Violence In Advertising Jean Kilbourne

Q4) In Kilbourne’s view, how is violence portrayed in ads? (450-451) Kilbourne first describes violence as something that women can easily avoid, but not being too provocatively dressed and not to give off any signals. She implies that when he says, “It is reassuring to believe that we can avoid it by being good girls, avoiding dark places, staying out of bars, dressing innocently” (Kilbourne 450). Ultimately, if women do not put themselves in a dangerous situation, all sexual violence can be avoided. Kilbourne then goes on to talk about violence in a different light. She states, “If indifference in a man is sexy, then violence is sometimes downright erotic. Not surprisingly, this attitude too shows up in advertising” (Kilbourne 450). In this paragraph, Kilbourne is saying if women put themselves in these dangerous situations, stated above, then they want it; they think it is sexy. We deduct that from this quotation, “She is young, she is submissive (her eyes are downcast), she is in a dangerous place, and …show more content…
The objectification of these very young girls is just wrong. I am not saying that the objectification of women is okay. I just think that the objectification of these young girls is horrifying and outright disturbing. For instance the young African American girl in the cherry dress holding paint brushes. The caption uses suggestive language, like “‘Very cherry,’” (Kilbourne 456); or the child who is either naked or just wearing underwear is also sickening. Kilbourne commented on that ad saying, “Other times girls are juxtaposed with grown women, as in the ad for underpants that says ‘You already know the feeling’” (456). All of the ads were striking to me in one way or another; however, I cannot get over the sexualization of young children. Young children are helpless and defenseless. The last thing we need is more people viewing children as objects, to justify sexually abusing