Advertising doesn’t just sell us products. It tells us who we are. It tells us what’s desirable. What’s NORMAL. So says Jean Kilbourne who is internationally recognised for her pioneering work on the image of women in advertising. Her award-winning Killing us Softly films look at the image of women in advertising .
I have been known to bang on a bit about body image, photoshopping and retouching. And I never intend to stop. Watch this clip from Killing us Softly 4 and then watch it again. Now send it to everyone that you know and insist that they watch it too.
[Thank you Nik Howe for sending me this]
*UPDATE: For those men who genuinely don’t understand why women like me and Jean Kilbourne bang on about this stuff and wonder why we can’t just ACCEPT that magazine images are re-touched and get over it, read this. It may help you to understand where we’re coming from.
Comments
393 Comments so far
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I think clips and articles like this are good for people who don’t understand the whole photoshop thing or who are affected by the way the media presents ‘beauty’. I wish that they would include men that have the same issues though.
I’d also like to make the point that I grew up in this photoshop culture reading teens/ women’s magazines with braces and acne and have somehow grown into a confident and happy adult and I don’t think it had anything to do with knowing things were photoshopped or media. Sure I get down about my looks but I can easily snap out of it because I know that I am responsible for my happiness and I choose to put my worth and value into my intelligence and the way I treat others. I dunno where I learnt it but there needs to be more of that in the world.
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Honestly these endless articles about photoshopping in magazines is SO boring. So, we get it Mia, you don’t like photoshopping in the media. WE. GET. IT
Can you stop whingeing about it every week or so, honestly it’s getting so tedious.
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Yawn. Massive, massive yawn. So over the ‘magazines and models are ruining women’ argument. Ignore it.
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I love my curves!
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The link at the bottom doesn’t work – please fix so I can read, thanks
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Sorry – having lots of link issues lately!. Fixed now
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Thanks
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Most of the comments have completely missed the point of this article- most of the comments forget that as much as we know that sex sells – it is the fact that this is NOT HOW REAL WOMEN look (especially those that have had children)!!!!! When most women are photo shopped to the extreme it just makes me so frustrated that the minority of genetically blessed amongst us (ie professional models) still need to be altered to be pleasing to the eye. How unattainable is that for our gorgeous daughters??
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Whoops, Mia, that link isn’t working!
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I’m going to discredit a few comments here, I’m a men, I do look good in society’s standards, and I do care passionately about this subject. I would not call it sexist tho, since I believe the advertisement industry has everyone has their targets. Just more so oriented towards woman, for a simple reason, an image is not as sellable to men, we can’t care as much about the looks of the model, tho where they get us is in the pride and it’s dumbing men down. Men aren’t as proud of their own look but of owning (yeah its twisted) the prize so basically the same type of bullshit selling an image to woman is used against men to sell a bit of a different idea, the idea that you have to get those ”hot chicks” and ”hot chicks” is all they have to be, nothing more. Look at campaigns like beer campaigns or for products like axe, they have effectively turned a lot of men into seeking unatainable, irrealistic, forged ideas of what is a person. All this ends up getting everyone in on it, pressuring for those ideals, turning it against each other. How many times have I seen guys completely shove off, insult the looks of someone because they aren’t in the ”model of perfection”, to the point of being ashamed of showing or telling of their partners if they don’t fit in that. They will say you can or can’t do better based entirely on a judgement of image, I hear things like chuby chaser, and worst, giving no value or attention to a fellow human being simply for her looks. For my part my partner is not at all in that model, but you have no idea how a wonderfull a woman she is, and please forgive me, but I did have an uneasyness, I used to be worried what others would think and say of her, of us because of this, I still worry sometimes of the judgements, because ultimately those hurt, but I am not turning this into shame and rejection as I so often see coming from other men. So yeah, the dammage this kind of advertising is tremendous, we should stop seeing this simply as a sexist thing and a feminist issue, because it’s implications are much greater than that. To anyone who thinks this is harmless, I have to say, I kind of pity you, you are stuck in the culture of image, and this may blind you to real human value and put you in a race you cannot win.
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Obviously the people who are complaining about this video do not see how it is effecting them also. They think “omg women should stop blaming the media for being ugly..” and “advertising doesn’t effect anybody like this..” However, the next time you’re in American Eagle or Hollister, take a look around, ask yourself why you are there instead of at Ross or GoodWill where you can buy the same things.
