Jean Kilbourne

In the late 1960s, Jean Kilbourne began her exploration of the connection between advertising and several public health issues,[4] including violence against women, eating disorders,[5] and addiction,[6] and launched a movement to promote media literacy as a way to prevent these problems. A radical and original idea at the time, this approach is now mainstream and an integral part of most prevention programs.[1][7]

Kilbourne has spoken at about half of the colleges and universities in the U.S. She is frequently a keynote speaker at a wide range of conferences,[8] including those focusing on addictions and public health, violence against women, and media literacy.[2]

In 1993, Jean Kilbourne was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. She has been interviewed by many major news sources such as Time, Newsweek, and The New York Times, and has been featured on hundreds of television and radio programs including The Today Show, 20/20, All Things Considered, and The Oprah Winfrey Show.[2]

In 2005, a Canadian all-female rock band paid tribute to Kilbourne by naming their band Kilbourne,[9] the same year she was granted an honorary doctorate from Westfield State College.

In recent years, Kilbourne has been interviewed for Feminists Who Changed America 1963–1975 and included as a trading card for Media Heroes which "celebrate beloved media heroes" as a teaching tool with hand drawn art along with a short biography.[10]

In 1977, Kilbourne became an associate of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP).[11] WIFP is an American nonprofit publishing organization. The organization works to increase communication between women and connect the public with forms of women-based media.

Kilbourne's work links the power of images in the media with current public health problems, such as eating disorders, violence, and drug and alcohol addiction.[12] Through her lectures, films, and articles, many of her original ideas and concepts have become mainstream. These include the concepts of the tyranny of the beauty ideal, the connection between the objectification of women and violence, the themes of liberation and weight control exploited in tobacco advertising aimed at women, the targeting of alcoholics by the alcohol industry, addiction as a love affair, and many others.

Kilbourne has served as an advisor to the Surgeons General, and holds an honorary position as senior scholar at the Wellesley Centers for Women.[13] She has also served as an advisor or board member to many organizations, including ACME (Action Coalition for Media Education), the Media Education Foundation, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, NEDA (the National Eating Disorders Association), and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.[13]

Kilbourne's work has been cited and heavily discussed in academics, in both research journals and the classroom. In Tyson Smith's Pumping Irony: The Construction of Masculinity in a Post-feminist Advertising Campaign[16] Kilbourne is cited for her statements on advertising alcohol in the article's section focusing on a campaign for Jim Beam bourbon, which sought to bring the young, white, middle-class heterosexual male. Though paraphrased, Smith references Kilbourne when critiquing the ad campaign, that alcohol consumption typically leads to addiction, and that alcohol brands aim to create a bond between the potential addict and the brand itself. The reasoning being that "the addict is the ideal customer" because "ten percent of drinkers consume over 60% of all alcohol sold." Kilbourne is further reference in Smith's article, particularly about the link between drinking alcohol and the image of masculinity. The very concept of alcohol consumption is "seen as both rebellious and dangerous" and a rite of passage to become 'a real man.' Alcohol advertisements "walk a fine line between wildness and anti-social behavior" as Kilbourne said because ads typically depict personality changes in people after consumption, "normalizing" the change, and often associate the alcoholic product and defiance. The ad campaign itself, titled Real Friends, featured the 'everyday guy' such as the bar frequenter with text such as "If the chicks ask, we're watching the footy" rather than using the hyper-masculine image of men, yet reinforces the hyper-masculine stereotype since the men in the campaign are "assertive and defiant in the form of rejecting women's demands."

Following the same theme of advertising and its impact on gender, Kilbourne and some of her work, the Killing Us Softly series and Deadly Persuasion: Why Women and Girls Must Fight the Addictive Power of Advertising were used for Reaffirming the Ideal: A Focus Group Analysis of the Campaign for Real Beauty.[17] Recalling Kilbourne's idea that advertisers would not spend the supposed billions of dollars on ad campaigns if consumers felt advertisements had no effect on them, which the relationship between advertisers and consumers is documented in her Killing Us Softly series, particularly with women's body image set as a standard by advertisers. Additional, since the Unilever Dove Campaign for Real Beauty seeks to address the effects of beauty advertising on young girls' self-esteem and body image in an educational way, Kilbourne's series may have been an influence.

Noting that Kilbourne's Killing Us Softly series is an available educational source with supplemental materials for high school and college level courses, and the fact that one of the article's authors, Julie-Ann Scott, teaches at an institution where the series is part of the foundation for the Women's Studies program brings validity to Kilbourne's decades-long efforts exposing advertising's attitudes about how women should look if they want to be considered 'beautiful.'

