The Media’s Craze - Women in the media

Sad, but completely true. In today’s world, women have become the main focus of the media. Everything, from our body types, breast sizes, hair color, weight, and even the number of wrinkles we have are taken into the media and used as an advertising campaign. Young girls look at supermodels and Hollywood stars to see how they should look. It extends to everyone, even men, though women get the more subjective of the attention. Men are shown as powerful figures, and after a certain age it is ok to “let yourself go”. Women however are warned of the fact, and kept constantly on our toes for what the new “ideal” body should look like.
Watching “Killing us Softly” was an affirming experience. I cannot say that the experience was eye-opening in any sense; any woman or girl who watches television or looks at a magazine sees the types of adds portrayed in the lecture. So what I mean by affirming is this: it is refreshing that someone is taking a stand and revealing to a mass audience what these types of advertisements can do to women.

The lecture was very well presented. The woman giving the lecture knew her material and presented in such a way that she did not seem to be preaching to her listeners. Instead, she appeared to be sharing her thoughts and exposing those listening to a message very worth hearing. It helped the message a lot to have a woman presenting, a woman who does NOT meet the perfect criteria for women, who had wrinkles and blemishes, and is not stick-figure skinny. Her well-groomed appearance and knowledgeable disposition countered that of the image she was presenting, making it all the more real. If a supermodel were giving the message, most of the listeners would have probably thought it conceded and self-serving.

Using videos and pictures really helped to get the message of women in the media across. The speaker used many images, each more shocking than the last, to engage her listeners and make them feel more involved in her presentation. The videos were well integrated, fit the subject matter, and hit points home instead of misdirecting them. For example, the images of the women with “flawless” skin helped show the point that no one used as models ever have anything but perfect skin and bodies. And the emphasis of breasts in today’s culture as well. Her image on the bra being held up by fishing line, or the Trojan condom in the bra cup help show what images do. They sexualize everything, making two things that would be normally unconnected - fishing line and sex- natural and connected. So when a fisher sees fishing line, he or she will think sex, and then think of the add.

The author uses clear messages, short sentences, and easy imagery to stay on the level of her viewers. She does not use large words with complex meanings so as to sound intelligent. Instead, she uses her message for that. The presentation is very straight forward, using various signposts to go from one thought to another. It does not crowd the viewer’s senses with too much information at once, but takes on more of a conversational tone to get the severity of the message across.

In my opinion, the most memorable part of the presentation was towards the end. When the speaker shows the image of the lone figure, sitting upon the floor in a black dress with the words “the more you subtract the more you add.” In a society where millions struggle with weight and body issues that kind of advertising has no place. But the sad thing is, everyone will accept it, because that is what is being portrayed. I have struggled with weight and my image of myself, any woman or girl has, and its horrible that the same image is projected, time after time. It is the embodiment of society expects, and though there are people fighting it, most sub come to the pressure to “fit in.” This presentation is a step, but it will take a lot more to change everyone’s views on how women should look or fit into society’s structures.

Overall, this lecture was effective. The speaker gave clear examples, step by step analysis of the media and how it uses women and sexual ideas to sell products, and supplemented every idea with interesting and engaging visuals. The presentation was short, about six and a half minutes, so viewers did not get bored by the subject matter. Instead, they stayed engaged, were lightened by the speakers good humor and use of visuals, and managed to come away with more understanding of the media. I enjoyed the message and how it was presented; I believe that others probably did too.