Jean Kilbourne
Encyclopedia
Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D.
(born January 4, 1943) is a feminist author
, speaker, and filmmaker who is internationally recognized for her work on the image of women in advertising
and her critical studies of alcohol
and tobacco
advertising. She is also credited with introducing the idea of educating about media literacy
as a way to prevent problems she viewed as originating from mass media
advertising campaign
s. She also lectures about the topic, and her documentaries based on these lectures are viewed around the world.
She is a graduate of Wellesley College and holds a doctorate in education from Boston University
, as well as an honorary doctorate from Westfield State College
, for her “research [and] insights [that] lead us from consumerism to consciousness.” According to Susan Faludi
, “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.”
issues, including violence against women
, eating disorders, and addiction
, and launched a movement to promote media literacy
as a way to prevent these problems. A radical and original idea at the time, this approach is now mainstream and an integral part of most prevention programs.
Kilbourne has spoken at about half of the colleges and universities in the U.S. She is frequently a keynote speaker at a wide range of conferences, including those focusing on addictions and public health
, violence against women, and media literacy.
In 1993, Jean Kilbourne was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. She has been interviewed by many major news sources such as Time, Newsweek
, and The New York Times
, and has been featured on hundreds of television and radio programs including The Today Show
, 20/20, All Things Considered
, and The Oprah Winfrey Show.
of women and violence, the themes of liberation and weight control exploited in tobacco advertising
aimed at women, the targeting of alcoholics by the alcohol industry, addiction as a love affair, and many others.
Kilbourne has served as an advisor to two Surgeons General. Kilbourne holds an honorary position as Senior Scholar at the Wellesley Centers for Women
. She has served as an advisor or board member to many organizations, including ACME (Action Coalition for Media Education), the Media Education Foundation, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence
, NEDA (the National Eating Disorders Association)
, and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.
Complete filmography:
) of So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids (Ballantine
, 2008). Her book, Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel (originally
published as Deadly Persuasion by Simon & Schuster
in 1999) won the Distinguished Publication Award from the Association for Women in Psychology. She has written many articles, including editorials in The New York Times
, USA Today
and The Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association, and has contributed chapters to many books.
and was once named one of the three most popular speakers on campuses by The New York Times Magazine. She was profiled in Feminists Who Changed America 1963–1975 and was one of twenty-one journalists, media activists, and educators included in Reclaim the Media’s “Media Heroes” pack of trading cards. She received a most unusual tribute in 2004 when an all-female rock band in Canada named itself Kilbourne in her honor. While awarding Kilbourne the WIN (Women’s Image Now) Award, the representative from the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
(AFTRA) said, “No one in the world has done more to improve the image of women in the media than Jean Kilbourne.” Mary Pipher
, the author of Reviving Ophelia, has called Kilbourne “our best, most compassionate teacher.”
Doctor of Education
The Doctor of Education or Doctor in Education degree , in Latin, Doctor Educationis, is a research-oriented professional doctorate that prepares the student for academic, administrative, clinical, or research positions in educational, civil, and private organizations.-Differences between an Ed.D...
(born January 4, 1943) is a feminist author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, speaker, and filmmaker who is internationally recognized for her work on the image of women in advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
and her critical studies of alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
and tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
advertising. She is also credited with introducing the idea of educating about media literacy
Media literacy
Media literacy is a repertoire of competences that enable people to analyze, evaluate, and create messages in a wide variety of media modes, genres, and forms.-Education:...
as a way to prevent problems she viewed as originating from mass media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
advertising campaign
Advertising campaign
An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication...
s. She also lectures about the topic, and her documentaries based on these lectures are viewed around the world.
She is a graduate of Wellesley College and holds a doctorate in education from Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
, as well as an honorary doctorate from Westfield State College
Westfield State College
Westfield State University is a comprehensive, coeducational, four-year public university in Westfield, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1838 by noted educator and social reformer Horace Mann as the first public co-educational college in America without barrier to race, gender and economic class...
, for her “research [and] insights [that] lead us from consumerism to consciousness.” According to Susan Faludi
Susan Faludi
Susan C. Faludi is an American feminist, journalist and author. She won a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism in 1991, for a report on the leveraged buyout of Safeway Stores, Inc., a report that the Pulitzer Prize committee thought showed the "human costs of high finance".-Biographical...
, “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.”