External video
TEDx talk by Jean Kilbourne
The Naked Truth - Advertising's Image of Women via TEDx Talks on YouTube[18]

In addition to lectures and being featured in her own documentaries, Kilbourne has been in the documentary Miss Representation[18][19] about advertising's image of women, an expert at kidsinthehouse.com[20] where she has a video series on parenting advice, and a guest on Katie Couric's talkshow Katie for an episode on deadly dangerous teen dieting trends that affect all genders and result in suicide, starvation, hospitalizations and substance abuse.

In 2020, Jean Kilbourne wrote for Ms Magazine with Jackson Katz criticism of Donald Trump in the toxic masculinity era

While Kilbourne's work, specifically her Killing Us Softly documentary series, is often generally well-regarded for documenting the ways advertisements and the media shape women's perception of body and the standards they should hold themselves to, there has also been backlash in the way the series itself is delivered.

In the 2006 article Market Feminism: The Case for a Paradigm Shift[21] by Linda M. Scott, the Killing Us Softly series was criticized since the second entry, Still Killing Us Softly from 1987 was a near duplicate film from the 1979 original, so much so that she said "[Killing Us Softly] was casually reissued in almost identical form as Still Killing Us Softly. At the time, the third and most recent entry, Killing Us Softly 3 was called a "movie sequel" to further criticize the series. Additionally, Scott pointed out the cost to purchase or rent the films and the amount of stickers warning that the content was under copyright protection if they were rented, claiming it "[seems] a profit motive is at work." There is no need for the films to have such warnings on them "if all Kilbourne wanted was to further 'the cause'" Scott wrote. Scott was deeply offended and felt personally targeted and replied to Kilbourne because in Scott's apparent perspective, "one might think it would be in the interests of the movement [feminism] if these tapes were copied and circulated as freely and widely as possible." Though Scott was so critical of Kilbourne's method of distribution, she agrees that "corporations that do include a feminist message in their ads are 'co-opting' the movement for private gain." Scott also notes that the reason for such prices on the films are because the target audience is not 'individual consumers' but university libraries, where women's studies programs are a definite audience that will consume such media. After stating such, Scott points out the irony of the feminist speakers paid to speak to these audiences are "making money off women--by complaining about other people making money off women." Scott seemed to be fuming at her success, her statement was very illogical and incoherent as any live lecture and show that sells tickets no matter what the topic is does result in sales made.

A roundtable of educators discussing their thoughts on teaching about advertising mentions Kilbourne and her documentaries. As much of the students in Robert Goldman's sociology classes at Lewis and Clark College are familiar with Kilbourne's series of films, he offers a criticism of Kilbourne's works as part of the midterm so students are thinking critically about what they saw.[22] Jef Richards, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, noted that previous arguments against Kilbourne's works were counter argued in her then-recent (around 2003) works, presenting her material as 'better balanced,' yet moderator Linda Scott said "Kilbourne is becoming your father's Oldsmobile when it comes to feminist critique," she thought that by shaming her age in her statement and her values would lend her own self credibility than Kilbourne, before whipping around angrily remarking in a huff "she's too commercial!"

A more contemporary criticism of Kilbourne comes from the 2012 Beyond Additions and Exceptions: The Category of Transgender and New Pedagogical Approaches for Women's Studies[23] which calls for a change in teaching materials within Women's Studies course since textbooks typically define women based on their anatomy, which excludes trans women, "[stabilizing] the normativity of hegemonic sex and gender embodiments by naturalizing nontransgendered bodies."

Commenting on Killing Us Softly 3, the authors, Toby Beauchamp and Benjamin D'Harlingue, two men, point out Kilbourne's example of an ad that targeted women's breast size as a negative and her example she made as a counterpart example for men, pointing out the flaws with their penises would be the same esteem damage as insulting the size of a woman's chest. Though they say the example is a good way for Kilbourne to demonstrate the way advertising looks at gender, they question Kilbourne's intent behind her joke as they wonder "what bodies (and body parts) are considered "women's" and "men's" in examples that show sexual female symbology and toxic masculinity and male sexuality when addressing Kilbourne frequently saying women's and men's bodies are advertised to the world differently. As men are marketed as dominate and women are marketed as shallow and unintelligent and either about looks or about living for mothering and cooking. Even male marketers that create ads for many years use phallic symbology to represent male dominance and male sexuality. Their issue with Kilbourne's critique, and others', is that "feminist analyses should also address the ways that gender is so unquestionably tied to particular bodies, and how analyses like Kilbourne's foreclose the possibility of transgender and gender-nonconforming bodies and subjects was not considered at the time of the documentaries like so many LGBT presenters in the media often excluded or forget to include non binary and transgender in their articles even bisexuality. Even big LGBT celebrities forget to include this only staying inclusive to their own binary." Additionally, the authors state that "by neglecting to acknowledge or critique dominant couplings of bodies and genders, is able to neatly flip the terms of the binary she sets up" and that "the absence of this critique is connected to her failure to interrogate the ways in which the category of women is constructed in conjunction with a host of other identity categories," going on to say Kilbourne mentions topics such as sexualizing and fetishing race in marketing to her colored audience. The authors have a tendency to view ones gender and sexual orientation as the same, whereas sex is biological (male/female) and gender is a social construct. They failed ultimately to argue the point against Kilbourne that sexism never existed in marketing, because there is no such thing as a binary. Sexism is connected to homophobia and also transphobia. Despite the criticism, there is many historical documents explaining the cruelty and punishments that are gender based throughout history all around the world.

