Lecturer Says Media and Ads Promote Feminine Stereotypes

The media and the advertising industry persistently enforce negative images of women in society, Jean Kilbourne, a graduate student at Boston University, told an audience of about 40 at the Boston Hospital for Women yesterday.

Kilbourne said most people do not take the power of advertising seriously, although they are exposed to an average of 500 ads a day.

The Harvard Joint Committee on the Status of Women sponsored Kilbourne's slide and lecture presentation, which included 240 magazine ads from Kilbourne's collection.

Kilbourne, who has studied women in ads since 1970, has been touring with her presentation. "The Naked Truth," for two years.

Kilbourne examined the concept of "ideal feminine beauty," which she defined as "flawlessness--no blemishes, and, in fact, no pores." Advertisements make women feel "ashamed and guilty" because they cannot "attain that illusion," she said.

Women's bodies are "objectified and dismembered" in advertising, Kilbourne said. "Minority women are either made to conform to these stereotypes or are further exploited. To be old is to be contemptible or deformed. Women together are competitive and catty," Kilbourne said.

You've Come a Long Way

Disturbing new trends in advertising. Kilbourne said, include violence against women and the use of young girls in sexually suggestive ads.

Some new ads do portray women as serious people, Kilbourne said, "but usually they just take the old stereotype and put a briefcase in her hand. Then we feel doubly guilty, because not only is she beautiful, but she has a high-paying job."