Week 11: Media Advocacy

The video we watched in class this week by Jean Kilbourne (Killing Us Softly) was very intriguing, and I'm looking forward to watching the parts that we did not get a chance to see in class. I think her message regarding the excessive objectification of women in media and advertising is an important one that more people need to hear. Watching this video reminded me of another film that I watched in a women's studies class earlier this semester about the effects of how gender is constructed and portrayed in our society. This film featured a women who I believe is on record as having the most plastic surgeries. She had this idea of what constituted the 'perfect' woman and just went down her list getting those things surgically done. Although she claims not to have been influenced by popular media, it sounds like Kilbourne would not agree with that. As mentioned in the Kilbourne video, even if we think we are not paying attention to the ads and portrayls of women in the media, they are all around us and constantly affecting our thinking.
Ideally I would love it if we could turn this around, and get rid of all the negative portrayals of women and the idea of non-existent 'perfect' woman. Unfortunately that is a bit of a daunting task. More realistic ways of taking action would be to share this video with others, speak up when seeing demeaning ads, and think carefully about all this when using sex, looks and money in message promotion. Having said that though, that last bit gets tricky since we know that sex, looks and money sell. So I guess it falls back on the individual to find a balance between motivation people for the 'wrong' reason and effectively promotion a message. Lots to consider!