Some people don’t have self-esteem issues or eating disorders, and that’s great! That means that you feel comfortable in your skin. However, not all women feel this way. I for one being one who suffers from low self-esteem issues. Even though I don’t let people tell me how to look or what to wear, the unattainable beauty is what gets me. Women strive to look perfect and people say “oh well it’s something to always work towards..”
That is where you are 100% WRONG. People can only handle so much of being told what to do, what to look like, and how to act, we can only take so much before we breakdown or snap. That is where the high rates of teenage suicide come in.
She said in the video that men are taught at a young age to be macho and not talk about their feelings. So are women. Not one single women will come out and tell you that she has low self-esteem or a Eating Disorder. Have a some kind of heart, the women in your life could be suffering! Your sister, niece, cousin, daughter and even your mother. Maybe the next time you thing about saying “this is stupid” take a look around and open your eyes
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You don’t see fat or balding men in these ads either.
Notice the two dudes with washboard stomachs. I didn’t have a stomach like that when I was in the freakin’ Marines. My point is, maybe women are more marketable as a product but it would be sexist to suggest that it doesn’t happen with men too. I’m 44, height/weight proportional. Can you imagine me showing up at a modelling agency to audition to be in a jeans ad with these women?
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The dream-woman of so many–both men AND women–looks like a hairless man with breasts. That’s why the hips and legs have to be whittled down into sticks, if it takes starvation or photo-shopping to make them that way.
I understand the desire of women to look like men: men are the ones who have value, freedom, and power. But the men who like women who look like men with breasts really need to work on figuring out why this is so.
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Give me a break. Happens to men to.
Only unnatractive women care so passionately about this anyway.. Sorry to say that so harshly.
If you’re so stupid that you believe in false idols, which is what actors have become (athletes, politicians included) then you need to rethink your life. Get smarter. Get your mind back because you’ve been duped.
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a person can be line perfect and still be an arsehole… or visa versa
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I prefer a woman who is shaped like a woman. The thin and frail model look that society loves is not attractive. Me knowing I can play rough without breaking you is attractive. You thinking you look beautiful when you feel comfortable is attractive. Stilettos and short, tight dresses that inhibit your movement are turn offs, because I want a woman who has a good chance of surviving a zombie apocalypse (just in case). Makeup is also a bit of a turn off, because I want to like you for who you are, and I want to know that you feel comfortable in your own skin. Having concern for others is important, but loving yourself is paramount.
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Is this woman just bitter that she never got asked out to the prom? sounds like it.
btw I photoshop my own photos when required for jobs and i am a average guy.
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Ugh.
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I love you Mia!!! Best response ever.
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Need the same response for LotsofMingers above.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXf8fr0Kp3Q
Watch this!
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Even feminist magazines, like Bust, use photoshop. They don’t use it excessively, unlike every other magazine, but they understand it’s okay to make a model or an actress look as if they’re at their best.
I am a 20 year old girl, far from hot or beautiful by any means. But I never feel insecure or whatever when I look at magazine covers because I KNOW they use Photoshop. I KNOW that the people on the cover don’t have such beautiful, flawless skin. I know that part of their job is to be skinny or whatever ,and if they’re not, then the magazine will Photoshop them till they are. I know this, just as I know that they’re wearing make-up to make them look prettier. I’m not fooled and I don’t suffer from “bad body image” because of it.
What does make me feel insecure are the REAL beautiful women I see every day, who really do come to close to this “unattainable” beauty standard you speak of. But do I get angry at them and tell them to stop being so pretty? No I get over it. It’s just looks.
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That was Kilbourne’s point. Women need to be educated about what they are seeing. You already are. Others aren’t.
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ari this is dad look at this video…
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“And girls are getting the message these days so young, that they need to be hot, sexy…”
um…. the girls i know haven’t gotten this message yet… I’ll be sure to do my part and deliver this message as soon as possible…
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um…. your username is chronic masturbator. you have fun delivering that message and doing what you obviously spend your time doing.
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So “the truth” to you would be a poreless photoshopped pseudowoman with no room in her torso for her inner organs?
