Women + the Media [VIDEOS]

How harmful is the media to women? I'm just as easily sucked into the beautiful advertising in fashion magazines as the next woman, but the negative affect that they have on our collective self-image is increasingly harmful.

Just watch this trailer for the educational film, Killing Us Softly: Advertising's Image of Women. Even in the short five minute excerpt you are given a clear idea of how our culture is shaped by false images. Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D. is internationally recognized for her groundbreaking work on the image of women in advertising and for her critical studies of alcohol and tobacco advertising. In the late 1960s she began her exploration of the connection between advertising and several public health issues, including violence against women, eating disorders, and addiction, and launched a movement to promote media literacy as a way to prevent these problems.

And this video is a great example of the result of a nation that is hung up on the false images portrayed. Watch as this news anchor reads an email encouraging her to lose weight as a "community responsibility"

How can we reverse the effects? We start within ourselves. We don't allow other people's opinions to sway our self-worth, and we work each day towards living a healthier life mentally as well as physically.

Is that enough? Jean Kilbourne thinks it should be taken a step further, "the obsession with thinness is a public health problem." Obesity is also an issue that faces our nation, how do we combat the opposing issues, what do you think?