History and academics
In the late 1960s, Jean Kilbourne began her exploration of the connection between advertising and several public healthPublic health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" . It is concerned with threats to health based on population health...
issues, including violence against women
Violence against women
Violence against women is a technical term used to collectively refer to violent acts that are primarily or exclusively committed against women...
, eating disorders, and addiction
Substance dependence
The section about substance dependence in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders does not use the word addiction at all. It explains:...
, and launched a movement to promote media literacy
Media literacy
Media literacy is a repertoire of competences that enable people to analyze, evaluate, and create messages in a wide variety of media modes, genres, and forms.-Education:...
as a way to prevent these problems. A radical and original idea at the time, this approach is now mainstream and an integral part of most prevention programs.
Kilbourne has spoken at about half of the colleges and universities in the U.S. She is frequently a keynote speaker at a wide range of conferences, including those focusing on addictions and public health
Public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" . It is concerned with threats to health based on population health...
, violence against women, and media literacy.
In 1993, Jean Kilbourne was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. She has been interviewed by many major news sources such as Time, Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
, and The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, and has been featured on hundreds of television and radio programs including The Today Show
The Today Show
Today is an iconic American morning news and talk show airing every morning on NBC. Debuting on January 14, 1952, it was the first of its genre on American television and in the world. The show is also the fourth-longest running American television series...
, 20/20, All Things Considered
All Things Considered
All Things Considered is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio. It was the first news program on NPR, and is broadcast live worldwide through several outlets...
, and The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Works
Kilbourne’s work links the power of images in the media with current public health problems, such as eating disorders, violence, and drug and alcohol addiction. Through her lectures, films, and articles, many of her original ideas and concepts have become mainstream. These include the concepts of the tyranny of the beauty ideal, the connection between the objectificationObjectification
Objectification is the process by which an abstract concept is made as objective as possible in the purest sense of the term. It is also treated as if it is a concrete thing or physical object...
of women and violence, the themes of liberation and weight control exploited in tobacco advertising
Tobacco advertising
Tobacco advertising is the advertising of tobacco products or use by the tobacco industry through a variety of media including sponsorship, particularly of sporting events. It is now one of the most highly regulated forms of marketing...
aimed at women, the targeting of alcoholics by the alcohol industry, addiction as a love affair, and many others.
Kilbourne has served as an advisor to two Surgeons General. Kilbourne holds an honorary position as Senior Scholar at the Wellesley Centers for Women
Wellesley Centers for Women
The Wellesley Centers for Women is the largest gender-focused, social science research-and-action organization in the U.S., and a member of the The National Council for Research on Women...
. She has served as an advisor or board member to many organizations, including ACME (Action Coalition for Media Education), the Media Education Foundation, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence
National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence
The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence was founded in 1944 by the first female member of Alcoholics Anonymous , Marty Mann . It has a nationwide network of 95 affiliates around the United States...
, NEDA (the National Eating Disorders Association)
National Eating Disorders Association
The National Eating Disorders Association is an American non-profit organization devoted to preventing eating disorders, providing treatment referrals, and increasing the education and understanding of eating disorders, weight, and body image. It organizes and sponsors National Eating Disorders Week...
, and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.
Documentaries
Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women series (Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women, Still Killing Us Softly, Killing Us Softly 3, and "Killing Us Softly 4"').Complete filmography:
- Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising’s Image of Women (2010)
- Deadly Persuasion: Advertising & Addiction (2004)
- Spin the Bottle: Sex, Lies, & Alcohol (2004)
- Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising’s Image of Women (2000)
- The End of Education (with Neil Postman, 1996)
- Slim Hopes: Advertising & the Obsession with Thinness (1995)
- Sexual Harassment: Building Awareness on Campus (1995)
- The Killing Screens: Media and the Culture of Violence (with George Gerbner, hosted by Jean Kilbourne) (1994)
- Pack of Lies: The Advertising of Tobacco (1992)
- Advertising Alcohol: Calling the Shots (2nd Edition) (1991) (Red Ribbon, American Film and Video Festival)
- Still Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women (1987) (National Council on Family Relations Film Festival, First Place; National Educational Film and Video Festival, Winner; Chicagoland Educational Film Festival, First Prize, Consumer Education)
- Calling the Shots: Advertising Alcohol (1982)
- Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women (1979) (North American Consumer Film Festival, Winner)
Publications
Kilbourne is the author (with Diane E. LevinDiane Levin
Diane Levin is an American author, educator, and advocate known for her work in media literacy and media effects on children.Levin is a professor of education at Wheelock College in Boston. She teaches courses on children's play, violence prevention and media literacy. Together with her colleagues:...
