Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence in an Urban Context

I think Kilbourne talks about how advertising has helped cause women to be viewed as objects, especially for sex, and how this leads to violence and women getting raped or harassed. I agree with her on the topic that ads have helped cause women to be viewed as objects. The ads show beautiful women with sexy bodies to attract men. I think that because of some ads that are sexual in nature, women are seen as objects that will allow men to have sex with them and will not say “no” to men, who think they are powerful and superior. But, at the same time, when other young girl or any other women look at the advertising, they will feel they want to follow what other people do, and it create a gender identity. The media persuade a stereotype and also women identity of how does a women look like, and what they should do in this society. By the way, all the men in the media are powerful, strong, violent, and it is can be look like the opposite of women. However, I do not think that advertisements that are sexual or suggestive are as big of a reason why these women experience getting harassed, raped, or abused as Kilbourne suggests. It could be a factor, but I think there are just some bad people in the world who want to feel powerful, and so the only way they can feel this way is to take advantage of women since women are generally weaker and not as aggressive. Another thing that Kilbourne mentioned, that I agree with, was that females are held responsible when sex goes wrong, but I think it is depend on their culture identity and their society, because sometime, the society don’t allow women to do anything, and also the culture has affect male and female’s theories, and the way of thinking. For instance, if a woman gets raped or assaulted, it’s seen as her fault for not staying out of a dark place, for wearing skimpy clothes, or for having a few drinks of alcohol. Also, if a woman gets pregnant, it is her fault for not making sure the man had a condom on or from obtaining from sex. It is never the man’s fault.

As I mention before, the media can create a stereotype and it is can affect people’s way of thinking, and also affect the social and emotional development of all the people, including the children in America. Child can identify them by watching and following what other people doing, because identity theorists is is play an important role of how a person’s self develops. If a child is watching some violent or sex video, they will have those images in their head, and they will think that they have to follow up, because other people are doing it. Therefore, if parents don’t do their job by educate their child how to looking things in a right way, that will affect the child’s development.