By Erin Cass
Tonight Wild Iris is hosting a film screening of the documentary Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising’s Image of Women. The video is only half an hour long, so it’s worth stopping by if you can!
According to Jean Kilbourne, one of the main arguments of the video “is that advertising, as perhaps the primary storyteller in American culture, has the capacity to both produce and affirm the very fictions about women’s desires and identity that advertisers themselves often claim to be innocently tapping into and reflecting back at the public”. The film reveals the many differences between the fantasy lives of women in advertising and the actual lives that women lead in reality.
The film is great for understanding queer issues too! Mass marketing has turned to queers as their new market, according to the false believe that gay people magically have more expendable income. The stereotypical images of advertising pervade our culture and lives, and this video will be a great way to understand and learn more about how this happens. If you’re interested in identity politics you will definitely enjoy this film. It addresses issues about obsession with thinness, the idea of “woman vs. woman” (women competing with each other for men), images in advertising used to silence women, and much more. If you’re interested in the film, the website has even more information and a comprehensive study guide with a lot of excellent discussion questions.
Tags: alternative media • feminism • Gainesville • Wild Iris Bookstore