WEEK 2

I learned a lot about what kind of message advertisements subconsciously convey to people and how they influence our thoughts. In “Killing Us Softly 4,” Jean Kilbourne explored and analyzed the question: what do advertisements tell us about women? As I watch the movie, I annotate as required by identifying and summarizing Kilbourne’s main ideas through including direct quotes and making its timestamp.

For example, at 20:55, Kilbourne quotes Lady Gaga and Kate Moss to show how thin has become the aesthetic standard of women through “It’s all about starvation. Pop stars don’t eat,” and “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.”

These quotes indicate that the pursuit of slim and thin, forcing women to constantly lose weight and diet, even throwing out the consideration of health. Advertising sets up an ideal image for people, which makes people blind in pursuit of this image because we believe that what advertising shows may be recognized by the public. Therefore, our values and aesthetics should not be shaped by advertisements. Even if advertisements sell products and sell concepts to us, we should still keep our standards to decide whether to accept or not.

In addition, Hass and Trapedo’s article “Looking into the Magic Mirror” let me have a basic understanding of Disney and the process of how the gender role changes in its portrayal of the princess. In the process of reading this article, I asked such a question: why doesn't Disney redo those images that don't conform to the modern concept? I hope to answer this question in the future in the light of historical development and changes in gender roles.