Jean Kilbourne’s Killing Us Softly discusses the discrimination against women by the use of media when doing advertisements. For instance, she believes that the media portray women in negative ways that kill their self-esteem and ego. In her documentaries, she demonstrates that gender inequality becomes predominant by representing women conspicuously as second-class creature to men (Kilbourne 1). Moreover, there is the reality of her presentations as her support argument are the pictures that these advertisers use in their posts. One of the commonly known cases is that women are presented almost naked while men are shown well dressed in a nice suit. A case study is when advertising a beauty product, where women’s beauty is shown by exposing their body in a way that is not pleasing. Accepting to her, this has made women seem like objects to impress men, something that even young children know. In fact, she believes that using women images in such negative ways turn them into objects rather than maintaining the value that they strive hard to create. In her understanding, women take quality time to look good, and it is not something that should be taken for granted. Kilbourne’s concerns are buttressed in E. L. James’ erotic novel, Fifty Shades of Grey, in which a series of sexual escapades between Christian and Ana demonstrate sexual objectification of women.
Kilbourne’s documentaries are very categorical about American advertising companies and states that even if things are changing, the gravity of the bad side keeps on replicating. She collected numerous images that were used to advertise sex products and as depicted in this, women lose value and pride without them knowing (Kilbourne 1). In fact, this has killed the morals of women making them seem like they only remain sex objects to men. In other words, women are less important, and the only thing they should be good for is providing sexual pleasures to a woman. In retrospect, she believed that this shows the continuation of the bad traits that the society claims to shun out. In her presentation, it is one of the silent indications of violence against women.
In this precept, the advocators for gender sensitivity acknowledge her works and believe that it is a very humiliating act to represent women in such manners when communicating their relationship with certain products. In fact, Feminism movements for a long time have to try to shape the society to give respect and quality to women. However, it is true that using their images in the wrong way is discriminatory, and should stop. In support of this, her documents on alcohol and drug abuse communicate the way women are violated in colleges by drugging them into believing that they should impress men by taking alcohol. Conspicuously, women get the negative images everywhere they get to the public limelight.
It is important to note that the negative portrayal of women is natured in the societal arrangements. We live in a society that sees men be more valuable than their female counterparts. Women are never important in any decision making, and the same applies to their sexuality. In fact, a man is viewed as a master to a woman’s body. This becomes real even in places of work where a man gets high profiled consideration than a woman. This is something that Kilbourne believes that is wrong, and should never get space in the human interaction. In reality, every human being is very important and should be seen as such without any form of discrimination. Moreover, her recounts depict that some advertisements make women feel that the way they live is not right (Kilbourne 1). They influence women into activities like sliming which may sometime interfere with their health. As a result, women live in danger, something that the society should understand and control.
On the other hand, the media uses videos and images that instigate violence in the society. They use certain videos that communicate war and violence of a certain group against another (Kilbourne 9). This has made children learn violence as a normal phenomenon. Due to this, the society is divided and becomes aggressive, and only gets ready for solving problems and issues through the same mean. Even in a more serious note, the same feeling gets deeply embedded in the way people organize their families. As such, men become very violent in treating women and do not allow them to speak their minds when there is any issue to talk about in the family or the society. In the same manner, women have remained to live with timidity without having the strength to advocate for what they believe they should have.
Besides, it should remain a responsibility of everyone to see eye to eye that every individual being is given the due respect they deserve. Discrimination due to somebody’s background is uncouth and unacceptable. According to Kilbourne, this is a show of immaturity of society, which needs to work hard to grow. In this understanding, the government must come out strong to support the movement against women by making strong legislations that protect them (Kilbourne 27). Furthermore, women have good brains as men and can help a great deal in making the society grow. It is so annoying that women never get equal opportunities in places of work. This has made an imbalanced life by forcing them to believe that they are not worth much. Some of these behaviors have made some women to commit suicide when feeling less important. Therefore, it is the time that every person should take an obligation to protect the rights and values of each other in the society.
