Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence in an Urban Context

I believe Kilbourne’s main argument is that through advertisements, women are left vulnerable to a certain image that they must portray. They should be innocent, sexy, have a certain body shape, have perfect skin, dress a certain way, act a certain way, etc. Women are subjected to be objects of sex, and “sex” sells. This is revolting, but at the same time very accurate. This is how women are expected to be. Unfortunately, this is not who many women are and it is almost impossible to fit these requirements for being a woman. Some however, believe that they have to fit these images and face detrimental consequences such as eating disorders, abuse, pregnancy, and much more. The devaluing of women in the ads has traumatic personal effects, but the media will most likely not do much to stop this because technically this is what people “want” to see and these ads help to sell products.

These ideas relate to the concepts of gender and gender development because girls are taught from an early age to act, dress, and look a certain way. The need to be feminine and act girly is seen as a necessity in order to fit in with society’s norms. Boys are portrayed as masculine, aggressive and active in activities while girls act passive and vulnerable or innocent. In a film we saw in class, “Raising Cain”, boys were told to be aggressive, tough, and to not be feminine when playing sports such as football. Girls were later shown to be  gentle, caring and sensitive to violence when telling stories and then when a boy was upset about something (schooling in Japan clip).  The images and ads that Kilbourne shows in the video are congruent with these beliefs.  These views of boys and girls in ads later develop into adult ads that show the same beliefs, except now young women are seen as sex objects giving off sex, innocence, and femininity. Boys change into young men who are shown to have power and control, mostly over women, such as holding women down, pinning them to a wall or to them, all given off sex and power. Also, showing males as aggressive and females as innocent and vulnerable to a male’s actions.

Children focus the most on the media to tell them how they should act, dress, and view objects and things. Advertisements that show girls that they have to look like a model will impact the way she will view herself and her body. Boys who will see women to be objects of sex will later treat the opposite sex as the objects they are as seen in those ads. Despite the fact that children will learn from parents and educators that this is just media and that advertising shows an unrealistic view, these images and sources of advertising are everywhere. Such images will inevitably play a role in a child’s  development.