Blog #6

The film "Killing Us Softly" is a four part series created by Jean Kilborne which focuses on advertisements portrayal of women. Jean Kilborne started collecting advertisements in the 1960's that for one reason or another stuck out to her. She began seeing seeing a pattern within these adverts, they were all sending a strong message about women within our culture. Messages that stated "If your hair isn't beautiful, the rest hardly matters" which was depicted in a shampoo ad, and "Made for a woman's extra feelings." which was expressed in an advertisement for deodorant. In the film, Kilborne denotes that women are simply portrayed as objects in advertisements and therefor often dehumanized in order to sell a product. I found her explanation of the connection to violence and the dehumanization of women valid. I thought that she brought up a sensible argument when she stated that "once a person becomes dehumanized that violence is the inevitable next step since you are stripping their rights." and this does not only occur for women. Our brains process advertisements as subconscious information, so it is inevitable that we are taking in these negative images whether we realize it or not, Kilborne refers to this as a toxic cultural environment.
          Advertisements increasingly have the power to tell us who we are, how we should look and what we should become. Which is terrible to stomach, since through out the film it is expressed that we are just setting ourselves up for failure in the sense that all of the images portrayed in advertisements are photoshopped and digitally enhanced. It was quite ironic to hear the supermodel Cindy Crawford being quoted as saying "I wish I looked like Cindy Crawford." Kilborne also sheds light on the fact that men and women inhabit different worlds and for women your worth depends on how you look. Almost every single glossy-page fashion ad will tend to focus on one aspect of a females body (breast, legs, stomach) while excluding her face completely. In these pages, women tend to be placed in provocative poses while the men portrayed in these magazines are shown as dignified figures that are standing tall and strong. Kilborne sheds light on the increasingly important rising statistic of cosmetic surgeries. From the year 1997 - 2007 cosmetic procedures such as lipo, breast enhancement, botox, and eye lifts, 97% were preformed on women have risen 457% to almost 12 million per year. Kilborne can be quoted saying "our popular culture seems to have the ability to make women anywhere and everywhere feel terrible about themselves.". Kilborne is optimistic in the sense that in places such as Germany and other parts of Europe they are taking strides to use only real women and not models within their magazines as well as having labels placed within the digitally altered images. Kilborne argues that people need to  become citizens and not consumers. We need to be more aware of these advertisements and distance ourselves from them.

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The TED Talk titled "A Call to Men" given by Tony Porter he recounts personal experiences and explains the details of what he calls 'The Man Box'. Tony Porter opens up the talk by expressing the norms of how he was raised to think; men are in charge, men are tough, strong, women are weak, less valued and seen as objects. Which he refers to as the guidelines of collective socialization of men, he further describes this as something called The Man Box. The Man Box lists all the ingredients of being a man; don't cry openly, don't express emotions except for anger, demonstrate power control, do not be "like a woman", etc. He shares the personal story of a time when he was younger and his brother had tragically passed away. It wasn't until after the funeral ceremony that his father was able to break down into tears, of course no one else was around to witness this except for Tony and even then his father commended him for not tearing up as well as apologizing for the fact that was breaking down.
          Porter also shared of a time when his young daughter would come up to him in tears for whatever reason and it would be okay for him to console her and allow her to cry on his shoulder, though if his son thought he had the same privilege he would reply with something such as "I can't understand you when you're crying" and "Why don't you come back and talk to me like man.".  He claims that after saying such a statement to his son who was only a year or so older than his daughter he was taken back by his realization. In the talk he argues that it is important for men to be able to deconstruct and challenge the ideals of manhood and that it is okay to break away from the norm of the equation of violence against women. He indicates that all men should be on board to change to norms and to work together to teach their sons that it is okay not to be dominating and promote equality, to have and express normal human emotions.


The video "Killing Us Softly" and "A Call to Men" both heavily relate to the concepts expressed within the socialization chapter, as well as having ideals that relate to each other. For example, the very definition of socialization states that it is the process through which people learn their cultures basic norms, values, beliefs, and appropriate behaviors. It is through socialization that we learn and internalize society's structures and expectations. After watching "Killing Us Softly" it became apparent to me that the images being portrayed within the advertisements and in magazines are being internalized as the norm for women. The sexual ideals that are emphasized through the images are being interpreted to girls at a young age and are allotting them to associate these obscured values as norms. We are taught that beauty will equate to success, especially at a young age. For example, high heels for babies are now a thing, as well as bikinis for girls ages 7-9 years. In "A Call to Men" Porter shares the story of his very different reactions that he evokes when each of his children began to cry. With his daughter he allowed for her to do so, but with his son he was forging the gender socialization of 'being a man' into his son at the age of 5 years, telling him to stop his tears.
     I found that both of these videos intertwined with each other in the sense that while Porter is trying to breakdown the norms of men expressing only dominating qualities that fit within The Man Box, such as Do Not be 'like a woman'. It is within the advertisements that Jean Kilborn is shedding light on that are geared towards young men, such as the cigarette advertisement showing a man's bicep of a tattoo of a woman with the quote "You're looking at my feminine side." that are reinforcing these negative norms.

If you have ever gone into pretty much any toy store there always seems to be different isles that are designated for boys and girls. This picture shows the advertisements that run in a Toys R Us catalog and how it expresses the differences that are associated with each gender. On the left side, the toys that are associated for girls are the princess dolls and dresses. On the right side, associated for boys,  the advertisement shows building blocks, trucks, and even a science kit.

This second photo shows how at even an infant stage toys are associated by gender. On the left is a diamond ring designated for young girls. I believe that the idea of a diamond ring is to instill the fact that women are supposed to aspire the ideals of marriage and hold hope for one day receiving a giant rock as an engagement ring. The right side of the photo is of a hammer rattle for baby boys. I think that this item is forging an idea that men are supposed to be strong and manly in the sense that they can build something and be handy with tools.

This advertisement made me laugh at first. It is basically stating that women are supposed to be familiar within the kitchen and that with the help of the easy-bake oven we are going to feel a sense of thrill and achieve that status, thanks to this product. When I was younger, I owned an Easy-Bake Oven and I can attest to the fact that a 40 watt light-bulb has not aided my abilities within the kitchen. I actually kind of hated using it since it was messy hassle to make something and definitely took well over an hour to bake a cake. That being beside the point, this advertisement is attempting to instill the idea that women are supposed to stay in the kitchen and bake delicious treats that are going to make the world a better place.