...“Killing Us Softly” Personal Response Essay “Killing us Softly” is a documentary by Jean Kilbourne on the message that the advertisement industry sends out to women and the near impossible standards of feminine beauty it upholds. Cindy Crawford once said “I wish I looked like Cindy Crawford”. Now this might sound bizarre to many, but the truth is, in today’s world of Botox and Photoshop, cosmetic surgery and strict diets it is impossible to be that ‘perfect body’ that ads portray. According to a photographer for a leading fashion magazine, a particular shot goes through at least 20-30 rounds of airbrushing. Tag lines such as “beauty knows no pain” and “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” develop and encourage such unhealthy attitudes. According to a study, an average American views 3000 ads per day. Ads have a quick, cumulative and subconscious effect. They create a toxic cultural environment where the well being and health of an individual are threatened. They show these models who have so-called perfect bodies, no blemishes, no marks, no wrinkles, and no nothing. But the problem is that beauty starts being equated with a painfully thin marks-free fair body. This affects the self- esteem of women and they become ashamed of their physical attributes and try harder to achieve those exacting and impractical standards. A popular weight loss tag line says “the more you subtract the more you add”. So women start going for sizes 0 and 00. These not only affect health...
Words: 445 - Pages: 2
...Rationale In my English class we watched a documentary called “Killing Us Softly” by Jean Kilborne. The talk was about women´s role in advertisements and how the image of females has been shown throughout many years. In the talk Ms. Kilbourne is criticizing the way that advertisements uses women to sell their products. She talks about women being objectified and dehumanized. As a result of the advertisements many girls and women gets a low self-esteem and they try to fit into the body image that is shown on advertisements. The documentary has influenced me a lot because I can relate it to myself. I found the talk very impressive because it talks about the key points of the reality about advertisements. The documentary made me realize the fakeness behind advertisements. I really liked the talk and that´s why I wanted to write a feedback to Ms. Kilborne. I chose to write a letter because I wanted to write a direct message to her about how I felt about the talk and about my agreements. Date: 09/09/15 Dear Ms. Kilborne I am a High School student from Denmark and yesterday in our English class we watched your documentary “Killing us softly.” I found the topic of the talk very interesting because I could relate it to myself. I agree with what you were saying about the role of the women in advertisements. I find it very irritating that they are using a pornographic and sexual image of women to sell their products. I also feel like we as female are used as objects in advertisements...
Words: 474 - Pages: 2
...Through the movie Killing Us Softly 3, Jean kilbourne has given an interesting perspective in portraying to us what it means to be a woman according to the image we see in the media. She makes the argument that although it appears that women in this day and era have acquired power, it is a false sense of achievement and very short lived. She has dissected and discussed how the media and advertising companies have evolved in the last 20 years. Advertising is more a part of our lives today than it has ever been. In fact, advertising today has become a serious business with profits nearing 180 billion dollars a year, something that we all agree should be taken seriously. Consumers get bombarded by approximately 3000 ads per day and it has been estimated that the average consumers spends on average 3 years of their life watching just ads alone. No wonder that advertising is the foundation of the mass media. The problem that she points out is that while advertising is selling products it also perpetuates the ideas, values, beauty, and notions of love and happiness and, to a certain extent, the idea or concept of normalcy. This is the area that I personally have a problem with, since it also subliminally imposes on how to act, react and worst of all, be. How does advertising cause that effect? How can it be so powerful? It starts by surrounding you with what it means to be beautiful, by creating or suggesting a false sense of beauty and making you feel diminished, not worthy and shameful...
Words: 1098 - Pages: 5
...Killing us softly 3 & Dreamworlds 3 Review Killing Us Softly 3 This post-viewing guide is intended to deepen the audience’s critical engagement with the documentary film, Killing Us Softly III. It is targeted at women and men between the ages of 15-30 who are bombarded with advertisements every day. Possible ways that the guide might be used include: recognition of to the role of advertisement in American society and culture, research projects aimed at exploring discrimination against women and/or the role of advertisement in America, and finally, for pure reasons of interest. Kilbourne says that advertisements give the message that what is most important is how we look. We must spend time, energy and money on our outward appearance or else we are failures. Advertisements say that we can look a certain way if we try hard enough. However, the fact of the matter is that we all fail because there is no such thing as perfection. It is this kind of powerful message that influences self-esteem and also men’s perceptions on acceptable ways of treating women. Kilbourne argues that advertisements treat women as though they are objects. Advertisements have turned women’s bodies into objects such as beer cans and scissors. This method of turning a woman into a thing can be violence. She also states that advertisements portray women as not being fully human. For example, in many advertisements, only one part of the body is focused on, such as the rear, legs or breasts. Men do...