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People saying “Who cares” or calling this BS seem not to be aware of the fact that eating disorders and other body-image disorders amongst girls and women have SKYROCKETED in the decades since ultra-thin became the beauty ideal. So yes, this matters, and there are very concrete and measurable effects on our society.
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ridiculous feminism…
i love beauty, i love how models look in magazines but i’ve never ever thought about making any terrorism on women who do not look lie this
do you believe that all men in ancient greece looked like those statues?
or they were just like “manually enhanced”?
and did anyone suffer because they were not looking like this?
probably yes, but just because they were “weak-minded”, exactly like all women and men who strive to look like “cartoons”
why do you think they are called “models”?
if we all could be models then there wouldn’t be any “model”
the most of men love women with all their imperfections, but women themselves feel guilty and start complaining that we all want them to look like they actually are not and would never be
do you think that people in portraits, until photography started, exactly looked like they were?
we lived in a period of hyper-realism since we left portraits era until we entered the photo-manipulation era
i work with graphic, i love retouching people’s pictures to make them look different or “better” than they are
it is not to show how they should look, or how they would like to be seen, it is a digital portrait and there’s nothing bad in enhancing it
who feels the need to look like he is not, should go to psychologist and stop blaming everyone who loves ideal beauty
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- “do you believe that all men in ancient greece looked like those statues?”
Much closer, generally — and remember most of them were busts. Those do not show the body.
- ‘or they were just like “manually enhanced”?’
An artisan made on contract from that client. So yes, of course they existed solely to make the client look good. Even then though, they still showed flaws like scars, wrinkles, baldness, etc
- “and did anyone suffer because they were not looking like this?”
I’m done. I give up. How can you say this and not be somehow on some sort of drug? The entire reason for those statues to exist was as a testament to a Rich Guy’s image after he’s dead. Okay, one more gem…
- “who feels the need to look like he is not, should go to psychologist and stop blaming everyone who loves ideal beauty”
Not everyone has given up on not looking like a mutant like you clearly have. Everyone wants to look better, the ENTIRE POINT of this article is to show how unattainable that is in our culture, especially for women. Also if these are all ideal for you, I bet you haven’t gotten laid in years.
Did she use too many big words for you, is that why you can’t understand? Maybe you should be listening to Adam Carolla instead?
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Actually Erik most of what you say about Greek Sculpture is false. First of all the Statues of Ancient Greece were mostly of long dead historical figures, while statuary commissioned by still living figures existed it wasn’t wildly popular. Also Greek statues didn’t actually look like Greek figures. First of all the proportions of greek statues were off. The Spear-barer is a perfect example, it was made specifically as a guide to proportion and yet its proportions could not possibly be found on a person. Most Greek statues were full body. Not that it makes Wonderer’s point any less silly and false but historical inaccuracy gets under my skin.
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you are talking about art. kilbourne is talking about the line between art and reality becoming so blurred that young women (and men) cannot recognize the difference. that is where the danger lies.
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Well, congratulations on completely missing the point.
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All I know is I went from being too thin and flat chested in 1964 (the era of Marylin Monroe to too fat and busty in 1968 (the era of Twiggy) without gaining an ounce. We all have always been victims of the Media.
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Hoah, oh u stopped already, great. Now get back to the kitchen woman!!
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You women seriously need to stop whining and get over yourselves. “Oh, woe is me, the woman in the ad is thinner than I am. Now I hate myself!” What all of you don’t seem to realize is all of this is the result of your precious feminazi movement. Let’s see, before the 1970s or so (the glory days of feminism), how many ads were there depicting young girls looking like cheap hookers? How many times a day were you “subjected” (as though someone is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to watch) to Victoria’s Secret commercials? How many Britney Spears’ or Lindsay Lohan’s were out there stoned out of their minds for all the world to see?
The cold hard fact is, ladies, that you reap what you sow. These are all independent, liberated women, exactly what you wanted. You rejected the image of Lucille Ball or June Cleaver, the “50′s housewife” (aka a truly strong, beautiful woman) and replaced them with trash like Paris Hilton or whatever else. You rejected Dinah Shore singing “See the U.S.A. In Your Chevrolet” and replaced her with the “Buy XXX.com” commercials.
Don’t like what I said? Too bad, because it’s the truth.
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Just like actual evolution, cultural evolution doesn’t hit a wall, it goes on. Improving or making things worse. We are obviously better off now than in the 50′s but we are still not good. Not good as far as womens rights are concerned and not good as far as all around human rights are concerned.
