Jean Kilbourne's movie , Killing Us Softly 3, showed how much advertising has harsh perceptions of what women and men should be in current day. Advertising tells us that the most important thing about women is how they look; that they have to be flawlessness, or as Kilbourne said "impossibly perfect". The media portrays women's bodies as objects. Men are seen as active and working, as well as violent. This narrows the ideas for masculinity and femininity into these harsh unreal idols.
In the system of consumer capitalism, advertising shows women of color as animals, or the whites as bigger and higher, putting power and racism into these ads. The rich, white men are in power, and women are less. Hostility is shown as something that is appealing. It's horrible to think that so much of America is exposed to these images every day, as it is truly affecting society. One in five girls in the USA has an eating disorder. These facts are very upsetting, but I do think that there is some hope for the future. I do not watch TV often, or read magazines, but Kilbourne did show the TV ad promoting a healthy body image. I went to YouTube to look up positive advertisements, and all that I could find were ones from other countries than the United States. I hope that there are some out there, but it seems that they are not common.
I did a project in high school on this topic and the most horrific thing to me was when I googled "the average woman." Do it and you will see what I mean.
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