The Ideal Consumer is someone who is constantly dissatisfies, constanly needs more and more products in order to feel better.
Jean KilbourneRead
Woman’s bodies continue to be dismembered in advertising. Over and over again just one part of the body is used to sell products, which is one of the most dehumanizing thing you can do to someone. Not only is she a thing, but just one part of that thing is focused on.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights how advertising objectifies women by focusing on their body parts rather than their whole selves, leading to dehumanization.
Jean Kilbourne's quote critiques the advertising industry's tendency to reduce women's identities to mere body parts, which perpetuates a culture of dehumanization. By emphasizing only specific parts instead of the whole individual, ads diminish women to objects used for commercial gain, stripping them of their humanity and complexity. This reflection invites a deeper discussion about the impact of media representations on societal views of women and their self-worth.
Themes
AdvertisingObjectificationDehumanizationWomenMediaIdentity
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about body image and self-esteem, one might quote Kilbourne to emphasize the harmful effects of advertising on women.
More from Jean Kilbourne
All quotes →Turning a human being into a thing is almost always the first step towards justifying violence against that person.
Jean KilbourneRead
Similar quotes
A society that has more justice is a society that needs less charity.
Ralph NaderRead
I'd worked on leprosy and malaria in India [at the World Bank] and asked myself the question: Why do we let 2 million children die every year around the world for not having clean water? Because they're faceless and nameless. So, for me, Facebook looked like it was going to solve the problem of the invisible victim.
Sheryl SandbergRead
When we come to the moral principles on which the government is to be administered, we come to what is proper for all conditions of society. Liberty, truth, probity, honor, are declared to be the four cardinal principles of society. I believe that morality, compassion, generosity, are innate elements of the human constitution; that there exists a right independent of force.
Thomas JeffersonRead
I think that there is far too much work done in the world, that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous, and that what needs to be preached in modern industrial countries is quite different from what always has been preached.
Bertrand RussellRead
We ask only that the law shall work alike on all men.
Chief JosephRead
I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain. One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself, forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
Albert CamusRead