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“Don’t like what I said? Too bad, because it’s the truth.”
LOL. I won’t try to offer rebuttal since you’re so committed to your warped idea of “truth,” but take this advice: If you manage to graduate from high school and college, don’t go to law school. Or into science. Or any field where sound arguments are required. You sound whinier than my toddlers.
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I really think both the men and women need to stop complaining about this issue. Being imperfect doesn’t make you a failure, but this “perfect” ideal in advertising gives us something to work towards, to continually improve. And if you make it 90% of the way there, you’ve done pretty darn good and are most certainly not a failure.
I also think this idea of society only accepting women who are extremely thin is largely a myth. Sure you can find high fashion models who are extremely thin, but these women only represent a minority of these supposed images of female perfection. Far more common are the Angelina Jolies, Jennifer Lopezes, Beyonces, Victoria’s Secret models, Maxim girls, etc. who are of a healthy weight. And these are the women to whom most men are most attracted; not the super-thin high fashion models.
I think we should all come to the basic realization that what looks good is what is healthy, not too thin and not too fat, and focus on improving ourselves rather than making excuses for our shortcomings.
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I’m shocked to know that there are people who categorize Angelina Jolies and not being “extremely thin” and being “of a healthy weight”. The Victoria’s Secret models are all very thin in comparison to the average, only they have a bust, which means they pose an even more unattainable image – thin, tall with a big bust. And even they have to go through diet before runway shows ! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/07/victorias-secret-angel-diet_n_1079315.html
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Why, exactly, are we instructed to send it to every woman we know? Are men not part of this world too, and part of the problem? And do they not have some responsibility to be part of the solution? I would like to send this to every graphic designer, every person in advertising and modeling, except I’m pretty sure that it wouldn’t shock or faze them.
If this is a call to arms (to big sexy REAL non-photo-shopped arms) who better to lead that than women, of course. But let’s not divide ourselves. Men don’t get to relax and sit this one out.
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Beauty is, most especially, only in the eye of the beholder. I have loved women with generous curves, I’ve wanted nothing to do with women more akin to those ideals shown above. I’ve seen the greatest people I’ve known depressed and lonely because they don’t fit an ideal, and I’ve seen completely undeserving people being handed everything because of how they look.
This is, sadly, life. Advertising is a simple symptom and it will change only when we decide to let it. When we decide as a people to want something better for ourselves than to be labeled and to allow those labels define up. This is true of both genders, all religions, any sexual orientation, and any race.
However when you rage against the system, you give it attention. And attention feeds it. It strengthens it, and causes it to be more pervasive and more powerful in terms of how it can affect you and others. When you simply ignore it, when you teach others to move along and allow it to wither and die from attrition, you score a blow. You make a stand not with thunder and lightning, but with quiet determination.
And it has been noted with good intent I’m sure that everyone (especially Americans) need to watch our weight to some degree, we do not have to be perfect. Perfect is up to each person. And once you decide that your perfect is to just be the best you can be without submitting to what someone else tells you it is, you have reached where you should be. Because it is truly what is in your heart that finds you happiness, not the size you wear, or the grace of your curves.
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Well, I think the woman on the left is far more beautiful than the (same) woman on the right…
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BUT WHAT ABOUT THE POOR, OPPRESSED MENSSSS? B’AWWWWW!!!
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this goes both ways. Im sorry but how many guys do you know personally that have a ripped rock hard 8 pack and that chiseled in stone chin. Maybe men have less eating disorders but I can guarantee that, for the most part (80 percent or so),the men with these GQ bodies are either juicing or spend an unhealthy amount of time in the gym trying to achieve this almost unattainable look. Face it most abs in print are airbrushed but yet alot of men think this is what it takes to be desirable to attractive women. Oh, and by the way ladies, your brain is the sexiest part of your body. I dont car how much junk is in your trunk or how round and perky those breast are , if you cant stimulate my mind then I will soon loose interest. P.S. boob jobs just dont look right when you are past the age of 45 or so. Think about the future before getting extreme work done
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Yes, this is true to men as well – men in ads don’t look like the men on the street. But, men are not repeatedly told that what matters most is the way they . Women do. All the time.
