Two Ways A Woman Can Get Hurt Jean Kilbourne Summary

The images and words chosen in advertisements society is exposed to on the day-to-day impact society. Images in advertisements seem to be almost pornographic and often portray sexual violence and objectification. For majority of her life, author Jean Kilbourne has taught and lectured about the advertising industry. She is also a filmmaker who has produced award-winning documentaries . These documentaries center around images of women in advertisements. She has graduated from Wellesley college. She also has a doctorate degree in education which she received from Boston University. In her article “Two Ways a Woman can get Hurt: Advertising and Violence”, Kilbourne elaborates on how objectification of women and their bodies in advertisements can

lead to mistreatment, dehumanization and even sexual violence. She also explains how women in advertisements are characterized as openly submissive and “asking for it” which establishes violence against women “normal” within society, which ties into her major claim throughout the text.

She believes that advertising has reached a point where bodies are portrayed as objects thereby normalizing mindsets that eventually lead to sexual aggression. Her purpose of writing this article is to bring awareness to the subtle meanings of advertisements and the effects that that have. Also that advertising companies do not need to objectify or even have a sexual aspect to sell products. Kilbourne is speaking to everyone, but more specifically advertising companies. Kilbourne is effective in her article due to her experience in advertising which installs her credibility. Also her usage of terms which grabs the audience's attention and causes an appeal to emotions. Lastly she is effective by her ability to explain the effects advertisements have on men, women, young boys, young girls and society as a

whole.
Throughout her article, Kilbourne is effective with the usage of three rhetorical devices. The first is pathos which refers to using provoking terms that appeal to the audience’s emotions. It catches the reader's attention and causes a reaction. By invoking the feelings of the audience, it causes the audience to feel what the author wants them to feel. It is almost as if the author is controlling the reader's emotions, this way the audience can be easily persuaded. The second rhetorical device is ethos, which is the author providing the audience with information about their expertise, it makes the author credible. Having a credible author makes the article trustworthy, therefore the author has the ability to convince the reader due to their profound knowledge or background. The last rhetorical device an author can use is logos, which is creating reasoning or logic. Logos can be formed by stating facts, statistics, and formulating reasonable arguments. By the use of these three rhetorical devices, the author can persuade the reader with logic to see eye-to-eye with them thus installing effectiveness in an article.
Kilbourne sets up her credibility, or ethos when presenting her almost life long history with advertisements. The introduction states, “Kilbourne has spent majority of her life teaching and lecturing about the advertising world. She is also a filmmaker who has produced award-winning documentaries centering around women in ads (Killing Us Softly, Slim Hopes)...”(420). Kilbourne has essentially spent most of her life working with advertisements. Her extensive history with advertisements installs her credibility. The introduction creates ethos and established Kilbourne as a trustworthy author. This is ethos because it is presenting the audience with information about Kilbourne and that she is very familiar with the world of advertisements. Since she has experience in the advertising industry, she is reliable so the readers will believe what she is saying when referring to the topic of objectifying and overly sexual advertisements.
Kilbourne establishing logos as she elaborates on the causes and effects of objectification in ads. She states, “Advertisements don’t directly cause violence, but violent images contribute to a state of terror. Objectification and disconnection create widespread and increase violence. Making a person an object is the first step towards justifying violence…”(431). Kilbourne is explaining that violent images dont actually cause violence. What the violent images actually do is add on to fearfulness.She also touches basis on how it is easy to validate violence against a person if they are viewed as an object. Kilbourne uses logos when she describes causes and effects of advertisements. She states that it starts out with violent images portrayed in ads and the effect is increasing violence. Kilbourne feels that violent images lead to increasing violence because violence against a “thin
Pathos is applied when Kilbourne describes the self-images of young girls continuing through adolescents.

Its states, “ It’s hard for girls to not learn self-hatred when there is such widespread and contempt for women and girls. A clothing line from a company called senate distribution included a line in the labels of clothing called ‘Destroy all girls’...” (440-1). Kilbourne feels that it's easy for girls to have self-images problems when there is an atmosphere of disregard for them. She then includes when a clothing line nonchalantly prints ‘Destroy all girls’ on the labels. The phrase ‘Destroy all girls’ makes the audience feel disgusted at the disdain towards girls, thus making it pathos. When Kilbourne brings attention to how easy it is for girls to be self-hating, it makes the audience sympathize with adolescent girls. This is very effective seeing as Kilburne is making the audience solicitous about the self-images issues of young girls. She also makes the readers indignant at the fact that a phrase called ‘Destroy all girls’ can be comfortably thrown around, thus making it pathos. Kilbourne is controlling the emotions of the audience so she has the ability to persuade the readers to take her

side.
In conclusion author Jean Kilbourne was exceptionally effective in her article “Two Ways a Woman can get Hurt: Advertising and Violence”. She fulfilled her purpose in writing this article. She continually elaborated on the deeper meaning of ads and how to counteract them. Her usage of pathos, logos and ethos is immensely appealing to the audience. She used words that makes the audience sympathize and take her side. She did this by explaining the disregard girls face growing up and self-image problems. She makes her article credible by stating her credentials which made her article effective because she is an trustworthy author that holds a large amount of knowledge about advertisements. She is effective when using logos by describing the cause and effects of advertisements. She goes into depth about how violent images in advertisements cause violence.