Women in Ads

Last year I stumbled on the work that the feminist author Dr. Jean Kilbourne have made. I was fascinated by her work that spans over 40 years, that mostly is about women and gender roles in advertisements. She has made four movies that have all the same name, Killing us Softly (I, II, III, IV). In the newest one that was released in 2010, there she talks to a large number of students and presenting the shocking truth about women in advertisements.

The normal American is exposed to around 3,000 ads a day and spends over his lifetime watching television commercials. It is a 250 billion dollar industry and something that people do not consider how powerful it really is. People may say that they tune out the ads and manage to block them and that might be true, because "only 8% of the ads message is received by the conscious mind while the rest is worked and reworked deep within the recesses of the brain" - Rance Crain, former senior editor, Advertising Age

So that brings it to my thinking, how connected are advertisements and gender roles? A quote from the movie says "Ads sell more then products. they sell values, they sell images, they sell concepts of love and sexuality, of success, and perhaps most important, of normalcy. To a great extent they tell us who we are and who we should be." Women are objectified as perfect and often there are put together four or five different women to make one, with help of computer technology. Jean mentions because of this it effects the self esteem of the "normal" women and also effects the men who judge to the average women more harshly after being seeing those supermodels.

With the normal ads today, in television, outside on posters and walls, in magazines and newspapers women are made with perfect bodies, something that is impossible to achieve. Studies show that girls feel fine about them from 7 year old to 11 but after that they hit a wall. Their bodies are routinely scrutinized, criticized and judged. Only 5% of women in USA have similar body build as the supermodels. The results are eating disorders and growing popularity in cosmetic surgeries.

Advertisements have also made everything about sex, using phrases and words that can easily be converted to a sexual meaning, "don't unwrap, undress the candy bar" and "your lips looks so lonely can i keep it company. -  the most seductive cookie ever". Advertisements also show women in strange poses, make them object while men are suppose to be dignified and muscular. That opens the door to violence towards women and many advertisement are actually showing that.

I do not want to spoil all the movie. Coming from a country that brags about being number one in gender equality, with "only" 10% gender gap and seeing this movie it leaves me quite shocked. All that progress that we have made over the decades have been transformed into as serious problem as before. We are living in a toxic cultural environment when these information are being dumped far into our subconscious.  It leaves me a bit sad seeing the movie but at the same time more aware of the problems that we face today. I encourage everyone to see this move if you have not, it is about 40 minute long.

Heiðar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ujySz-_NFQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=E4-1xCf3I7U#!