So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids, by Diane E. Levin and Jean Kilbourne

Yet another book about the lolita-ization of girlhood, and how parents and teachers (and librarians?) can help counteract the societal pressures.

A bit blah, but I think I've overloaded on this topic.

Deadly Persuasion: Why Women and Girls Must Fight The Addictive Power of Advertising, by Jean Kilbourne

Another solid and interesting book by Kilbourne on the way women are represented in media. Solid, not thrilling.

In fact, in this book, at least, I felt a little frustrated with her insistence on bringing her own experiences and addictions into it- while much of the media and advertising she discusses is obviously damaging, I can't help but feel that the men and boys targeted by these same companies are in many ways equally vulnerable to ugly manipulation.

When an ad for vodka (or perfume, or shoes or handbags or whatever) shows a man behaving aggressivley towards a woman (and there are many bizarre examples of that she highlights in the book), it's not just the woman who might get a weird idea about that image- especially as these ads are usually in women's magazines, so a guy flippping through it would be doubly hard pressed to understand what was going on. If it's scary and not cool, why is it in a Gucci ad, a guy might think, am I supposed to act that way? I'm just saying, it's not just women who are affected by fubar messages in media.

Killing Us Softly, Volume 3

Jean Kilbourne talks about images of women in advertising and how screwed up it all is. It was a bit boring, but probably only because I've read her fantastic book Can't Buy My Love:How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel so many times that I've kind of got the idea by now.

Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel, by Jeanne Kilbourne

Re-read.

Fun, interesting, infuriating read about advertising. I think that this is one of my favorite books on the topic. This book differs from the others in that is is addressing advertising to adults, and on manufactured desires, but it is one of those books that you just can't put down.

Great use of images in this book too- ads and stills from commercials and movies add a lot to the book rather than distract from it, and that's a hard trick to pull off.

Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel

Quality: 10 Popularity: 9 Overall: 19