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:

Masculinity Data Lab - Testing Mahler

As you enter, review your reading about masculinity and school shootings.

If you are unsure of the answers to the quiz,  here is an annotated version of the Mahler article.  Use it to help guide you, if you need it.


Part 1:  What does the Mahler research find about school shootings?  Can We replicate the qualitative research data?

Today we will attempt to replicate and update the qualitative research from Mahler and Kimmel.   Mahler and Kimmel did a qualitative analysis of existing data on school shooters.  They examined random school shootings in major print media outlets (Time, Newsweek, US News, USA Today, NY Times, LA Times).

Second, divide up the shooters to research so you do not examine the same data as the rest of the group.   Below are two lists of school shootings to get started.  Be sure to use only random school shootings after 2001.

• Wikipedia list of school shootings since 2000 
• MotherJones data set of all mass shootings (under the "location" column, see schools) 

Use major news outlets to gather data about some of the school shooters from 2001-present.
Make a note of the shooter's:

• gender, 
• race, 
• state (red or blue in 2001), 
• community: urban, suburban, rural
• other qualitative info about them such as music, video games, movies, parent status, mental illness, social status/teased, et al...

You may want to use the ILC Newspaper search to find info about the shooters, or Google their names.  Here are a few other websites to help you find info:
GunViolence.org
Everytown research
Mass Shooting Tracker
TheTrace compiles articles and data related to shootings at thetrace.org
NRA gun law tracker

Maps for comparing red/blue states:

Results of 2000 election.

The map above shows current laws for carrying firearms.

Does Mahler's Research still hold up?

Part 2:  After you have gathered data for a number of school shooters, as a small group answer this question.  Use data from your group to support your claim.

Then, discuss as a class:

• Does your small group data correlate with what the rest of the class found?
• What do you think of the findings?
• Is this data interesting/insightful?  Why/why not?
• Can you see the connection between masculinity and violence?
• Do you think that the average American would have trouble understanding the connection?  Why?
• What questions do you still have?

Does the research apply to other random shootings?

In your groups, search other random shootings and see if the research applies beyond schools.