some countries such as France, have even gone so far as to ban children under the age of sixteen to compete in pageants. Anyone who violates this law faces heavy fines and possible jail time (Could Child Beauty Pageants Be Banned in the USA?). The United States should also look into the possibility of a law prohibiting the participation of children in beauty pageants. Beauty pageants exploit children and applauded them for their looks. Many people believe that “it’s human nature to be drawn to beauty”, but have they taken it too far (Holland, Kristen)?
Have you ever considered entering a beauty pageant because it seemed fun? These beauty pageants do appear to be fun but they can have a lasting effect on your perception of beauty. Even though beauty pageants build confidence through performance and help boost careers, they harm society by lowering self-esteem, putting too much emphasis on beauty at a young age, and also providing unrealistic images of beauty.
Many young girls are forced to wear preposterous outfits and enormous amounts of makeup that deny them of their innocence at a young age. Beauty contests are meant more for adult women who are mature enough to understand all that’s going on and can handle losing competitions to the other contestants. Children should not be able to compete in pageants because of the harmful effects on self-confidence and character. Some people think they are good and some do not agree that they are good. (Leo, 2014)
With so much exposure to this type of media, it is easy to become desensitised to it. With America becoming numb to the violence in these advertising tactics, domestic violence is an increasing problem as brutality against women has become trivialized. Jean Kilbourne 's “‘Two Ways a Woman can get Hurt”: Advertising and Violence’ argues that violence in advertising profoundly affects people in a skewed physiological manner, leading to violence against women. Kilbourne insists that “...violent images contributes to the state of terror...” felt by women who feel victimized by men who “...objectify and are disconnected...” from the women they mistreat (431). She furthers her argument by dictating that “....turning a human being into…an object, is almost always the first step towards justifying violence against that person” (431). So much of the media that America consumes is centered on dehumanizing women into an object of male enjoyment. It is difficult to have empathy toward a material object. Because of this objectification, men feel less guilty when enacting brutality upon women. Violence becomes downplayed because it is seen everywhere - in advertising and media - and this has contributed significantly to the cases of domestic violence in America. America has become numb to violence against women in advertising, leading to an alarming increasing domestic violence in this