July 22nd: Images of Women in the Media

Kilbourne's lecture is about 45 min, so let's sit back in these nice chairs and see what she has to say.

Kilbourne on Images of Women in the Media

Jean Kilbourne's lecture on images of women in the media has been revised and re-presented for nearly 40 years. If we were to locate her thesis, it would be, roughly, that advertisements condition our feelings--consciously and unconsciously--of what it means to be a woman or a man. Additionally, she points out that although men are sometimes objectified, it's women who suffer the most from advertising's objectification.

{Of course, just like what we discussed concerning technology from a social perspective, what influences what? Does the media influence our perceptions of femininity and masculinity, or does society influence the media's (re)presentations of femininity and masculinity.}

Some specific points about how advertisements "use" women:

• Women are often shown as submissive, silent, and docile.

• The images of women are often of manufactured or spliced-together body parts of women.

• Also, the supermodels or "typical" models are a small percentage of the population but appear as the norm because the type is repeated constantly.

• There appears to be a recurring pattern of infantilization of women and a sexualization of young girls in advertising.

• Kilbourne believes that many ads show violence against women (both explicitly and implicitly), which goes along with the preponderance of domestic violence and rape of women in society as a whole.

• In many ads, men are shown as powerful

• Most ads conform to (hetero)normative white standards of beauty or power. Women of color seem to be "silenced" and dehumanized more according to Kilbourne.

  • Let's consider an alternative view of beauty. This suggestion comes from one of your classmate's and does an interesting job of highlighting different conventions of beauty.

  • Sir Mix-a-Lot of mainstream ideas of beauty.

  • Uh Becky, look at her...

• Most importanly, (I guess I could be biased...) Kilbourne points out that we're no longer citizens but consumers. Who else claims that?
  • Steinem from Thursday and...

Although there may be some disagreement, Kilbourne is not the only one who makes the argument that images of women in the media influence how women and girls see themselves. Additionally, she provides empirical evidence for Wolf's idea of the beauty myth that women are supposed to conform to in patriarchal society.

I've been showing this lecture for several years, and I'm amazed at the responses I get. I'm especially amazed at the defensive tone many male students have about Kilbourne's argument. I've heard that she's just a scorned feminist who's "taking out her frustrations on men" to arguments that she is manipulating her evidence by choosing particularly suspect ads. However, the ads she shows are quite representative of images of women in the media. For examples, see the following "industry" websites:

• Style.com/The Online Home of Vogue

• Cosmopolitan Online

• Seventeen Magazine

  • Flirty Text Message Ideas!

• See a retouching example (Thanks to Jon A. from Summer 2008 ENGL 2116)

One thing I have noticed about the images of women and girls on the magazine sites above that's different from many of the images Kilbourne shows is that Kilbourne's selection had many images of vulnerable, passive women and girls. While those images haven't gone away entirely from my unscientific sampling of magazines (especially perfume/cologne ads), the above sites have an abundance of happy, active women and girls. Everything from new jeans to ice cream seems to make the models happy. I wonder what that says about advertising? These happy women and girls still conform to Kilbourne's argument that petite, white, airbrushed models are the standard for conventionally beauty images.

But her most airtight claim is about the ideal(ized) version of women digitally enhanced and manufactured: Take a look at this Dove commercial for a look at how to construct the "perfect" woman.

The Beauty Myth

How does the beauty myth fit into our discussions/reading on psychoanalysis? How does a woman achieve the socially constructed status that is beauty?

Some specific points about "the beauty myth":

• p. 10: Wolf argues that women's political and social gains--including reproductive freedoms--played a role in creating the beauty myth.
• p. 12: "The beauty myth tells a story: The quality called 'beauty' objectively and universally exists."
  "None of this is true. 'Beauty' is a currency system like the gold standard."
• p. 14: Women in competition.
• p.16: "The modern arsenal of the myth....is summoned out of political fear on the part of male-dominated institutions threatened by women's freedom, and it exploits female guilt and apprehension about [women's] liberation--latent fears that we might be going too far."
• Wolf's visit to UNCC and her talk about abortion and women covering themselves up.

Role of Women in Media

Maybe I read too much into things, but I see so many romantic comedies ending the same way--marriage and/or children. In fact, it's not even just romantic comedies: there are countless shows and films that follow the "boy meets girl" format. What do we think about this romantic pattern?

Right about now is when we start talking about double standards. The authors we've read recently (as well as Jean Kilbourne) point out that men don't have the same stigmas attached to them or the same expectations:

• Things to think about as you contemplate your post:
  • What are some roles and expectations that women have but men don't or, at least, don't have to the same extent?
  • Where do these roles or expectations show up? Be specific. Don't just say "the media"--that's a given in this class.
• Let's review a discussion on Language and Hegemony.
  • Have you ever thought about language and how it replicates hegemonic practices? What's the word for a promiscuous female?
  • How about a male?
  • Check out the definition for the word 'slut' (if you're on campus, check out the OED's expanded definition). What's the double standard in that word?
• Where else do ideal(ized) images get reproduced?

Here's an interesting look at Breastaurants and another one. There's even an NPR story on Breastaurants.--brings new meaning to economic "bust" (by the way, that's not my clever joke; it's in the article).

Critical Media Analysis

I'm almost done with your Critical Analysis of a Tecnology essays, but let's not lose sight of the next major assignment--Critical Media Analysis due Monday, July 29th. Check out the assignment details and ask questions if you're confused.

Let's do a rhetorical analysis of a media segment as a class. Watch this Fox News segment and consider the following questions:

• What metaphors does Beck use for his view of government "addiction"?

• Why do you think Beck compares the answers to the poll to France?

• Why would an American audience be pursuaded by this? Now, you might not, but that's irrelevant for this analysis. The speaker is attempting to convey a message--what is it, and how does he convey it?

• What cultural beliefs do you think Beck is tapping into when he mentions "the soul of America"?

Any questions?

Tomorrow--The Social Construction of Sexuality

Keep up with the reading. Tomorrow, I'll have prompts for you on Moodle, so do those and don't forget to respond to one of your classmate's posts from Thursday, 7/18.

Toreka will lead class discussion on Mulvey's article for Wednesday. We've got 2 and a half weeks left, so keep up the good work.

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