Rhetorical Analysis Of Two Ways A Woman Can Get Hurt By Jean Kilbourne

Kilbourne shows how advertisers use sex to get ones attention and to rope them into buying the products they see, usually by objectifying women. According to Kilbourne, “the main goal, as in pornography, is usually power over another, either by the physical dominance or preferred status of men or what is seen as the exploitative power of female beauty and female sexuality” (pg. 420). The images Kilbourne provides mainly shows a man in a dominant position over a woman or a woman in a sexual or violent situation because of a

Advertisers are mostly needed to analyze and change, which is the portrayal of women in the media that are shown as housewives or sex objects. Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D. is an author, speaker, and filmmaker who is internationally recognized for her work on the image of women in advertising claims, “Women are constantly exhorted to emulate this ideal, to feel ashamed and

In the article “’Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt’: Advertising and Violence.” by Jean Kilbourne, she uses strong examples of the ways women are demoralized objectified by advertisements in today’s society. The strongest of all examples that Kilbourne used is “If your date won`t listen to reason try a Velvet Hammer” (Kilbourne 462). The reason I believe this is the strongest example in the article is because she uses to portray the negative effects of advertising against women as a whole is because the ad was understandable to me a college student the example was an allusion to roofieing girls which I as a college student picked up on. This advertisement discreetly promotes the message that the opinion of woman and their decisions don’t matter. In addition, another example is “If your date won’t listen to reason” this part of the quote is the part basically says a man’s reasoning is more logical then a woman’s reasoning. With the being said the quote itself is thought provoking but Kilbourne then uses data and statistics that make the example advertisement that much more inappropriate. Kilbourne then states that “one-third and three-quarters of all cases of sexual assault involve alcohol consumption by the perpetrator, the victim, or both.” (Kilbourne

Today, every media consumer is ‘’exposed to sexual imagery in advertising. Sex’s use and misuse is constantly before everyone and elicit strong criticism’’ (Richmond & Hartman p.53). As anyone can notice, the use of sex in the media has been happening for several decades and the reason for it is simply because it works. Advertisements that are ‘’naturally sexy’’ tend to be remembered more often than ads that are not. Regarding this fact, the question arising is how ethical is it to use sex appeals in advertisements. In other words, should sex be used as a tool for advertisement? Advertising draws people in and them into buying things based on how the ads make them feel. It is not always fair to assume that everyone knows what the advertisers are doing. This paper will discuss whether sex sells by defining it at first, when and where sexual appeals are used in ads, who is the primary focus in advertising, and the ethical dilemma of using appeals in advertising. But to be more concise about the subject, this paper will be firstly looking at a case study.

Jean Kilbourne’s 2010 documentary Killing Us Softly 4 discusses the idea that the businesses of advertising and commercialism have promoted specific body ideals for women in our modern day society by the methods in which they market towards their target audiences, specifically how women are portrayed in their ads. Throughout the documentary, Kilbourne is extremely critical of the advertising industry, accusing it of misconduct. She argues that objectification and superficial, unreal portrayal of women in these advertisements lower women’s self-esteem. Women have many industries that try to gear their products towards them with apparel, beauty, and toiletries being amongst the most prominent. The majority of advertisements put out by companies

Living in a culture with increasing violence against women, the objectification of a woman through advertisements does not help the females’ strive of obtaining equality in a male dominated world. Advertisers sell their products in a particular way by objectifying women. These kind of advertisements not only appeals to the male consumer, but it also appeals to the female consumer making her believe that the ideal women looks, acts, and thinks in the ways a man would want her to. The advertisements presented not only present an unattainable image of how society is supposed to look like, it also leaves messages in your subconscious for the objectification and silencing of women, and violence that men must present to be considered the “alpha”. Jean Kilbourne is the speaker in the 1979 documentary called “Killing Us Softly: Advertising's Image of Women” states that “we are exposed to hundreds and thousands of advertisements on a daily basis” and if the majority of these advertisements somehow objectify women then we, as a society, become “numb” to the actual problem and thinks nothing of these womanizing images. Behaviors are learned actions and even through advertisements, the mind is connecting what it sees and associating it as a

There’s a common saying that “sex sells”, which turns out to be true according to pop culture. However, it’s not just a sexual appeal that is shown, it’s also a fantasy of sexual abuse. “Sex in advertising is the use of sexually provocative or erotic imagery that is designed to arouse a certain group of people” (Suggett). Advertisers are manipulating the human desires to make their products sell. It’s products that sell, are products that can capture anyone’s attention. One of the most helpful approaches is sex of course, which can capture anyone’s attention. The downside of using sexual imagery in advertisements is that it is generally going to come across sexism. In American popular culture, advertisers continue to grab our attention to their brand through sexual abuse; making it seem like a normality in our society.

