How Ads Affect Society

Hello,

I wrote a paper in my English class last year relating to the objectification of women in society and how women are portrayed in the media. We had to choose two different ads (one relating to men and one with women) and analyze them. In both cases/advertisements, it was either a man or woman being stereotyped. And after watching this film, it depicted exactly that. I feel like Kilbourne gave many different examples of ads and commercials where moral beliefs of femininity are distorted and destructive. I grew up learning that everything in the media is not necessarily realistic but this film opened my eyes up to how outright and wrong the media is when it comes to the negative depiction of women and men. According to Chapter 2, “The perspective of the generalized other, includes social views of aspects of identity, including race, gender, sexual preference, and class. Society has its own way of making up rules and codes for everyone to follow. And after a certain period, it becomes the norm. Men and women are both portrayed differently in many cultures. And as seen in Killing us softly, the information we get from these ads can and usually is harmful to us.

I scored a 78 on insightfulness and According to the website:

“Your results indicate that you are fairly adept at interpreting other people’s words and actions and seeing things from their perspective - although the rare misunderstanding may occur. Overall however, you seem to realize that empathy is an essential part of good interpersonal skills and therefore, will do your best to place yourself in other people’s shoes in order to better understand them. For the most part, you can sense what others are thinking and will likely adjust your behavior accordingly if a person you’re conversing with seems confused or perhaps uncomfortable. There may be the occasional time when you pay more attention to the message you’re sending rather than how it’s received. With some time and experience, you’ll likely be able to improve your insight even more.

I think it’s a pretty good score and it means that I’m adept at making sense of other people’s words and actions and viewing things from their angle. I agree with everything else and perhaps, with time and experience, I will be able to improve my insight even more.

...