RR #2

                In Jean Kilbourne’s  “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt,” the author attempts to address the dehumanization of females that has become a staple in today’s advertising techniques. Written in 1999, Kilbourne argues that ads today affect us in a much more intense and emotionally damaging ways than we want to believe.  The author herself is a feminist author and speaker who is internationally recognized for her work on the image of women in advertising, as well as her critical studies of alcohol and tobacco advertising. Throughout the chapter, Kilbourne provides the reader with an enormous amount of advertisements taken from various publications as well as news stories, studies, and surveys, all from the past 20 years, all involving females as the main subject.
                Kilbourne effectively analyzes modern day advertising by comparing it to pornography, stating that it, like pornography,  “dehumanizes and objectifies people, especially women, [and] it fetishizes products, imbues them with an erotic charge - which dooms us to disappointment since products never can fulfill our sexual desires or meet our emotional needs” (417). She brings up the various poses and postures often used in advertising, which almost mirrors the same ones used in pornography. Kilbourne also warns that bringing pornographic attributes mainstream helps glorify rape and violence, while subtly encouraging male violence and suggesting one to “value sexual intimacy more than emotional intimacy” (419). The author also mentions role reversal multiple times, which asks the reader to switch each gender’s role in an advertisement and ask if the same emotional effects are given. An example of an ad for a pair of jeans with a little boy looking up a woman’s skirt has Kilbourne asking the reader to reverse the gender roles, resulting in her saying that  “we would fear for a little girl who was unzipping a man’s fly in an ad (and would be shocked, I would hope)” (437).
                Overall, Kilbourne does an convincing job persuading the reader to understand the true goals and motives of today’s advertisers. She effectively uses ethos, pathos, and logos to allow the reader to come to terms with her underlying message, which she hopes will allow the public to not be swayed by the filthiness and sliminess that runs throughout modern day advertisements. Noting her experience and expertise in feminist studies and general media literacy, Kilbourne is able to demonstrate her overall credibility to the reader. By using a tremendous amount of supporting evidence (ranging from magazine ads to TV commercials), she is also able to verify her logical appeal. Her use of surveys and studies on women who have been sexually abused touches the heart of the reader and effectively demonstrates her ability to use emotional appeal.  All these elements together ultimately convinced me to want to go out and make a change in terms of how advertising forces us to view women, and makes me almost disgusted with how women’s vulnerabilities are used against them in order for corporations to make more money. My mindset on advertising has been impacted greatly from this reading, and I would strongly recommend a fellow peer to read this.