Killing Us Softly really made me focus on the advertisements that men, women, and even children are being bombarded with (yes, BOMBARDED) on a daily basis. Of course I have always been aware of the fact that 99.999% of the advertisements that are consumed by the general population are comprised of scantily clad, over-sexualized, unusually skinny women that are trying to hock whatever is popular at the time to the world.
It wasn’t until today, that I really took a good look at the advertisements that were shown in the video of these women and how they were portrayed to the world. I was truly bothered by almost every single one that I saw, including the one’s from the 60’s and 70’s (I believe). I asked myself, “why haven’t these advertisements bothered me before?” After thinking about it for awhile I think I might know the answer…or maybe something that is leading towards the answer. I think that not only I, but society and women in general have become desensitized to what they should embody and what is truly beautiful.
The video stated that every day a person sees at least 3,000 advertisements a day. SAY WHAT?!? I’m sorry, but when I heard that I doubted it immediately..but after thinking about it for awhile, I think that it is completely possible for a person to see that many advertisements in 24 hours with the amount of media consumption that a person takes part in and how fast paced everyone is these days. When we as consumers (especially women) are exposed to that much, it has to take an affect on us in one way or another. These advertisements show women what they are expected to look like even though it is completely unattainable, while on the other hand men are shown that women are no more than objects rather than actual living and breathing human beings that should be treated with respect.
When did women become such lowly things in society? When and why is this so acceptable? All you can hear about these days is women’s rights this and women’s rights that. Women want to be treated as equal to their male counter parts, yet women are seemingly ok with being portrayed as mere objects in mass media. It is a sad state of affairs..and something that needs to be righted.
I think that women (young or old) and girls should keep in mind that they define their own beauty and self-worth, not the media and what society defines as beautiful. Men should see women as much more than an object to consume as society portrays.
I know that these changes won’t happen overnight but a girl can dream right?
sifting through pop culture 
I definately agree.
I don’t remember where I heard it, it might have been from “Generation M” or a History Channel documentary, but men were the ones who went out to hunt while women stayed in the cave. Men had the body strength to hunt, as far as I remember hearing, but women did not. So it was quite a while ago that women became such lowly things in society.
If you are interested, read: “Why Feminism Gives Young Girls the WIllies” some of your questions are answered.
i agree that women in general must be desensitized or something, because i didnt notice it till it was pointed out ot me. now im like, why didnt i see this before?
“The video stated that every day a person sees at least 3,000 advertisements a day. ”
This surprised me as well. I certainly don’t feel like I take in 3000 ads a day – though, granted, I’m not a big TV person and Firefox’s Adblocker works wonders. I guess what they said about advertising creating a subconscious “environment” is true; the sheer amount of advertising out there means you begin filtering it out – most people couldn’t possibly process 3000 ads consciously, every day, without losing their mind – so it becomes much harder to recognize, analyze, and combat the messages it sends.