Please take my word for it – as men seem to be oblivious to this fact, which is a part of the life of every girl.
And if you don’t believe me, think of this: How many times have you heard, on TV, in movies, in conversations with people you know, the sentence: He has everything – a great job, a beautiful wife, healthy children. Just this sentence alone shows you what the height of achievement for a women is – to be beautiful. And for a men – to marry a beautiful women.
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watch the documentary “tough guise.”
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She is entirely right; but there is an equivalent in nearly every way for men. I don’t like how the objectification of men is entirely suppressed by the perpetuation of a false male bravado, and this facilitates a distorted perception that it is somehow an evil patriarchal scheme that is objectifying only women and that men who suffer from eating disorders or take ‘roids, or are depressed or anxious are somehow anomalies, because the systemic problem is simply hidden from the public eye.
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Don’t like the advertisement, do not buy the product. Stop buying the magazines. Complaining does nothing. Do something. I for one love curves on a woman and do not care for the skinny ones. My wife is beautiful the way she is and I love her and tell her that every day. And, parents have to be parents when it comes to kids.
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Because objectification is only for women.
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But a bunch of the links in the post are broken.
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Also not often mentioned but would add that it goes both ways, women who are naturally thin are accused of vanity and starving themselves even if they are happy with how they look (keira knightly has made comments on this). I have had a lifetime of people accusing me of eating disorders or saying I am ‘too’ skinny. You have to be somewhere in the middle apparently but never encouraged to be happy how you are.
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Yes, many models are far too thin and ads don’t reflect reality. But do you really want to be telling people not to worry about their weight? The fact is that 2/3 of Americans are overweight or obese. Striving too hard to look like the ads isn’t the main problem here. Fatness, heart disease, and diabetes are. It’s not an image issue, it’s a health issue.
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I don’t think that’s really a very informed argument: I don’t believe that showing someone a picture of an unhealthily thin girl and saying ‘you should try to look like this’ is going to make her lose weight. In fact, I expect that one of the factors to blame for obesity in the West is that people’s expectations are so high. A perfectly healthy girl can look at one of those magazine ads and tell herself “I’m fat”. A girl who has been dieting for a year to get to the healthy, slim weight she is can look at one of those ads and say “It’s not working”. And she’ll give up.
Yes, fatness, heart disease and diabetes are big issues. But I think it’s a stretch to say that showing images like the ones we’ve just seen and giving the message that that’s normal, is a helpful way to combat them. We need pictures of healthy people to show people how to be healthy.
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I agree with you that there are many overweight and unhealthy people out there. However, I think you are missing the point that she was trying to make. She is talking about the other side of problems. People just go to the extremes and that is wrong. It should be our concern to take care of our bodies, and both eating too much as well as forcing your body to be skinnier than it really should be are bad.
Also, answering your question about worrying about their weight: again, yes, people should care about their weight/health, but they have to also remember not to get fooled by the media out there that is telling us what “perfection” should look like. I personally have trouble with that because although I weight exactly what a healthy person weights with my age and height because of my anatomy I feel like I have too much “fat” in my hips as well as my legs, when in reality taking that “fat” away would probably be almost impossible to do and if I were to do it I would not only look disproportional, but It would also mean that I’m underweight.
What do you think?
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lol FAIL, the article attached doesn’t even work. Nice job.
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This is such BS! I’m so sick of all of this type of garbage. Give people just an shred of credit that we are intelligent enough to understand the role of advertising in today’s society. I think most people realize that photos are retouched and airbrushed etc and that no one is perfect and no one is 100% happy with themselves. I get the feeling that people like Jean Kilbourne would like everyone to look and feel like crap so we can all be well adjusted individuals. If your teenage daughter or son is having body issues or has low self esteem, maybe you need to step up your involvement in their life and explain how the real world works. As for children under 10 and the likelihood that they are adversely affected by these types of ads…I don’t think there are too many 8 year olds reading Cosmo. Get a grip people and stop looking for others to blame. Reality sucks…ignoring it is worse. BTW, is it just me, or does Ms. Kilbourne look like she’s had some work done on her face?
