Kilbourne Response
May 16, 2011 by cc088994
These days we do not pay attention as closely as we should to the messages that media and advertisement put out to their audience. Kilbourne’s argument highlights this clearly for us. We are surrounded daily by sexual advertisement that has nothing to do with the product trying to be sold and we do not even realize it. Sex is used secretly in almost every form of advertisement there is out there. I agree with Kilbourne in the sense that sex through advertisement can de destructive. It can be harmful to women, but also to children. The younger generations are the ones being surrounded by all the lust and sex the media is putting out there. Our children are being exposed and accustomed to things that are too harmful to their childhoods and innocence.
The media, as Kilbourne also argued, puts out an image of what we should look like as women. It tells us how we should act, what we should dress like, what our body figures should be, and defines our perspective of what “beautiful” is. The media can impact a woman’s perspective of herself and could even drive her to be unhealthy. There are girls and women everywhere that become anorexic or bulimic because they feel that they are not thin or pretty enough for today’s society. They do not have a true sense of identity or have good self-esteem they constantly try to change themselves in order to keep up with the image the media puts out for them.
The points Kilbourne makes about femininity and masculinity is similar to what our texts portrays about gender and gender development. The media paints women to be dainty and motherly. Men are seen to be very tough and aggressive. These are the role models and example children look up to while growing up. The way they act goes accordingly to how it is drawn out for them. Little girls are to be very sensitive and delicate when they are young, yet sexy when they grow up. Men are told to be superior to woman from the beginning, and this is what children grow into believing and being.