Jean Kilbourne opens her discussion by explaining that she has been studying how women are perceived in ads for a time span of over forty years. Her personal interest in the subject came when she began modeling since during the 1960s, because options were very limited when it came to work. She claims that her experience in modeling was soul-destroying and sexual harassment and degrading came along with it. She says now, ads are much more advanced, explaining that a six month old baby can be seen representing a logo for a company. The main problem that she’s seen, however, is that the pressure for women to be young, thin, and beautiful is at an all time high. Kilbourne explains that the images in ads are not realistic goals for women to set for themselves, claiming that a cause for this unrealistic standard is photoshop. She says that boys also have high standards set in ads, but if the boys aren’t like the ads, there aren’t consequences like there would be to girls. For girls, we are sexually harassed and seen as sexual objects that boys are introduced to in very young ages now. She says sex has always been used in ads, but that it’s more graphic and pornographic today. A problem with this, she

Advertising is an elemental part of today’s society. It is a profitable industry which influences our lives and lifestyle choices sometimes without us even knowing. Brands tend to use immoral tactics to get the viewers’ attention and a commonly used tactic is the objectification and sexualisation of women. Using three contemporary advertisements as examples, this essay will focus on the objectification and sexualisation of women within the chosen advertisements and the semiotics behind the images.

Jean Kilbourne is an activist and cultural theorist has been studying the images of women in advertisement for the past 40 years. In her lecture during the TEDx conference she discussed the ways how advertisement industry portrays women in the humiliating way. Vivid illustrations of advertising campaigns from different parts of the world and different decades help Jean Kilbourne to be more specific in her conclusions and more people can relate to them. This video can work as a helpful tool to prove that women are being constantly humiliated on media. Objectification of their bodies and selling products with the image of women who only take care of their families and homes creates negative images of modern women. Also it is important to conclude

The existence of a predominantly male society and the continuous perpetuation of patriarchy heavily affected the way woman are represented. Women may have been experiencing many privileges nowadays than women in the previous century could not, but there are stereotypes and imposed gender roles that linger, especially in the field of advertising. One of the common types of advertisements that are dominant today are the ones that depict women as a sexualized object to get the attention of the male audience. In the research conducted by Parul Nagi, it is shown that advertisements use women “to draw attention of prospective buyers” (85), and these buyers are mostly, if not all, men. This advertising strategy places the man in the position of the gazer, and the woman as the gazed (Mulvey 837). Advertisements depicting sexualized women rely on human pleasure appealing to the sense of sight. Thus, they tend to become pornographic, wherein “it dehumanizes and objectifies people” (Kilbourne 488), diminishing their worth to that of an object to be owned only for visual and/or sexual pleasure and easily disposed of.

commercials provide a clear example; They use a female with bikinis or even with just a cover up on, the purpose is to sell the restaurant food but they make a focus on the model than the actual product; the takeaway remains to be that these ads are more harmful to the population then good. In some ads they make light use of rape, domestic violence, reduce women to a pair of breasts, and even throw in a nude woman (Sexualizing Women in Ads). These study suggest and prove that the use of exploiting women in these manners lead to younger women, and even teens/tweens, to place value in themselves due to physical appearance; thus leading to body dissatisfaction, eating disorders, self- esteem and

A scantily dressed woman is like a box of muffins on the cafeteria table; difficult to stop thinking about them. Are women mere sex objects and a tool in the hands of advertisers, or is this a gross misrepresentation in the pursuit of profit? In this drive for product success, advertising agencies' motives are not obscure; their motive is, in essence, to successfully market and sell a product by whatever means necessary. As a result, corporations justify selling and marketing a product based purely on the physical appearance and attributes of a person. As a result, women are portrayed in advertisements and the media as sex objects, especially as it relates to advertising name brand products. Unfortunately, the use of sex and violence in advertising

She then shows an ad in her article that shows three men tearing at a woman’s clothes. One man is pulling her leg, another at her arm and the third man has her lifted off the ground by pulling the waistband of her pants. Kilbourne also believes that ads are increasing the likelihood of rape on women. She writes, “Men are also encouraged to never take no for an answer. Ad after ad implies that girls and women don’t really mean “no” when they say it, that women are only teasing when they resist men’s advances. (Kilbourne pg. 462).” She then follows up her statement with an advertisement of perfume that says to, “Apply generously to your neck so he can smell the scent as you shack your head ‘no’ (Kilbourne pg. 462).” The ad isn’t even trying to mask the message of its true meaning which only enhances Kilbourne’s claim that it is becoming socially acceptable. Kilbourne’s major claim is that the advertising of women has extended to a point where their bodies are represented as objects which leads to normalizing the attitudes that lead to sexual aggression.

The portrayal of women in advertisements has changed many times over the years. Women often appear as a sexual object in any kind of advertisement or as an attractive material standing nearby a product. Many companies which include the tobacco industry, alcohol companies as well as clothing and electronic and entertainment industries have used women to reach a target demographic which is typically males between the age of 18-34, in order to sell or market a specific brand. Advertisements objectify women by selectively targeting audiences in order to portray a set of debatable images and or styles even for women to aspire to. The use of women in this particular sense is widespread amongst all major forms of media(tv, print, radio,