“Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt,” written by Jean Kilbourne, who is an award-winning author and educator, is best known for her lectures on the effects of media images on young people and specifically young women. In this essay, Kilbourne discusses the ways advertising constantly uses images that make sexual and violent situations against women and children increasingly normalized in our society. In order to support her argument, the essay is heavily filled with images of these particular advertisements that portray the sexual exploitation of women and children. Overall, the author uncovers that these advertisements do not promote self-love or confidence. In fact, these constant messages invoke self-hatred and open contempt among young women. …show more content…
This ad portrays three men attacking a woman. The men appear to be drawn towards the woman’s jeans, as it is apparent that one of the men is lifting the woman off the ground by the back of her jeans. The advertisement is strangely geared towards women as the targeted audience even though it is such a terrifying image. In my opinion, the ad speaks volumes using ethos and pathos in a negative fashion. Ethos is utilized as the ad depicts men aggressively and forcefully handling the woman. Ethically we understand it is wrong to physically abusive anyone, but it also recognized to be socially unacceptable for a man to put his hands on a woman. Moreover, pathos is exercised in this ad by evoking the emotion of anxiety and fear because most women have sadly experienced some form of abuse. Subsequently, this ad speaks to the darkest and dismal emotions a majority of women share. Furthermore, the author attempts to explain and decode the possible motives to use such a disturbing ad by stating that perhaps the ad is simply designed to get our attention, by shocking us and arousing unconscious anxiety. Kilbourne continuous by asserting that the plausible intent is subtler and it is designed to play into the fantasies of domination and even rape that some women use in order to maintain an illusion of being in control (496
