The dangerous ways ads see women | Jean Kilbourne | TEDxLafayetteCollege

Summary

The speaker discusses the evolution of advertising's portrayal of women, highlighting the negative impact of unrealistic beauty standards enforced by ads. She critiques the use of Photoshop to create unattainable body images and the sexualization of women and children in media. Despite progress in awareness, the pressure on women to be young and thin persists. The speaker calls for a more conscious and educated public to challenge these harmful images and work towards a healthier media landscape.

Takeaways

• 😀 The speaker began analyzing women's images in ads in the late 1960s, identifying patterns that defined societal expectations of women.
• 🎥 In 1979, the speaker created the film 'Killing Us Softly: Advertising's Image of Women', which has been remade three times to reflect evolving advertising trends.
• 📢 Early ads often contained demeaning messages about women's appearance and worth, such as linking marriage prospects to weight loss.
• 👚 The speaker's personal experience in the media and modeling industry informed her critical perspective on the portrayal of women in advertising.
• 🧒 The influence of advertising starts early, with babies as young as 6 months recognizing corporate logos, indicating the pervasive nature of marketing.
• 🚫 Despite the widespread belief that individuals are immune to advertising's effects, the speaker argues that ads influence us quickly, cumulatively, and often subconsciously.
• 📉 The speaker observes that the image of women in advertising has regressed, with increased pressure on women to be young, thin, and beautiful, aided by tools like Photoshop.
• 🖼️ Photoshop's role in advertising has led to unrealistic beauty standards, transforming women into unattainable, artificial images.
• 👩‍👧‍👦 The speaker highlights the different ways men and women are portrayed in ads, with women's bodies often dismembered or sexualized, and men's bodies less frequently objectified.
• 👶 The sexualization of children in advertising is a concerning trend, with products like padded bras and thong panties marketed to young girls.
• 🌐 The speaker calls for a global, profound change in advertising, emphasizing the need for media literacy, political action, and a shift in societal values.

Q & A

What motivated the speaker to start analyzing advertisements and women's portrayal in them?

The speaker was inspired by their experiences in the media industry and the second wave of the women's movement in the 1960s. Working in London and Paris, they noticed how limited the opportunities were for women and how beauty standards shaped their lives. These factors, along with encouragement to model and enter beauty pageants, sparked the speaker's lifelong interest in beauty, advertising, and how women's images are constructed in culture.

What key realization did the speaker have when they started collecting advertisements?

The speaker noticed a pattern in the ads that reflected a cultural statement about what it meant to be a woman. Through this, they realized how advertisements were shaping societal expectations of women, especially regarding beauty, thinness, and perfection.

How does the speaker describe the impact of Photoshop on beauty standards?

The speaker explains that Photoshop has made beauty standards more unrealistic than ever before. It creates impossible images, such as making models look anatomically improbable. While men are often enhanced by Photoshop to look stronger or bigger, women are typically altered to appear impossibly young, thin, and flawless, further intensifying societal pressures.

What point does the speaker make with the example of Cindy Crawford's quote?

Cindy Crawford once said, 'I wish I looked like Cindy Crawford,' which illustrates how even supermodels are subjected to unrealistic beauty standards. The speaker uses this quote to highlight the unattainable nature of the images presented in advertising, even for the people who are used as models.

How are women of color portrayed in advertising according to the speaker?

The speaker emphasizes that women of color are often considered beautiful only if they resemble white beauty ideals, such as having light skin, straight hair, and Caucasian features. This reinforces the idea that the beauty standards set by advertising are exclusionary and harmful to women of color.

What does the speaker say about the objectification of women and its relationship to violence?

The speaker argues that objectification of women in advertisements contributes to a culture where women are seen as things rather than people. This objectification often leads to dangerous attitudes, normalizes sexual violence, and justifies mistreatment and violence against women.

How does the speaker describe the difference in how men and women are portrayed in advertising?

Men and women inhabit different worlds in advertising. While men are increasingly objectified, they are not subjected to the same personal and body-related scrutiny as women. Ads tend to focus more on power and strength for men, whereas women's bodies are often dismembered and criticized, with the pressure to conform to beauty standards being more intense.

How does the speaker explain the effects of sexualization on young girls?

The speaker explains that young girls are exposed to sexualized images from a young age, which negatively impacts their self-esteem and leads to problems such as eating disorders, depression, and low self-worth. These girls are taught that their value is tied to their appearance, which is often impossible to achieve.

What role does advertising play in shaping children's understanding of sex, according to the speaker?

The speaker argues that while the U.S. does not provide comprehensive sex education in schools, children are learning about sex through advertising, media, and popular culture. Unfortunately, this 'education' promotes a pornographic, trivialized view of sex that is harmful, especially for girls, who are often presented as objects.

What gives the speaker hope for change in how women are portrayed in advertising?

The speaker is hopeful because of the growing activism around the portrayal of women in advertising. Films, books, and organizations like the Brave Girls Alliance are raising awareness, and media literacy is being taught in schools. The speaker is also inspired by young activists like Julia Bloom, who successfully petitioned Seventeen magazine to limit the use of Photoshop.