On Thursday, September 19, Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz declared Advertising’s Image of Women Awareness Day, marking the 40th anniversary of feminist and media critic Jean Kilbourne’s groundbreaking documentary “Killing Us Softly.”
That same evening in Smith College’s Weinstein Auditorium, friends, family, and a supportive crowd gathered to celebrate Kilbourne’s achievements and reflect on the impact her work has had on the field of media criticism, feminism, and people’s perceptions of themselves.
“Killing Us Softly”, which interrogates the negative images of women in advertising, began as a lecture series that Kilbourne presented at colleges and universities across the country. It was later produced as a documentary that became the basis for a fledgling field of feminist media criticism and has been shown in countless classrooms since.
Kilbourne has updated her film 3 times in the last 30 years (“Still Killing Us Softly”, “Killing Us Softly 3”, and “Killing Us Softly 4”), each time updating the content, but not its message: The current portrayal of women in media is damaging both to the psyche and to women’s physical well-being. It is, as Kilbourne describes it, a public health crisis.
After 1992, Kilbourne began producing her videos through UMass communications professor Sut Jhally’s newly-formed Media Education Foundation (“MEF”). “Killing Us Softly 3” was actually filmed in Weinstein. Given that Kilbourne is a Wellesley alumna (and her position as “a strong supporter of women’s colleges”), having the anniversary event at Smith was a fitting choice.
The event started with a video celebrating Kilbourne’s contributions to the field and her impact, both academic and personal, on the professionals featured in the video. It continued with Jhally introducing Kilbourne and showing yet another video lauding her work over the years.
When Kilbourne herself finally spoke, she was gracious, even amongst the effusive praise. With her characteristic humor Kilbourne joked that the event was “overwhelming”, “like being at your own memorial service.” “But”, she added, “with the wonderful fact of being still alive at the end of it.”
Throughout her speech Kilbourne discussed her origins: after she graduated from Wellesley, she waitressed, modeled (short-lived), and perhaps most notably, stuck advertisements in magazines in order to make a living. It was this last job where her perspective “crystallized”, and she noticed the ways in which her experiences of sexism and the portrayal of women in advertisements overlapped.
Kilbourne confessed that at the time she was terrified of public speaking, and she didn’t have much confidence that, in an era when women weren’t really supposed to speak in public (and especially not about topics like feminism and misogyny), anyone would want to hear what she had to say. Despite this fear, as well as an initial rejection by a prospective agent, she called back and pressed the Boston agency to hear her give her presentation in person. Though she almost decided never to make that second call, some kernel of self-confidence convinced her to change her mind. “A year later, I was their most heavily booked lecturer,” she noted proudly.
Panelists at the event included Elena Rossini, filmmaker and creator of “The Illusionists”; Jackson Katz, gender violence prevention educator; Jennifer Pozner, executive director of Women in Media & News; Jamia Wilson, executive director and publisher of Feminist Press; Byron Hurt, documentary filmmaker; and MEF director Jhally, as well as facilitator and University of Michigan professor Susan J. Douglas.
All spoke on their personal and professional ties to Kilbourne and her work, crediting her for laying the groundwork for their critical media projects spanning social justice topics, identity categories, and geographic locations. Many of the women specifically cited Kilbourne as a supportive and generous mentor who treated them as equals even when they were first starting out.
“When I was in my 20s and trying to carve out a career that didn’t exist yet, Jean was so supportive of me and she treated me like a colleague,” Pozner remembered.
In an interview after the event, Kilbourne explained that that sort of role comes naturally to her. The female friendships on which she relied following her mother’s death were what helped her to overcome her early self-doubt and pursue her message warning of the importance of media images. “I wanted to pay that forward,” she shared.
Amongst the (several) raving videos and (overly) long panel introductions, the panelists only had time to weigh in on one question posed by Douglas considering what the media criticism of today should look like amidst the resurgence of regressive politics.
Wilson made an important call to support the people who expose themselves to doxxing and other violence by online right-wing trolls through their work “speaking truth to power.” Hurt similarly asked everyone to speak out against the president’s inclination to dehumanize congresswomen of color. “We have to stand up collectively to push up against the administration and the media structure that allows it to happen,” he affirmed.
Pozner, for her part, offered a pathway for those who might feel underrepresented by media analyses developed in the context of second wave feminism. Warning against the perils of the sensationalistic media “analysis” so common in today’s social media discourse, she instead advocated for “a critical framework that includes race, gender, and sexuality into the lens of analysis.” In her words, “The opposite of the hot take.”
Kilbourne, too, made clear that she was cognizant of the students in the audience. Her takeaway for those forging their own career paths: “There are so many young people here tonight, each one of whom has something important to say. So don’t be silenced. Say it, we need to hear it. And,” she added wryly, “always, always call back.”
