I recently attended the Program Board event "Maybe She's Born With it... But More Likely It's Photoshop." All of four people showed up, myself included. That was a disappointment, of course; why weren't more people concerned about the misconstrued societal image of women? The silver lining, though, was that we were able to have a more intimate discussion revolving around our own personal feelings toward the media's unnatural portrayal of women. And did we ever.
We watched the first 30 minutes of Jean Kilbourne's documentary, "Killing Us Softly," which mainly dealt with photoshopping techniques, sexist advertisements (old and new!), disgusting/depressing statistics about plastic surgery, and was just about to unfold into body image issues within both sexes, male and female. I loved the documentary most for Killbourne's unabashed, steel ovaries, for declaring the dehumanization of women through the media. That is what it all boils down to.
Once a human being is dehumanized, she/he becomes an inanimate object created for use... not for thinking thoughts, feeling feelings, playing sports, reading books, going to work, etc. No, the person is no longer seen as a person... therefore, she/he is subject to violence. What type of culture are we setting up for ourselves, for little girls... for the little boys who are subconsciously being told that it's okay to hurt girls, to not think of them as equals?
Here's the documentary on youtube, in two parts. I strongly recommend watching it!
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ujySz-_NFQ
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4-1xCf3I7U&feature=relmfu
Awweee man, I really wanted to go to this! Its definitely scary how much of a socializing agent the media is. Family and fellow peers are obviously the two primary means involved in the socialization of children, yet I think parents often forget how much of a huge impact the media plays in shaping the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors of young people.
ReplyDeleteAlso, different people have different levels of media exposure, which gets into class and ethnicity and religious issues. It's a very complicated problem that needs a flexible and diverse solution!
ReplyDeleteAlso, interestingly my favorite part of the documentary was actually in the second half, talking about food and women in advertizing. I hadn't realized how many ads for food fall back on an old standby to get attention.
Quote:
"In recent years, eating has become a moral issue for women. Women have been made to feel ashamed of eating, ashamed of having an appetite for food. And language that used to describe sexual activity, now describes eating.
Ad: Respect yourself in the morning. {Photo of an excruciatingly thin woman in a brown dress with two large croissants on her hips]
Jean Kilbourne: I want to beg her to eat those croissants!"
...
Ad: "Your lips look lonely, may I keep them company? The most seductive cookie ever" [white text on a photo of a small chocolate cookie on a pillow with a bite taken out of it.]
Jeane Kilbourne: What is going on here? This is a COOKIE!"