Educational Media Reviews Online

In this fourth film of the Killing Us Softly series, Jean Kilbourne continues her crusade against advertising that objectifies women and sexualizes girls. Filmed speaking before an audience of college-age students, Kilbourne indicates that the problems she has long identified in both print and television ads have actually gotten worse, but she is hopeful because more people are now paying attention and taking advertising seriously. She presents ads that show women as beautiful and sexy but also passive, vulnerable, and silenced; ads in which the women virtually become the product; ads in which images of abused women are used to sell; ads that suggest that sexual violence is normal. That men are also stereotyped and objectified in ads is acknowledged, but Kilbourne says that for men there are fewer consequences. What men may lose – and the loss is also felt by women – is their ability to form authentic relationships with the women in their lives.

Because Killing us Softly 3 is owned by many libraries and is still available for purchase, those doing collection development may wonder whether they should purchase this DVD. The themes are basically the same, and some of the material from 3 is repeated here. However, a lot has changed in the last ten years, and many of those changes are seen in this edition of the series. There are more television ads than before and a more complete discussion of how PhotoShop means that no one appearing in ads need ever again be less than perfect. There is somewhat more discussion of the place of non-white women in advertising and some mention of the place of gays and lesbians. There is also more discussion of obesity and weight loss and passing remarks on ideas about ugliness and aging in our society. Kilbourne also suggests that the availability of child porn on the Internet makes the sexualization of girls more acceptable. Finally, she presents examples of worldwide recognition that images like those she displays are harmful to women.

As with the last film, the editing is excellent, and there are no technical issues. The lecture here, at 45 minutes, is about ten minutes longer than in 3. This allows greater development of the themes and is still a good fit for a standard class period. In addition to the lecture, 3 includes an interview with Kilbourne in which she describes in more detail how she began her examination of images of women in advertising, how her work has been received, and what can be done to promote change. If the money is available, however, this new film is worth considering because the more fully developed themes will be very familiar and of current interest to students today.

The themes developed in this video are important. As Kilbourne states, these are public health issues. For media studies and women’s studies classes, her presentation will be enlightening and a great springboard into additional discussion of the influence of advertising on society.