Comments on: Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising’s Image of Women

By: Sound_Water

Sound_Water — Mon, 21 May 2012 01:01:00 +0000

beauty is an illusion

By: manfruss

manfruss — Fri, 11 May 2012 20:31:00 +0000

“The world of humanity is possessed of two wings: the male and the female. So long as these two wings are not equivalent in strength, the bird will not fly. Until womankind reaches the same degree as man, until she enjoys the same arena of activity, extraordinary attainment for humanity will not be realized; humanity cannot wing its way to heights of real attainment. When the two wings or parts become equivalent in strength, enjoying the same prerogatives, the flight of man will be exceedingly lofty and extraordinary.”

By: manfruss

manfruss — Fri, 11 May 2012 20:28:00 +0000

Man hating is something that becomes more and more common. Almost like a new trend, and the latest fashion. Piss on men, they f&^k up our world. My concern is that the affront women feel about ads, and how they are portrayed, is also an affront to men. I don’t believe in the the “victim, persecutor, rescuer” paradigm as these are merely paradigms of create conflict, and not solutions.

So, there is an ad that is unrealistic for women to attain, and creates this false sense of self for them. It has an equal effect on men, telling them this is what your ideal woman is. Not only does this same ad hurt the self image of women, it hurts the image men see of women. Equal damage, as there is so much more for men to seek in a relationship than just the physical good looks (whatever that means).

Men are sexualized in commercials just like women. All the commercials tell men that they have to have this perfectly “V” shaped back, and six packs, and abs and pecks that bulge and could knock the starship enterprise outta orbit. That a man has to have a high pay job, and have power and control over his life and his world. How much of this information about boys is damaging to their self image?? How unrealistic of a view does it give women of what their men should be like?? I know girls who don’t look at a guy twice unless he’s build like a body builder. If you don’t have a washboard six pack, kiss date night good buy. So don’t tell me for one second that women are the only people harmed in our over-the-top-consumer society. Our culture of “F*#k God and buy a car”, materialism, preoccupation with the world of the physical, is leading us down a path that will have all people feeling disconnected, unloved, and hurt. We live is a world that uses people and loves things, when we really need to love people and use things. One girl I know even said: ” I don’t need him to have a mind, just a body like that I can ride all night long.”

How often do you hear of the boy toy, the cougars out prowling the night looking for young meat. How can we say men are not sex objects? Let’s be real folks, humanity is being harmed. You can’t cause emotional and psychological damage to one sex without harming the other. Both are hurt equally. Period!

By: jiffstick

jiffstick — Wed, 09 May 2012 07:55:00 +0000

You do not have the right to demonize either sex based on marketing and the assumption of perceptions they may or may not hold. I am a 22 year old male and I have few if any of these prejudices against women. Instead I seem to share more of the insecurities. and with the romance of society and nationalism weighing on our backs we tend to forget that each others conscience is just a serious of emotional triggers rationalized to form bull**** defenses for our ego. How does one place their value? Is it not by action. Why concede your propriety to anger and fruitless rewards. Pleasure/pain incentives, that is what matters. Create your own passion cultivate your own pleasure, why trifle.

If it makes it better i will list all my physical insecurities so hopefully you Won’t feel so isolated, insecure and victimized.
Short, ive been rejected many times because of my height.
Small hands even for my short stature.
My ass is flat.
My body hair seems confused at exactly where it wants to congregate.
My skin is porous, and i get acne.
No matter how much i work out my biceps will not keep up with my other muscle groups.
Also stretch marks on my bicep, armpit, thighs chest and shoulders that look horrible.
Not vascular enough.
I currently weigh 170lbs and have love handles at my lightest i weighed 135 and my love handles where still the same size, with no ab definition.
I wish my d*ck was bigger, not that its small. It works **** you!
Did i mention thin wrists.
Anyways all this discombobulated meat on the bones will one day be dust so might as well just have as much fun as you can with it while you have it.

By: cr??py cupcake ?

cr??py cupcake ? — Tue, 08 May 2012 18:58:00 +0000

This is something I don’t agree with. Nature made us a certain way. Still, we are intelligent beings and should use this to our advantage instead of our disadvantage.

By: cr??py cupcake ?

cr??py cupcake ? — Tue, 08 May 2012 18:55:00 +0000

Advertising is a b!tch to everyone, not only women. Maybe it’s high time we took it all with a pinch of salt. It would have no power if we all just ignored it.

By: Finbar Waltorn

Finbar Waltorn — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 12:05:00 +0000

This chick is an id**t… over feminist with a chip on her shoulder.. yes women are objectified as physical items through media and advertisement and yes rediculous amounts of pressure is put on them to be “beautiful” and to look unaturally perfect.. but u cant say **** like.. the ideal of skinny women is to cut women down to size.. thats just chosing to take something the most unrealistically offensive and unlikely way.. theres an emphasis on skinnyness because fat is seen as unattractive, so therefore the furthest you can get away from being fat (very skinny) is what is viewed as most attractive… and when she refers to the mens calvin klein add for jeans as not being sexist because it doenst point out something wrong with a man eg his penis…. most sexist womens adds dont point out something wrong with the women, they give and example of an unaturally beautiful and unrealistic women and at the same time allude to the possibility of this being you if you buy the product ect, which is exactly what this add of the naked man with the jeans is doing. Jean Kilbourne does raise some important points but she is chosing to take things as sexist as she possibly can when it more then likely isnt even the intent in most of her examples (eg the hands over the mouth images or the ‘let your eyes do the talking’ ad) she is being as unrealistic as the images and depeiction of women she is discussion. She is overly feminist which makes her complete argument biased and unreliable

By: Stephanie C

Stephanie C — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 20:04:00 +0000

Women do not get raped because they are “dressed like hookers.” Women get raped because they find themselves in the presence of a rapist.

