Question I: "The More You Subtract, The More You Add"

Jean Kilbourne

“Killing  Me Softly”

 I thought that Jean Kilbourne was a great speaker in this video because she was humorous but got many important points across. In “Killing Me Softly” the media makes narrow conceptualizations of masculinity and femininity and tells the average Americans what they should look like, feel like, and do.  The Average American sees over 3,000 advertisements a day and spends over 3 years of their lives watching simply television commercials. This impact and the fact that these ads are so influential in our lives makes a clear  vision of who we are and who we should be. It tells us what’s most important is how we look.  I believe advertising can be a direct reason why so many influential teens have such low self esteem and try to be someone they are not. These models that are seen in ads are more often than not computerized and touched up or they only show one specific part of a woman or man.

These images also intersect with race and class, especially with consumer capitalism. The men and  women in many cases are turned into objects or things instead of human beings. Women of color are often shown as animals or in leopard prints and considered “not fully human.” If it is not bad enough that advertising is telling people how to look and what to buy, its also dehumanizing women and men of color and putting them in an animal category. Another example intersecting race is that women of color are supposed to shut up and be "barely there";have a message "just smile" or have the hands over many of the colored womans mouths. These ads are saying that people of color do not have a voice, or it doesnt matter what they say.

Consumer capitalism is another important message in this video. In order to be pretty and wear the coolest trends you have to have the money to buy them The clothes in ads and magazines and tv come at a high price and in order to be "cool" and look like the models you must have enough capital to buy these items. It also mentions that high class women and men are in shape and wear the most expensive clothes. For example a woman is wearing a very expensive watch in her upper arm. This means in order to wear a classy expensive watch, you should be skinny enough to wear it around the top of your arm.

A recent media image that portrays a more diverse representation of gender is Ellen Degeneres.  She is an outwardly gay woman who still upholds a great respect and sense of womanhood in the media. She is a well known celebrity but she wears Converse shoes, khakis and a button down. She is not in the media for sexual commercials or makeup like many other women celebrities; she is in an ad for American Express. Women like Ellen can help the self-of -steem of girls greatly increase if they see a real woman does not have to exploit her body to get coverage and be liked.