Killing Us Softly 3 (1999)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Sut Jhally

Genre:

Documentary | Short

Plot:

Jean Kilbourne's pioneering work helped develop and popularize the study of gender representation in advertising...

Plot Keywords:

Image | Advertising | Photograph | Sexism | Racism

Cast

Jean Kilbourne

...

Herself

Runtime:

34 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

Media Education Foundation

Quotes:

[first lines]
Jean Kilbourne: Many years ago I saw an ad that changed my life.

Movie Connections:

References Strangeland (1998)

You should watch this online

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Here is a link to the film at Google Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1993368502337678412 KUS3 shows you how advertising sends out certain messages that you will otherwise probably not notice. It is mostly focused on North-American advertising but relevant for Western Europe (and perhaps Asia) too.

Though the documentary gives no scientific evidence for its conclusions, putting these ads in context says enough about North-American and Western European culture. Women are shy, passive objects consisting of parts for men to drool over. Men are the violent and dominant human beings that women cannot live without. The only times when roles are reversed is when skin colour comes into play.

This light yet mature documentary brings this with a lot of humour and avoids drama or alarmist attitudes. You should especially watch this if you are a young male with white skin who does not watch TV (or has a TiVo) nor reads 'beauty' magazines.