Certainly be fair a grand majority of authors, teachers, presenters on body image, culture and advertising leave out trans issues and are gender inclusive up until the present now, and even now a lot of beloved LGBT figures exclude trans including LGBT stars like Ellen DeGeneres, Ellen DeGeneres has been branded "transphobic" after that Liza Minnelli quip she made during The Oscars.

She has twice received the Lecturer of the Year award from the National Association for Campus Activities and was once named one of the three most popular speakers on campuses by The New York Times Magazine. She was profiled in Feminists Who Changed America 1963–1975 and was one of twenty-one journalists, media activists, and educators included in Reclaim the Media's "Media Heroes" pack of trading cards. She received a most unusual tribute in 2004 when an all-female rock band in Canada named itself Kilbourne in her honor. While awarding Kilbourne the WIN (Women's Image Now) Award, the representative from the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) said, “No one in the world has done more to improve the image of women in the media than Jean Kilbourne.” Mary Pipher, the author of Reviving Ophelia, has called Kilbourne “our best, most compassionate teacher.”[24]^:13

• Academy for Eating Disorders, Special Recognition Award, 2000
• ACME (Action Coalition for Media Education) Media Activist National Award, 2006
• AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), WIN (Women's Image Now) Award, 1995
• Association for Women in Psychology, Distinguished Publication Award, 2000 (For Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel)
• Boston University School of Education, Ida M. Johnston Award, 2009
• Common Sense Media, Common Sense Media Award, 2011
• Educational Foundation of America (Grant for a study of gender stereotypes in television commercials), 1980
• Entertainment Industries Council, Special Commendation, 1990
• Feminists Who Changed America 1963–1975 (Profiled in the book)
• Healthy MEdia Commission for Positive Images of Women and Girls, 2010–2012
• LAMP (Learning About Multimedia Project) Amplifier Award, 2012
• Germaine Lawrence, Inc., Woman of Excellence award, 2005 Kansas City, Kansas (Given keys to the city by Mayor Kay Barnes), 2004
• MEDA (Multiservice Eating Disorders Association), Annual Award, 2007
• Miss Hall's School, Woman of Distinction Award, 2007
• Myra Sadker Equity Award, 2005
• National Association for Campus Activities, Lecturer of the Year Award (1988 and 1989)
• National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Marty Mann Founder's Award, 1998
• National Eating Disorders Association Ambassador, 2011–present
• National Eating Disorders Association, Profiles in Living Award, 2010
• National Organization for Women, Boston chapter, Woman of the Year, 1982
• National Organization for Women, MA, Wonder Woman Award, 2010
• National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), National Honorary Board, 2003–present
• National Women's Hall of Fame induction, 2015[25]
• New Agenda, The, Pioneer Mentor, 2011
• Non-Smokers' Rights Association, Canada, Award of Merit, 1993
• PCAR (Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape)/NSVRC (National Sexual Violence Resource Center), Lifetime Television's Times Square Project award, 2003
• Planned Parenthood of Connecticut, Hilda Crosby Standish Leadership Award, 2005
• Reclaim the Media (Included as one of twenty-one journalists, media activists, and educators in their "Media Heroes" deck of trading cards), 2008
• Stop Teenage Addiction to Tobacco (STAT), Annual Award
• Wellsley Centers for Women, senior scholar, 2008–present; Visiting Research Scholar, 1984-2008
• Westfield State College, honorary doctorate, 2004
• Womanspace, Barbara Boggs Sigmund Award, 2008
• Women's Action Alliance, Leadership in Action Award, 1995[2]

• Jean Kilbourne biography on her official website
• So Sexy So Soon website
• Action Coalition for Media Education
• Wellesley Centers for Women
• Jean Kilbourne at IMDb
• Review of "Killing Us Softly"
• Impactmania "Jean Kilbourne: The tyranny of the ideal beauty image" by Paksy Plackis-Cheng
• Wellesley College Alumnae Achievement Awards biography