Watch the video, The Dangerous Ways Ads See Women | Jean Kilbourne |
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The dangerous ways ads see women | Jean Kilbourne | TEDxLafayetteCollege
After watching the video, imagine yourself to be a sociologist and examine gender roles in contemporary U.S. society. Keep in mind that this assignment is not an attempt to extract your personal opinion on particular aspects of society. You are using social scientific methods to describe specific situations. In other words, if you have an opinion, support it through your empirical observations.
Select 10 advertisements from magazines. Answer the following questions in separate sections.
1. Discuss your sample
a. Describe how you collected your ads, from what magazines, how many, dates.
b. List the limitations of your sample. For example, are all magazines like the ones you sampled from?
2. Discuss how gender is portrayed in your sample of ads.
a. How is the portrayal used to sell the product?
b. Discuss how gender roles are reinforced or contested in the situation you observed?
3. Comment on how your findings compare to one of the theories we have discussed in class over the semester.
a. Apply the theory to your observations.
b. Draw one or more conclusions from your analysis.
