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Cassidy Jones
Kathy Rowley
English 201-17
October 11, 2012
Rhetorical Analysis:
Advertising Hurts Women
Jean Kilbourne, EdD, is an award-winning author and educator who has analyzed
advertisements and shaped them into a lecture series with films, books, and essays, which
are taught frequently in college courses today. It was when she began working in
journalism and education that she noticed the absurd arguments that advertisements often
make, many of them insulting to women’s intelligence and self-esteem (Greene). In her
essay “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt”, Kilbourne breaks down many
advertisements and explains how harmful these can be for the image of women. [I Claim]
advertisements are degrading and objectifying, mainly towards women.
Given our visually rich media culture, the average American sees 3000
advertisements per day. From television commercials to billboards, society is surrounded
by ads everywhere they go. Therefor, the images advertisements convey to society are
important. Unfortunately the majority of advertisements seem to have two things in
common: sexual content and stereotypical imagery. These images can be dangerous for
women and give men the wrong ideas. Instead of advertisements telling people what they
need to know about the product itself, they paint a picture of how the product will change
and/or affect us. Ads tell us that their product will make us happier, help us find the
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perfect guy, or help a guy find the perfect girl. Advertisers use sexual content to catch the
attention of today’s society.
Throughout her essay, Kilbourne expresses how the images advertisements give
society are harmful and can lead to increased abuse. She teaches society that when
women are shown in positions of powerlessness and submission, the message to men is
clear: women are always available as the targets of aggression and violence, women are
inferior to men and thus deserve to be dominated, and women exist to fulfill the needs of
men (Kilbourne 477). In “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt” Kilbourne is writing to the
men and women of society, with her second audience being the advertising industry. She
uses ethos by blaming advertisements for the way men are towards women. Men are
learning from these advertisements to be aggressive and dominate, not always moral
and/or right. In the article, pathos are being used by scaring women of the dangers they
are exposed to. Women in advertisements are being viewed as objects instead of human
beings. When women start becoming less than human, that is when the abuse and
degrading begins. The image advertisements give society, are harmful and lead to
increased abuse.
Advertisements also support the idea that, not only are innocent women sexy, but
also when women say no, they really mean yes. A perfume ad featured in many teen
magazines features a young woman with the saying, “Apply generously to your neck so
he can smell the scent as you shake your head ‘no.’” (462). Another ad for a bar in
Georgetown features a close up of a cocktail and the headline, “If your date won’t listen
to reason, try a velvet hammer” (462). This image is clearly stating that if a man cannot
get his date to do whatever it is he wants, probably sexual, the solution is get him/her
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drunk. Since when is a man forcing a woman to have sex with him by getting her drunk
first ethical? Sadly, these degrading ads are not always meant for men.
If all ads portraying male violence against women were ads for men, at least
society would know women are not overseeing it, however that is not the case. An ad that
ran in the Czech version of Elle portrays three men attacking a woman, and the terrifying
image is being used to sell jeans to women. This means advertisers must believe that
women would find this image compelling or attractive (464). What is the real reason
these ads do persuade women buyers, to purchase these jeans. Is the ad simply designed
to get our attention, to shock us? Or even worse is it designed to play into women’s
fantasies of domination? Most of us become numb to these images, just as we become
numb to the daily litany in the news of women being raped, battered, and killed (465).
The fact of the matter is, our culture has become so use to seeing the use of sexual
content as well as abuse and rape of women, that they are no longer alerted or concerned
when seeing these images. The Global Report on Women’s Human Rights concluded
that, “domestic violence is a leading cause of female injury in almost every country in the
world and is typically ignored by the state or only erratically punished.” (466). Is this is
the case, how do advertisers get away with promoting it? No, ads do not directly cause
violence, but these images do contribute to objectification and degrading of women,
which does lead to violence.
While this essay comes from her book Deadly Persuasion: Why Women and Girls
Must Fight the Addictive Power of Advertising, Jean Kilbourne has written many articles
and several more books on this controversial topic. She has also released a film titled
Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women (Greene). By using all these genres, her
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message is sure to be heard. Women and men of society need to be aware of the many
dangers advertising puts forth. Women are targets when it comes to advertising. Whether
they are objectifying or degrading, ads are making women less human and seen more as
an object.
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Works Cited
Greene, Stuart and April Lidinsky, eds. From Inquiry to Academic Writing. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012. Print.
Kilbourne, Jean. “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt”: Advertising and Violence. From
Inquiry to Academic Writing. Stuart Greene and April Lidinsky, eds. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012. Print.