In addition, women should get more recognition in the position of leadership. It has been a very sad experience that only men take positions of governance while women are only left to support their agendas. The only way to help women to advocate for their rights is by allowing them the chance in policymaking. They are the people who know what affects them most and how the various approaches they can use to render solutions to their problems. Furthermore, education support should be more liberal and accommodative to women. This can only be possible if the people change their perception about women. People should adopt new styles of life and avoid living in the past. All the bad behaviors and outlooks should change so that the society can generate a new meaning. It is so disgusting that human beings strive to make new inventions through science discoveries but does very little in structuring the nature of an ordered life. As a result, people need to understand how to do things in the new era and abolish any negativity of the past.
Killing Us Softly draws an important comparison with E. L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey. In the novel, James depicts the erotic nature of men whenever they interact with women. Christians desire to have sex with Ana shortly after their meeting reveals the nature of the society and the place of women. Christian declares that his relationship with Ana would not be based on romance (James 69). Instead, the relationship would be based on sex. On realizing that Ana is a virgin, Christian doesn’t hesitate to take her virginity. The series of sexual escapades that the two have the next morning challenges Christian’s mother, who has always thought that Christian is a homosexual. She only confirms the reality when she realizes that her son was having a woman, yet the woman was not happy. This shows the common behavior of men forcing women into sex even if they are not intend to.
On the other hand, the documentaries and the film demonstrate that women are merely perceived as sex objects by their male counterparts. This validates the claim that men consider themselves to remain more important and valuable in the society than women. According to the claim, James adds that women have never been able to set their moral standards as rational beings. They do not have strength to decide what they want as depicted by Ana who is forced to give in and accept the Christian’s decision coercively. In other words, Kilbourne demonstrates the ills that women go through in their daily life. She uses these platforms to enlighten the society to recognize women as lucid beings who should get their fundamental says in what they like and what they do not like.
In conclusion, Kilbourne collects many materials of advertisements and enlighten the society about the ills against women. Her major series is very categorical about American advertising companies and states that gender inequality becomes predominant by representing women visibly second-class creature to men. She collected numerous images that were used to advertise sex products and as depicted in this, women lose value and pride without them knowing. On the other hand, James depicts the erotic nature of men whenever they interact with women. Christian’s wish to have sex with Ana shortly after their meeting divulges the nature of the society and the place of women. Christian avows that his relationship with Ana would not be based on romance In fact, this behavior has killed the morals of women making them seem like they only remain sex objects to men. In other words, women are less important, and the only thing they should be good for is providing sexual pleasures to a man.
In fact, a man is viewed as a master to a woman’s body. This becomes real even in places of work where a man gets high profiled consideration than a woman. This is something that Kilbourne believes that is wrong, and should never get space in the human interaction. In reality, every human being is very important and should be seen as such without any form of discrimination. This is something that she believes that the society should get out to correct. She also believes that the advertisements that present the images and videos of wars and fights make the society to groom the spirit of violence. This extends to women and children making people live without peace.
Works Cited
James, E. L. "Fifty Shades of Grey. 2011." London: Arrow (2012). Print.
Kilbourne, Jean. “Killing us softly part 1.” YouTube. 2015, November 2. Available at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLz_C7q1nDc
Kilbourne, Jean. “Killing us softly part 2.” YouTube. 2015, November 2. Available at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGKR8_M3u-4
Kilbourne, Jean. “Killing us softly part 3” YouTube. 2010, April 14. Available at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LraxEuFb3Xw
Kilbourne, Jean. “Killing us softly part 4: Advertising image of women.” YouTube.
2010, March 12. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTlmho_RovY
Kilbourne, Jean. “The dangerous ways ads see women part 2” YouTube. 2014, May 8.
Available at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy8yLaoWybk&list=PLSsjzj80vBHeQiepWQ3aN7HHNiICQjeMv
Kilbourne, Jean. Can't buy my love: How advertising changes the way we think and feel.
Simon and Schuster, 2012.