Words: 1183 - Pages: 5
...ad #1 This advertisement reinforces what was stated in the film Killing Us Softly. This ad is for Maybelline’s “Lash Stiletto Voluptuous Mascara”. On the advertisement, there is of a tube of mascara, a red stiletto shoe and a woman’s face. This ad only shows part of the woman’s face, which is showing her off more as an object than a human being. Other than just objectifying the woman, this ad is clearly Photoshopped so that she looks “perfect”. She has no imperfections on her face and has no masculine characteristics. Women who see this ad may think that if they use this mascara, they will look like this, but in reality, it is nearly impossible to be this flawless. On the advertisement, it says, “Now the most dramatic length meets seductive volume.” This is sexualizing the mascara to make the product more appealing to customers. This is unnecessary and completely irrelevant to the product. ad #2 This advertisement is a great example of how the media usually portrays men. This ad also reinforces what is discussed in...
Words: 1552 - Pages: 7
...Lipstick Compare and Contrast “Ads sell more than just a product. They sell value, they sell images, the concept of love, and sexuality, of success, and perhaps most important, of normalcy” Jean Kilbourne stated in “Killing Us Softly 4.” Advertisement has taken over the daily lives of humans trying to sell products and trying to sell body images. In the United States, 180 billion dollars are spent on advertising, causing the average person sees over 3,000 ads every day (Killing Us Softly 3). Many factors and persuading go into selling an advertisement that is connected to personal levels. Every advertisement has its distant way to attract consumers to their product. Not only does advertisement try to sell the product of choice, but the meaning...
Words: 1322 - Pages: 6
...Killing Us Softly Reflection One of the films that struck me the most was “Killing Us Softly”, the documentary on how advertising and the media as a whole, in general, can basically control this entire world. Sounds a bit drastic, but I really believe that this statement is true because of disgusting incidents that happen throughout the world from media portrayal today. The documentary effectively demonstrated how easy it is for advertising to send across various different hidden messages that can cause tremendous effects like bulimia, rapes, murders, disrespect towards women, and several other things that would lower a women’s self esteem level. The documentary portrays women in such a way that it is derogatory. It sets a medium for women on what the perfect figure should look like. For example, since decades, the media has been showing women who barely weigh 110 pounds as an ideal weight to be. Don’t you think every girl who weighs over 110 pounds is going to try to do the impossible and attempt to fit into what society thinks is the norm? All due to the fact that the media has embedded it into our subconscious minds that this is acceptable. The more exposure we get of something, the more acceptable it becomes in our society, whether it’s wrong or right. Personally, I’ve realized that the media brought about even my style of dressing. If you see a commercial on TV or in a magazine for a shirt you thought looked good, wouldn’t you buy it? I know I would. I guess that’s...
Words: 665 - Pages: 3
...Killing Them Softly Art is extremely hard to create if you are trying to tell something extremely specific to current times, people, and places, if you succeed and people seem to see the same vision, you have achieved something, if they find something you did not expect, you have achieved something greater. However Killing Them Softly does not reach the certain heights it set to, instead it lies somewhere near a heavy-beating message without any subtlety, yet it still manages to tell an interesting story with even more interesting characters, however they are never fleshed out enough for us to fully care and understand them. An intricate set up starts our film, a mobster knows about a high stake poker game run and played by members of the mob, and hires two men to rob the game. He knows someone within the mob who can easily be set up for the heist. After the game is robbed, the mob brings in enforcer type Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) to find and kill the guys who pulled off the heist. Now Killing Them Softly has a lot more going for it and it is apparent from the opening sequence, where an image of a man walking over derelict and broken down streets intersected with Obama speech cues promising for a new and better day. It’s apparent what Andrew Dominik (Chopper; Assassination of Jesse James…) is trying to get across, you see what he sees, you understand what he is trying to tell, yet he feels like he needs the idea to keep on running throughout the film, which often hurts it’s...
Words: 514 - Pages: 3
...In “Still Killing Us Softly” Jean Kilbourne describes the influence advertisements have on consumers. In addition, advertisers use specific methods to catch the consumer's attention and pull them into buying their products. She explains that these methods not only dehumanizes, but lowers the self esteem of women in order to gain the viewer’s awareness. To be specific, advertisements displays mainly on cosmetics to make a woman “perfect.” For example: One poster shows the face of a women without blemishes, acne, or scars. “In fact, she doesn’t even have any pores” says Kilbourne. Another advertisement shows women being turned into an object, this can lead to violence towards women. One advertisement reads “Why aren't your feet as sexy as...
Words: 297 - Pages: 2
...In Killing Us Softly 4, she discusses the harm an advertisement can do to the female perspective and image ideally for both young women and men. We’re exposed to 3000 brands a day on average and often without actually realizing what we’re seeing, and babies at the age of six months can recognize corporate logos. That’s scary, especially when you think about what exactly advertising is often telling us. Kilbourne isn’t trying to say that advertising causes violence, but she does emphasize the way that advertising often turns women into objects. In any situation, the objectification of humans is the first step towards violence. How is this objectification achieved? First and foremost, advertising often dismembers the female body. There’s a focus...
