Killing Us Softly? Investigating Portrayals of Women and Men in Contemporary Magazine Advertisements

Conley, Terri D.
Ramsey, Laura R.

¹Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Terri D. Conley, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA Email: [email protected]

Psychology of Women Quarterly 35(3):p 469-478, September 2011. | DOI: 10.1177/0361684311413383

Our research aimed to systematically investigate how women and men are portrayed in magazine advertisements, deriving hypotheses from Jean Kilbourne’s observed media analysis presented in her Killing Us Softly film series. A total of 790 advertisements in 19 magazines were coded. Results revealed support for many of Kilbourne’s hypotheses. For example, compared to men, women were portrayed as more flawless, passive, and dismembered, particularly in women’s fashion and men’s magazines. Other hypotheses from Kilbourne’s analysis were not supported; for example, there were no differences in the portrayal of female versus male models in defensive stances, as childlike, in bondage, or transforming into an object. These findings have implications for the readers of these magazines as well as instructors who use the Killing Us Softly film series in their courses. Additional online materials for this article are available to PWQ subscribers on PWQ's website at http://pwq.sagepub.com/supplemental.