By: Ghost_Buster

Ghost_Buster — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 21:54:00 +0000

I wonder what happened with her when she saw 16 and pregnant. anyway i agree with her. ads lead to violence and sexual offense towards women and teenagers dressed like hookers, sometimes i feel like i live in some kind of sexual fantasy created by a congregation of sexually frustrated CEO’s who are trying to make their sick dreams come true.

By: Christina Girard

Christina Girard — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 14:13:00 +0000

April, your message is very inspirational and I will take it to heart. It is our own responsibility to uplift ourselves. But it can be very difficult for many women to learn to love themselves and overcome their insecurities in a male dominator culture that demeans them. Some really cannot do it all. The point is that it is the male dominator cultures that are creating these problems for women and men in the first place.

By: Christina Girard

Christina Girard — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Travis,
Nice to know you are one of the few men who do listen to your mother. If we all listened our mothers, there would be no war or brutality. No sane mother would want her children killed and her home destroyed.

Yes, greed is a cause because those with lower quality minds fail to understand that we have to share. They want to take the good stuff only for themselves and some of even lower minds will turn to violence to do it. It is very much a cultural phenomenon, best exemplified by male dominator cultures, which bring out the worst in everyone.

It’s not women who are committing genocide like Hitler etc. It’s not women who wiped out millions of American buffalo last century in machine gun shooting sprees. It’s not women who are the terrorists. I could go on and on…Should I write a book called “1001 Atrocities Committed by Men in History.” That could get kind of negative, you know.

Male dominator cultures (not all men) have degraded the quality of human life on this planet and are designed to wage psychological warfare on anyone or thing that threatens them ie women, minorities etc. It’s nothing more than a power grab. Instead of working together to create a win-win situation, its winner takes all. Both men and women are caused to lose faith in the feminine, which is the counterbalance force to the masculine. These cultures deliberately engineer mistrust and hate towards others who get in their way to keep themselves on top.

It is very difficult for a women in particular to actualize her higher capacities in this type of society, and if she is not careful, she will end up playing the destruction game like the men or being vengeful and catty. When we make women think less of themselves, this is what you get. It is self fulfilling.

By: Travis Sichel

Travis Sichel — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 04:06:00 +0000

Christina is full of it, most guys when growing up follow and listen to their mothers more then anything, So in a way they are leading. And most the worlds problems I believe come from greed, an attribute shared by both genders. Seriously hate it When i am blamed for being male.

I tell my girlfriend she is gorgeous without makeup etc, its her GIRL friends who tell her she looks gorgeous and better in this and that. Sorry about the rant.

By: Christina Girard

Christina Girard — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 03:16:00 +0000

The male sex has come to dominate this world through brutality and in so doing has severely degraded the quality of life on this planet for all species and the environment. It has a very low understanding of the quality of human existence, as evidenced by the fact that male dominated history is replete with war, rape, coersion and exploitation. It refuses to allow us to take faith in women’s experience, it aims to disempower women, to damage our mental health, reducing women to quarrelsome harpies, etc. The patriarchy is founded on the backs of women. Humanity can do much better than this and it is only through women’s guidance that it can happen, but this is difficult since we are trained to ignore womens voices.

We are terribly out of balance. Men govern over the material world and women govern over the world of relationships. Both need to be in balance for society to function.

By: learn_her

learn_her — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 20:42:00 +0000

This doc helped not want to die today.

By: Dante78

Dante78 — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 01:47:00 +0000

Hi all.
This is a sensitive topic for both genders, and surely after having read the comments, it is appearent that the issue ignites the strongest of feelings. As a man, I must admit that I am unfairly partialled to side with my own gender, I am however also a university scholar so different perspectives matter and tend to create a deeper understanding. In other words; I forced myself to see this doc, in order to try to understand the female side of the argument ( how very feminine of me). To my suprise I liked the doc, because even thoug it focuses primarily on the protrail of the ideal woman in the world of advertising ( which is of course dispicable), at the end it also addresses the crisis in masculinity.
I urge you to put aside any anger you might be feeling after having watched this doc and watch the documentary called ” The Tough Guise: Violence, Media & the Crisis in Masculinity”. It will offer a deeper insight into the opposite argument, after that, you can draw your own conslusions.
My personal conclusion is that both genders suffer, in different ways perhaps, but I think it would be wrong to blame one or the other gender. We need to stop blaming and start understanding (or at least try) in order to stop suffering.

enjoy

Dante “