Words: 360 - Pages: 2
...Third, the effect of the increase of the visual sexual images in the young generations. According to Killing us softly 4, Kilbourne expose the abuse of the sex and items such an Oreo cookie or Hershey’s chocolate. These products are the favorites of many children and youngsters. Seduction and sensuality in products that are usually consumed by kids are being used as regular catch attention. Agreeing with this issue, the business news daily newspaper, explain that takes more explicitness to grab the peoples' attention than before. In the early 1900’s, exposed arms and ankles of female models generated the same level of arousal as partially nude models and sex in ads do today. We are in the presence of the loss of the innocence. The kids are...
Words: 715 - Pages: 3
...Temple Grandin single-handedly changed the livestock industry. She also changed the way we viewed animals. For instance, according to the article, “Temple Grandin, Killing Them Softly at Slaughter House for 30 years,” written by Ryan Bell, states, “I think we can eat meat ethically,” she says, “but we’ve got to give animals a good life” (Bell). Before Temple Grandin, many weren’t concerned about the livestock standards, but Grandin helped people realize that animals deserve a better life compared to what the industries were offering them. She had also written Animal Translation, Animals Makes Us Human, and an essay called, “animals are not things.” These expressed that although animals are property, they still need to be treated with higher quality. In addition, her influences ranged from the livestock industry to autism advocacy. She had written Emergence Labeled Autistic and Thinking in Pictures. These books revealed important parts of her life including dealing with her anxiety. Temple Grandin has impacted our world and changed society in beneficial ways. Grandin’s influences and achievement progressed us in countless ways. Finally, Her work was innovative because it revolutionized our world...
Words: 644 - Pages: 3
...Killing Us Softly: Advertising's Image of Women was a video of the speech by Jean Kilbourne. Jean Kilbourne spoke on how the media portrays women in an unnatural way and the differences on how they portray men vs. women. I attended this event to meet the intellectual experience and viewed it as something I just had to do and get it over with. This event was more enjoyable than I originally thought it would be. The event started at four o'clock, so I went straight there after my biology class had ended. Angelika Hoelger, the professor who held the event, had just pushed play as I was walking into the room. It wasn't hard to find a seat since there were only six or seven other people who attended the event. Attendees were given a t-shirt and a survey on the event. The survey asked questions, such as: what you learned, if you had been to any common experience events before, and if enjoyed it....
Words: 604 - Pages: 3
...The video that was shown in class, titled Killing Us Softly, is a very powerful work that exposes just how cruel the advertising world can be. This world of advertisers is notorious for its horrible depictions of women in the world. Their advertisements are in magazines, newspapers, on buses, billboards, and television. Americans are exposed to about 3,000 ads per day according to the video and I have chosen just one to analyze. This advertisement is one that I saw in a magazine a few days ago, before being assigned this extra credit opportunity. The advertisement that I am going to be analyzing was found in a Cosmopolitan magazine only a few days ago. The advertisement is for Orbit chewing gum and at first the picture seems rather harmless. However, when you stop to think about what was said in the video shown in class, you may begin to see and think otherwise. As I flipped through the pages of the magazine I found myself stopped because of an enticing advertisement. This ad in particular has a very nice looking woman dressed like a Hawaiian hula dancer who is front and center on the page with only a small portion of beach and ocean behind her. All seems well so far, right? Well, everything would be fine or at least acceptable if things were not so bizarre. The thing that struck me as a little out of the ordinary was that she was not wearing a real bikini top or even a coconut brassiere. The thing that makes this ad so degrading towards women is the fact that this beautiful...
Words: 622 - Pages: 3
...and his foreman, came upon an Einsatz execution squad killing Jews from the small town of Dubno in the Ukraine. He gave the following eyewitness account: "My foreman and I went directly to the pits. Nobody bothered us. Now I heard rifle shots in quick succession from behind one of the earth mounds. The people who had got off the trucks - men, women and children of all ages - had to undress upon the order of an SS man who carried a riding or dog whip. They had to put down their clothes in fixed places, sorted according to shoes, top clothing and undergarments. I saw heaps of shoes of about 800 to 1000 pairs, great piles of under-linen and clothing. Without screaming or weeping these people undressed, stood around in family groups, kissed each other, said farewells, and waited for a sign from another SS man, who stood near the pit, also with a whip in his hand. During the fifteen minutes I stood near, I heard no complaint or plea for mercy. I watched a family of about eight persons, a man and a woman both of about fifty, with their children of about twenty to twenty-four, and two grown-up daughters about twenty-eight or twenty-nine. An old woman with snow white hair was holding a one year old child in her arms and singing to it and tickling it. The child was cooing with delight. The parents were looking on with tears in their eyes. The father was holding the hand of a boy about ten years old and speaking to him softly; the boy was fighting his tears. The father pointed...
Words: 631 - Pages: 3
