The video 'Killing us softly 3' is about how women images are presented wrongly in advertisements. It is a novel but thought provoking way to view nowadays advertisements.
The speaker argues that those extremely perfect women are unrealistic. However, teenage girls are given the illusion that lots of women look like super models. Besides, they consider pursuing beauty rather important. They try hard to lose their weight, hoping to look as thin as possible. But men don't have too much pressure if they don't have a good body shape. The speaker uses contrast a lot in the video. Men's bodies are not scrutinized to the extent as women's. Another contrast I remember is how teenage girls and boys are viewed differently. The speaker presents several examples, which boys look powerful and happy, while girls are sad and weak. Contrast in the video is an effective way to back up the speaker's argument. When discussing about sexism, I find our reading materials don't include as much contrast between men and women as the video does. The video compares the difference directly, which lead people to a reflection of the sexism. Contrast is also a way to arouse pathos. As a female, I feel very unfair, why do we have to pay attention to our look and the success of women in other areas is often ignored by our society?
Another critique towards advertisement is impressing that women are converted from subjects to objects in ads. There are plenty of pictures showed in the video to reveal the fact that women being portrayed as sex objects. No matter what the ad sells, they can always find a relation between sex and the product. Pictures work as both logos proof and pathos proof. If the culture of advertisements is mainly about sexual appeal other than the real advantages of the brand, is there any reason for us to believe ads anymore?
At the end of our class, we talked about whether ads and other mass media can influence people. From my perspective, mass media definitely have an effect on people, and can shape our culture. Thus, it is time for us, especially communication students and scholars, to reflect critically how mass media change us. If there is something wrong, how we can do to correct it?
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