So there are several "Killing Me Softly" films, but the one that I saw and thought was really great was the 4th one. I know you can rent it at the GSU library if you're a student here. It's on reserves. I don't know how else to get ahold of it, but I highly recommend it. The film contains all kinds of pictures that prove the points that the speaker makes, and lots of them are actually very funny. But it's all pretty awful if you think about it. The speaker makes her points well. I will try to incorporate some of the pictures at the bottom of this note, but it's just not the same as actually watching the film, so check it out! Anyway, I took some notes on it while I watched it, so here are some bullet points if you want to get a closer look at advertising these days, and what it's doing to us:
Self Image and Human Rights:
1. Only one body type is portrayed as being beautiful. The super skinny models, who are incredibly under weight, give women the idea that they are not beautiful if they are not dangerously under weight, which is bad for their health. There are all kinds of models that have died from being too underweight. This is serious.
2. Airbrushing and computers alter what people look like, giving women unreachable expectations for themselves. This also gives men unrealistic expectations of what they should have in a woman. Cindy Crawford once said "I wish I looked like Cindy Crawford." Check out this video to reiterate what I'm talking about: http://www.upworthy.com/4-ladies-get-the-cover-model-makeover-of-their-dreams-and-then-hate-the-results-11113?g=2&c=ufb1.
3. Women's bodies are turned into objects, and portions of their bodies are cut out of the advertisement, which is dehumanizing. Most of the time, it's their face that is cut out of the advertisement, so the message is that their bodies are all that matter.
Light skin is portrayed as ideal.
5. Black models are turned into animals and portrayed as being wild.
6. They teach people to be unhappy with who they are and what they look like by pointing out their flaws and offering treatments, surgeries, and more to change who they are. Lots of women are told their boobs are never big enough, so they should get breast implants. But lots of women who do this lose feeling in their breasts, so they're an object of someone else's pleasure, instead of their own. They teach women that, if their husbands aren't happy with what they look like, then they should change themselves, rather than changing their husbands - or getting rid of the dirtbags.
7. They mock celebrities who gain weight, and they mock normal people who are ugly/overweight.
8. The portrayal of gay men are almost never advertised. Advertising is primarily heterosexual.
9. They make women ashamed of eating, as if eating food is a fopaux.
Sexualization:
1. Food is equated with sex.
2. The sexualization of children (little girls mostly) is advertised more often, making child porn seem like not such a bad thing.
3. You often see lesbians as being portrayed as sexy and pornographic and nothing more.
4. Sexualization in advertising causes depression, eating disorders, and low self-esteem.
5. Violence is eroticized, linking sex with violence. 1/3 of all women who are murdered in America are killed by their male partners. Battery is the single greatest cause of injury for American women.
Bad Habit Promotion:
1. It promotes consumerism, rather than being smart with money or only buying the necessities. Advertising is capitalistic.
Sexism:
1. Men are portrayed as being strong, and women are portrayed as weak, which causes sexism and violence agaisnt women.
2. Advertisments discourage men to be sensitive, which puts people into gender roles. Feminine qualities are discouraged in men, making feminine qualities seem lesser, which devalues women in their minds.
What We Need:
1. Awareness, education, and discussion
2. Activism
3. Media literacy
What We're Doing:
1. Some agencies are now labeling digitally altered models.
2. Some agencies are now not using models under a certain BMI.
3. Some schools are teaching media literacy.
4. Some agencies and schools are encouraging healthy body weights.
So what do you guys think? After reading this, looking at the photos below, and watching the film (most importantly,) do you think advertisements have any impact on what we think and we turn out to be? Do you think advertising sends us subliminal messages and makes us do and think the way the advertiser wants? Afterall, isn't that the purpose of advertisements?
So what do you guys think? After reading this, looking at the photos below, and watching the film (most importantly,) do you think advertisements have any impact on what we think and we turn out to be? Do you think advertising sends us subliminal messages and makes us do and think the way the advertiser wants? Afterall, isn't that the purpose of advertisements?
Dehumanizing advertisement.
Advertisement that eroticizes food.
This is a model who died of anorexia.
Sexism right here, guys.
The black model is, of course, portrayed as being animalistic.
The picture on the left is the digitally altered photo. I don't know what they were going for there, but this just goes to show how far airbrushing goes in advertisements sometimes.
I feel gross even putting this up here, but do you see what I mean by sexualization of children in advertising?
Another dehumanizing advertisement, since all is cut from the picture, except her naughty bits.
