Jean Kilbourne’s TEDTalk The Dangerous Ways Ads See Women is a great lecture and one I will share with my friends or anytime the topic of exploitation an objectification of women (and even juveniles) in advertisement is mentioned. My initial reaction to Kilbourne’s lecture was excitement, which could be mistaken for something cruel, but my excitement is for her work and dedication to a never-ending problem and topic. I was fairly young when I started to notice the standards of beauty that spore from advertisements and the use of sex, sexuality, and racism to sell products. I remember seeing certain ads as a teen and feeling shame for not fitting a mold or a pushed idea I saw in every magazine, online ad, and even on television. I have also always been very observant of the different treatment and molding of men and women. So much so, I often felt disgusted to be in my own body. The focus on image really does coat all aspects of personality, manipulating our responses and our actions and treatments of others on a daily basis.
There are some ads that I would like to share.
The first is the infamous cover of Paper Magazine featuring Kim Kardashian:
The next is Justin Bieber’s efforts in a Calvin Klein ad:
In this photo, photoshop does most of the heavy lifting when carrying out a plan to contribute more standards.
In this magazine cover, Natalia Kills’, now known as Teddy Sinclair, skin is lightened. She has talked about her skin being lightened in photoshoots during many interviews:
This is a testament to the opposite – the untouched photo. Lana Del Rey did a photoshoot on film for V Magazine and chose to not have the pictures retouched. Heres the result:
Then, in an ad for her makeup line, Kat Von D Beauty, Kat Von D staged a photoshoot with Billie Armstrong to pose like the infamous Sid and Nancy photo with the handcuffs, romanticizing a toxic relationship:
