"Two Ways a Woman Can get Hurt":Advertising and Violence By Jean Kilbourne

In this essay by Jean Kilbourne, many points are brought up about how advertising about products by using women in a visibly vulnerable situations, has become accepted and more common. Speaking of word economy, the pictures were worth 1,000 words and that was definatly utlized in the essay to make a point. Her analysis of the advertising was insightful and informative. Certainly some of the advertisements are cultural abuse due to the fact that what they are showing is criminal in nature, however I think that advertisers choose to sell their products this way because the public does have an appetite to see these types of images due to to popularity of these things in movies as well as in the porn industry. Putting porn into advertising is a sure way to get their product noticed either way, such as the Calvin Klein ads that were pulled, leading to more attention in the media and resulting in higher sales. The gender reversal test which Kilbourne applies to some of the advertising shows the slant against women very effectively.