Killing Us Softly

HW:  Read Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's essay, We Should All Be Feminists.  Also if you want to print it, a cleaner copy is here.


How does the media socialize women into gender?

Killing Us Softly 4 is a video that highlights the dangerous influence that media has had on our culture - especially how women are socialized to think about themselves, but also men too. (Click here to watch it on mediacast).   The video highlights how destructive these images are.   Here is the discussion guide for the documentary.  Pages 5-7 provide a summary of key ideas in the movie.  Here is a link to Jean Kilbourne's website which includes resources for you to fight these messages. There are a lot of interesting resources there so please check it out.

The main topics are:

Advertising Environment - How does the socialization of females occur in media?

• Ads are everywhere and it has been happening for 40yrs.  In some ways it is getting worse.  The message is subconscious and cumulative.  It creates a toxic culture and promotes unhealthy values.

Objectification - What are the socialization messages the media creates for women?

• Beauty is physical.  We strive for a perfection that is unattainable. Photoshopping creates this. Women are objectified and dehumanized and that shapes how women see themselves as well as how men see them.

Cult of Thinness - What are the socialization messages the media creates for women?

• Media portrays desirable women only as thin, busty, young and white who are sexual but innocent, experienced but virginal.

Sexual Pathology - How do the socialization messages about gender affect the feelings about sexuality?

• Sex is only shown as something for the young and beautiful who we can't become so we are all left unfulfilled.  Products are pushed to fulfill or satisfy that void.

The Results of Advertising:  Consumerism and Violence - What are the manifest and latent messages from the media? 


Here is a preview clip:

This video called "Onslaught" from the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty highlights the unbelievable number of negative ads that young girls are shaped by: