Where:
Collins Cinema at the Davis Museum of Wellesley College
106 Central Street
Wellesley, Massachusetts 02481
Admission:
FREE
Categories:
Film, Lectures & Conferences, Meetup
Event website:
https://www.wcwonline.org/Lunchtime-Seminar/killing-us-softly-40th-anniversary-celebration
Join the Wellesley Centers for Women for a celebration of the 40th anniversary of Jean Kilbourne’s groundbreaking film “Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women.”
First made in 1979 and remade three times since, the “Killing Us Softly” film series lays bare a misogynistic fantasy world of undernourished, sexualized and objectified women, and examines these images against the real-world backdrop of eating disorders, violence against women, and the political backlash against feminism. For four decades, Kilbourne has challenged viewers to question traditional gender norms and think critically about the fundamental relationship between representation and power.
The event will feature clips from the films and discussion with Kilbourne, a Wellesley alumna and senior scholar at the Wellesley Centers for Women, on what has and hasn’t changed in the last forty years.
Light fare will be served at 4:30 p.m. The program will begin at 5:00 p.m.
“Jean Kilbourne’s work is pioneering and crucial to the dialogue of one of the most underexplored, yet most powerful, realms of American culture –advertising. We owe her a great debt.”
Susan Faludi
Author, Backlash and Stiffed
--
Jean Kilbourne is internationally recognized for her pioneering work on the image of women in advertising and for her critical studies of alcohol and tobacco advertising.
She is the creator of the award-winning “Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women” film series and the author of Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel and So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids.
She holds an honorary position at the Wellesley Centers for Women and recently received an Alumnae Achievement Award, Wellesley College’s highest honor. In 2015 she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
This program is part of the Social Change Dialogues hosted by the Wellesley Centers for Women. It is free and open to the public. Coffee, tea, and cookies will be served.
For accessibility questions, contact [email protected] or call 781.283.2434. For more information about the Social Change Dialogues, visit wcwonline.org/calendar.
The Wellesley Centers for Women is an academic research and action institute at Wellesley College that is focused on women and gender and driven by social change. We advance gender equality, social justice, and human wellbeing through high-quality research, theory, and action programs.
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