Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence in an Urban Context

Kilbourne argues that media advertisement influences our society greatly, today more than ever. However, the worst part about this is that it influences our younger generations the most. She brings up many examples of advertisements that show “perfect” women: skinny, pretty, big boobs and she even makes a joke that these women don’t have pores. These are the type of woman our children grow up watching and wanting to become. However, they don’t understand that most of these women are photoshopped and probably don’t look like this. Even if some of them do, there are about 10 of them and millions of us normal people. Kilbourne says that our society has become used to the idea that “sex sells” and we made it okay for all of these obnoxious, half-naked ads to be up.

I absolutely agree with her. Our society is based on looks. Because of all of these advertisements, we lead our kids to believe that there is a certain way we need to look. This is worse for girls. Because of some of the shows we have on TV, such as the one where the girls had to compete and win plastic surgeries to become “the perfect brides”, the younger girls think it is okay and normal to get plastic surgeries. Kilbourne says that woman spend so much time, energy and money to achieve these looks and then feel like failures if they don’t look like the girls on the advertisements. This is not okay. This is one of the reasons one in every five women has an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia. Even worse, Kilbourne states that it is actually nearly four in every five have an eating disorder that is not otherwise specified. Kilbourne also states that in our society, sex sells everything and that is the reason we have the highest rate in teen pregnancy. More and more of the younger girls are becoming hypersexual and getting pregnant because all they see on TV is sex. I completely agree because look at even the most recent commercial for Dentyne Ice- they make a play on selling condoms where the woman asks “do you have something” (usually asked about condoms) but they’re talking about gum, and it always leads to them making out. I remember growing up and not being allowed to watch scenes like that in movies because it was inappropriate but now it’s on daytime TV.

Although she mostly focused on women, I do believe younger boys are also growing up in a very superficial world. More guys are going to the gym, staying fit, getting perfect haircuts, tanning and getting their nails done. Because of shows such as “The Jersey Shore”, boys are also getting pressured into “perfection”.

Kilbourne’s argument is absolutely correct. She proves that our society absolutely forces gender identity on our children. These advertisements show that a “real man” is strong, good looking, tough etc and that a “perfect woman” is skinny, beautiful, tall, has curves and boobs. How many people actually look like these advertisements in the real world?