Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence in an Urban Context

Throughout the Jean Kilbourne “Killing Us Softly” videos, it is argued that media advertising is no longer about the product or service, but rather they are subliminal messages that try to generalize and define the concepts of gender and gender roles within society.  Masculinity is defined through violence and superiority while femininity is usually portrayed as sexy and promiscuous.  There has been recent research in which they prove that the portrayal of sex in advertising sells products and makes money, but how does that reflect upon our youth and adolescence and their exposure to the media on a daily basis?

Youth and adolescence are exposed to the media either through the most common of propaganda receivers, the television, or the internet, for multiple hours within a week.  A child comes home from school to sit in front of the television until dinner time, or a teen comes home to finish a research project online or to chat with their friends on facebook.  Throughout this time spent indulging in these media sources, people don’t realize that these messages are being imprinted into their brains; not through exposure, but through repeated exposure.  With the media forcing these concepts of gender and gender roles upon not only the youth/adolescence, but adults as well, society will see the development of destructive behaviors and disorders in earlier stages of development.  This can explain the staggering emergence of eating disorders at earlier ages and might also explain the high percentages of teenage pregnancies with the media’s promiscuous view of women, including teenage girls.

While Kilbourne gave emphasis of affects that this generalization has on females, we can’t put aside the depiction of sleek, muscular men that are the drive for men to hit the gym, drink wei protein shakes, and even drives some to the use of dangerous supplements and steroids.

Kilbourne conveys solid points in her argument against the depiction of gender and gender roles in media advertising.  With this generalization, Kilbourne states that we are prematurely ending childhood and I don’t believe she could be any more right.  With society becoming so used to the idea of “sex sells,” we will slowly diminish to a society without a bother or care.