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I don’t think you need to read Cosmo to see the perfect ideal of a woman being advertised right in front of your very eyes. Just watch TV, take a walk through your local mall, or a drive through a congested traffic route and you are bound to see ads with sexuality and perfection. Kids see these too. How can they escape them if we can’t? So are you supposed to “step up” and say “Sorry kid you are ugly and always will be ugly, that is the way the real world works.”? That is ludicrous, think before posting, instead of acting out of your emotion. When somebody looks at an advertisement the first thing that hits them is the image and message it is communicating not the thought that the advertisement was photoshopped. I am a man and I will state that it affects men also. We yearn to find women with such perfection and look everywhere, but can’t find them and resort to pornography. Which ruins the man and throws him into a depressive cycle seeking a phantom connection instead of a real one. So there it is folks, not only women are affected by this, but men also! That is the real world! No fairy tale here.
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I think we should take a step back and not think about how this affects the adults in our society. Although the ads, movies, commercials, posters, do affects us, we do have the power to not be influenced by these images by realizing that they are just images, and both men and women alike need to realize that.Its our children that are the ones who are being negatively influenced, they are the ones at their young age forming and identity and these influences can be very harmful to their developing minds.
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Great clip- thanks for having it on here-great thought provoking item with Jean Kilbourne- yet to the right of the window, more pictures of skinny women in Brits Fashion Week, “32 must see pics” and “this week in style” yawn…..!
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I don’t really see this as a gender issue. Advertising influence on body image is just one manifestation of advertising perpetuating an image of what’s desirable in our society in order to sell a product. Car advertising encourages people to make money and show off with a car, for example. Advertisements for childrens’ products give an image of what a perfect family should look like. In all media, the ratio of white actors to non-white actors doesn’t match the ratio of white to non-white people living in the United States, perpetuating a white-dominant model of society.
If you are reading this and you are right, refrain from getting defensive right away. I’m white, too, and I’ve realized that I have a right and an obligation to detest white privilege, as any such privilege ends up being detrimental to those in the non-dominant class, and such divisions make our country weak and our lives unhappier. In response to this view, I’m also obligated to assess my life for any institutionalized prejudices I hold that I’m not aware of.
I respond to advertising in the same way- these advertisements only have power over our individual self-worth as long as we buy in to this model of the world. The world doesn’t change just because you did, but at least you can become aware of your principles and live by them…
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Wow. What a guy. I may not be as impressed with you as you are, but I am still very very impressed.
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This is a great book about girls which I think all parents should read
http://www.penguin.com.au/products/9780143010647/what-s-happening-our-girls-too-much-too-soon-how-our-kids-are-overstimulated-
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perhaps a lest sexist approach in your commentary would also help. you divide us by gender when you ask to send this to women, and address your update to men who do not understand.
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Agreed. I’m a woman and a feminist and this was the first thing I thought.
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I can’t get the link in the article to work. Is anyone else having the same problem?
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Yes. Does not work for me either.
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Mia,
The thing that jumped out to me about this post is actually how it strangely relates, or seemingly contradicts rather, what you said in a later post about journalism and the news of the world scandal….
Here, you point out that, “Advertising doesn’t just sell us products. It tells us who we are. It tells us what’s desirable. What’s NORMAL….”, which I know you attribute as the words of Jean Kilbourne, but you seem to be supporting the same sentiment.
In the journalism post you say, “My point is this: if there is no demand for a product, it doesn’t exist. If public attitudes and mores don’t embrace a certain type of content, it won’t be produced.”
Maybe I’m wrong, ‘contradicts’ doesn’t seem the best word, but I do find it jarring that you can appreciate the power of the advertising industry to effect our desires – it dictates so powerfully us, as Jean says, “it tells as who we are”. Yet, you seemed unwilling to make the same point about tabloids and the media industry, in that instance, it was all about our (the audiences’) hungry demands…
Can you see that I find it confusing to hear you make such different points about what is in essence the same thing?! Or did I read these things wrong? (Maybe I did, and I just need clarification)….Anyway, I’m sure you are rather busy for responses to such individual queries, but I found both posts, and the thoughts they raised, rather interesting nethertheless….
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Images of women in the media reinforces deeply embedded assumptions about the way women ‘should’ be. This gender stereotyping of women tells us who we are before we are born. Gender stereotyping is unseen and pervasive. It is such a familiar part of everyday life that it usually means that there has to be a deliberate disruption of our expectations of how women are supposed to look to pay attention to how these stereotypes are produced.