Killing Us Softly (1979)

Original title

Killing Us Softly: Advertising's Image of Women

Directed by

Renner Wunderlich, Margaret Lazarus

Genre

documentary film

Country

United States

Runtime

30 min

Rating

5.4 of 10 from 5 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary examines how women are portrayed in advertising. It shows that these images often promote unrealistic beauty standards and can contribute to issues like eating disorders and violence against women.

educationalanalyticalsoberingthought-provokingcriticaleye-openingcerebral

What happens

Killing Us Softly is an American documentary series by Jean Kilbourne, produced and distributed by the Media Education Foundation. First released in 1979 and since revised and updated three times, most recently in 2010, it focuses on images of women in advertising; in particular on gender stereotypes, the effects of advertising on women's self-image, and the objectification of women's bodies. The two most recent updates, Killing Us Softly 3 and Killing Us Softly 4, were produced by the Media Education Foundation and directed by Sut Jhally. Using modern print and television advertisements, the films make connections between unrealistic media portrayals of women and problems such as "eating disorders, men's violence against women, and the political backlash against feminism." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• Growing Up Female (1971)
• The Souls of Black Girls (2008)
• Generation M: Misogyny in Media & Culture (2008)
• The Killing Ground (1979)
• Miss Representation (2011)
• The Codes of Gender
• Sexy Inc. Our Children Under Influence (2007)
• America the Beautiful (2007)