Time: 01:30 PM to 03:00 PM
Location: Vanstone Lecture Hall, Academic Centre, St. Jerome’s University SJ2 1004
The St. Jerome's University HeForShe Committee in conjunction with St. Jerome's University's Sexuality, Marriage, and Family Studies presents a free public lecture by Dr. Jean Kilbourne on the portrayal in advertising.
Jean Kilbourne's pioneering work helped develop and popularize the study of gender representations in advertising. Her award-winning “Killing us Softly” films have influenced millions of college and high school students across two generations and on an international scale. Through her lectures, films, and writings, many of her original ideas and concepts have become widely known and used. These include the concepts of the tyranny of the beauty ideal, the dismemberment of women's bodies in advertising, the twin themes of liberation and weight control exploited in tobacco advertising, addiction as a love affair, and many others.
Advertising is an over $250 billion a year industry in North America and we each are exposed to over 3000 ads a day. Its influence is pervasive, often subtle, and mostly subconscious. Yet, remarkably, most of us believe we are not influenced by advertising. Ads sell a great deal more than products. They sell values, images, and concepts of success and worth, love and sexuality, popularity and normalcy. They teach us a great deal about gender and race.
In this presentation Dr. Kilbourne marshals a range of advertisements to reveal a stunning pattern of disturbing and destructive gender stereotypes - images and messages that too often reinforce unrealistic, and unhealthy, perceptions of beauty, perfection, and sexuality. Reviewing if and how the image of women has changed over the past 30 years, she explores the relationship of these images to actual problems in the society, such as violence, the sexual abuse of children, rape and sexual harassment, teenage pregnancy, discrimination, and eating disorders.
Clearly illustrating how these distorted and destructive images affect men as well as women, she challenges us to take advertising seriously, and to think critically about popular culture and its relationship to broader issues of identity, sexism, and violence. Entertaining, fast-paced, sometimes hilarious, the presentation is also profound and deeply serious. Dr. Kilbourne is known for her ability to present provocative topics in a way that unites rather than divides and that encourages dialogue. With expert knowledge, insight, humor and commitment, she moves and empowers people to take action in their own and in society's interest.
The award-winning films Killing Us Softly, Spin the Bottle, and Slim Hopes are based on her lectures. She has twice received the Lecturer of the Year award from the National Association for Campus Activities and was named by The New York Times Magazine as one of the three most popular lecturers on college campuses. She is the author of Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel and So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids.
“Jean Kilbourne’s work is pioneering and crucial to the dialogue of one of the most underexplored, yet most powerful, realms of American culture — advertising. We owe her a great debt.” – Susan Faludi, author of Backlash
“Out of the banal and commonplace ads we absorb each day without believing ourselves influenced, Jean Kilbourne creates a politically sophisticated and frightening tapestry. Her presentation is fascinating, fast paced and extremely funny.” – Marge Piercy
“Jean Kilbourne’s arguments are as focused and unassailable as those of a good prosecutor. Piece by piece she builds a case for an America deeply corrupted by advertisers.” — Mary Pipher, author of Reviving Ophelia