) of So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids (Ballantine
Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a...
, 2008). Her book, Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel (originally
published as Deadly Persuasion by Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
in 1999) won the Distinguished Publication Award from the Association for Women in Psychology. She has written many articles, including editorials in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
and The Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association, and has contributed chapters to many books.
Awards and honors
She has twice received the Lecturer of the Year award from the National Association for Campus ActivitiesNational Association for Campus Activities
National Association for Campus Activities is an organization designed to provide information and resources for campus activities programmers throughout the United States and Canada...
and was once named one of the three most popular speakers on campuses by The New York Times Magazine. She was profiled in Feminists Who Changed America 1963–1975 and was one of twenty-one journalists, media activists, and educators included in Reclaim the Media’s “Media Heroes” pack of trading cards. She received a most unusual tribute in 2004 when an all-female rock band in Canada named itself Kilbourne in her honor. While awarding Kilbourne the WIN (Women’s Image Now) Award, the representative from the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists is a performers' union that represents a wide variety of talent, including actors in radio and television, as well as radio and television announcers and newspersons, singers and recording artists , promo and voice-over announcers and other...
(AFTRA) said, “No one in the world has done more to improve the image of women in the media than Jean Kilbourne.” Mary Pipher
Mary Pipher
Mary Elizabeth Pipher, also known as Mary Bray Pipher , Ph.D., is an American clinical psychologist and author. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1969 and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in...
, the author of Reviving Ophelia, has called Kilbourne “our best, most compassionate teacher.”
- Academy for Eating Disorders, Special Recognition Award, 2000
- ACME (Action Coalition for Media Education) Media Activist National Award, 2006
- AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), WIN (Women’s Image Now) Award, 1995
- Association for Women in Psychology, Distinguished Publication Award, 2000 (For Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel)
- Boston University School of Education, Ida M. Johnston Award, 2009
- Educational Foundation of America (Grant for a study of gender stereotypes in television commercials), 1980
- Entertainment Industries Council, Special Commendation, 1990
- Feminists Who Changed America 1963–1975 (Profiled in the book)
- Germaine Lawrence, Inc., Woman of Excellence award, 2005 Kansas City, Kansas (Given keys to the city by Mayor Kay Barnes), 2004
- MEDA (Multiservice Eating Disorders Association), Annual Award, 2007
- Miss Hall’s School, Woman of Distinction Award, 2007
- Myra Sadker Equity Award, 2005
- National Association for Campus Activities, Lecturer of the Year Award (1988 and 1989)
- National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Marty Mann Founder’s Award, 1998
- National Organization for Women, Boston chapter, Woman of the Year, 1982
- Non-Smokers' Rights AssociationNon-Smokers' Rights AssociationNon-Smokers' Rights Association is a Canadian non-profit organization dedicated to fighting tobacco usage.Its sister non-profit organization is the Smoking and Health Action Foundation , a registered charity in Canada...
, Canada, Award of Merit, 1993 - PCAR (Pennsylvania Coalition Against RapePennsylvania Coalition Against RapeThe Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape is the oldest anti-rape coalition in the United States, working to eliminate all forms of sexual violence and advocating for the rights and needs of victims. Founded in 1975, PCAR works with a statewide network of 51 rape crisis centers serving all 67...
)/NSVRC (National Sexual Violence Resource CenterNational Sexual Violence Resource CenterThe National Sexual Violence Resource Center identifies, develops and disseminates resources regarding all aspects of sexual violence prevention and intervention. Working in collaboration with state and territory sexual assault coalitions, representatives from underserved populations, the Centers...
), Lifetime Television’s Times Square Project award, 2003 - Planned Parenthood of Connecticut, Hilda Crosby Standish Leadership Award, 2005
- Reclaim the Media (Included as one of twenty-one journalists, media activists, and educators in their “Media Heroes” deck of trading cards), 2008
- Stop Teenage Addiction to Tobacco (STAT), Annual Award
- Westfield State College, Honorary Doctorate, 2004
- Womanspace, Barbara Boggs Sigmund Award, 2008
- Women’s Action Alliance, Leadership in Action Award, 1995
External links
- Jean Kilbourne biography on her official website
- So Sexy So Soon website
- Action Coalition for Media Education
- Wellesley Centers for Women
- Jean Kilbourne on the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...