"Killing us softly"

Killing Us Softly Response:
Not only do advertisements sell products but according to the speaker, they also sell value, images, concepts of love and sexuality, romance, success, and normalcy (who we are and who we should be). Advertisements tell us how we should look as a women including being flawless, beautiful, and skinny. They speaker says we should care about gender messaging because if we do not then we loose our ability to have authentic and freely chosen lives because we are so caught up in what we are “suppose” to look like or “suppose” to do.

Dove Response:
The films’ message about the feminine beauty idea is that our idea of what beauty is is very distorted because all the women that we look at in ads and such have all had un natural things done. Whether it be plastic surgery, an eating disorder, or even computer alterations after a photo, these are not the pictures and women that we should strive to look like. The reason our ideas have indeed become distorted is because the media do not tell us that these women are not “real” or natural. We believe that they are just born that way and ask ourselves why we cant be like that and then begin to actually think we can by telling ourselves, “well if she can do it, then so can I.”

Choose an AD:
I chose an ad that I found online. It is a beautiful women on a silk bed dressed in a tiny beautiful dress. She has a bullet hole in her head and the caption above her says “Beautifully Executed.” This advertisement is selling a game called “Hit Man- Blood Money” for the gaming systems. Not only is this selling the product but it is also downplaying women. It is once again showing the ideal beauty and how women should look all the time. Also, it is showing women being worth less than men because to me, since they chose a women for the ad to be the one that got shot, it makes me believe that they think that women aren’t as strong as men and are more of damsels in distress, as do many other video games.

Personal Response:
I believe that after seeing these films and looking up ads it brings my attention to what all ads do also sell. I think we become very desensitized to this because we see it so often. I didn’t even realize how bad it was until these films point it out, along with looking at studying other ads that I found.