You are now the first image

Beyond Killing Us Softly: The Strength to Resist
Content Overview

You are now the first image-based generation to come of age....Today the major form of communication is the image. What does that mean to move from print to image?....Let’s talk about how this affects you, how this affects the way you think about yourselves, the way you think about your bodies, the way women think about femininity, the way men think about masculinity and the connections between the two.
-Gail Dines, Beyond Killing Us Softly: Strength to Resist

I. Analysis of Image Based Culture

Within media studies, there is a growing discussion on the nature and importance of moving from a print-based culture to an imagebased culture. The main argument here is that the major form of communication today is the image rather than print. Media theorists argue that this shift has brought about changes in the way we think, process and decode information. Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi sees the difference between a print-based culture and an image-based culture as one where images “undermine the power of logos, the slow development of rational understanding and analysis, in favor of rapid and fragmented bits of information; instead of abstract conceptual language, it provides vivid, particularistic images, and instead of intellectuals, it creates celebrities.

Issues to Consider:

While many of the images we see are stills, increasingly we are bombarded with moving images from television, film, video and the internet. These images move at the speed of the producer, not the consumer. This takes the power away from consumer to process at his or her own speed. The pace of the images today makes it impossible to critically analyze the messages. We see them but do not have enough time to deconstruct the meaning within the images.
Print allows us to go back to the text and analyze it at our own pace. We can put the text down and come back to it. Moving images are here one second and gone the next. Ultimately, they all just collapse together into a confusing, but often disturbing, mush.
To produce print, you need literacy, access to writing materials and the printing press. This was always political in that only some people (elite classes) had access to main stream distribution. But print based culture did allow for a range of ideas to be disseminated since the technology needed was relatively inexpensive.
To produce the moving image, you need expensive equipment and skills that few have. Producing this type of image media is much more complex and requires sophisticated technology that few can afford.
Images are more seductive than any other kind of communication. They draw us in and speak to us in ways that short circuit critical analysis. They have the appearance of always telling the truth because we are seeing it with our eyes.
Moving images require less energy than print. We become much more passive when consuming the image since we really do not need to use our imagination. All the work is done for us. (Example: Think about reading a book and then seeing the film. The characters rarely look like they do in our mind’s eye. We often are disappointed with the film and can never really go back to our own images that we have constructed from the book.)
Images surround us everywhere. The visual landscape has been taken over by corporate produced images designed to sell us products. It is impossible to ignore images. They are on buses, on billboards, at bus stops, in the supermarket, checkout, in stores, on the television, in magazines, and over the Internet. We are now in an image-cluttered environment where the producers are competing for our eyes.
The staple of the image-based culture is the sexualized body of young, thin, white women. Whereas print allowedfor a diversity of women’s bodies, the image culture has narrowed the diversity to an almost single body shape. As women, we constantly compare ourselves to the image of the “perfect” body. We can never actually meet the standard since it is a constructed image that has little connection to real women’s bodies.

II. Images and Ideology

Media theorists in that last decade have tended to adopt a more “cultural studies approach” to understanding the way media images construct reality. Rather than talking simply in terms of short-term “effects”, a more psychologically based concept; the discussion now focuses on the long-term ideological effects of living in an image-based culture that is controlled by corporate interests. This kind of analysis necessarily raises questions about how we construct notions of reality from the media and whose reality is actually being portrayed.

One of the main arguments put forward by cultural studies theorists is that the media only tells the stories of a select group of elites and either distorts or renders invisible the lives of minorities. Larry Gross has called this “Symbolic Annihilation” and argues that those without the money and power to own or control the media do not get to have their voices heard in the market place of ideas.

Issues to Consider

All images are encoded with ideological messages. There is no such thing as an innocent image since it has been carefully constructed to meet a particular standard in order to sell a product.
Images rarely, if ever reflect reality. All images are a distorted view of reality since they are highly stylized. They are not a slice of life but a constructed version of reality.
Many theorists argue that the version of reality encoded in images is that which serves the interests of the dominant group such as corporations and wealthy, white, heterosexual men.
This process has been termed “hegemony” and is defined by Michelle Barrett as “the organization of popular consent to the ideology of the dominant group and for ‘hegemony’ to be secured everyone must accept, at the level of ‘common sense’ knowledge, the view of the dominant class.”

III. Body Image

Studies show that girls and women are extremely dissatisfied with their bodies, often to the point of hating their bodies, as well as themselves. While this is not a new phenomenon, the images of women have become more and more impossible to live up to. Models are thinner today than they have ever been and there are fewer and fewer alternative images in the media. From movie stars to TV anchorwomen, women in the public eye are expected to conform to a narrow standard of beauty, which is achieved through plastic surgery, excessive dieting, exercising and sophisticated air brushing technology.

Given that real women come in multiple shapes and sizes and skin colors, there is a growing rift between the ideal beauty standard and reality. However, as we become a nation of image consumers, the line between media and reality blurs since we take the media to be a representation of real women.

Issues to Consider

How can we, as women, appreciate our own bodies on their own terms when we are “symbolically annihilated” in the media?
Why have media images of women become so limited in their standard of beauty? How does this tie in with the massive growth in plastic surgery, the dieting industry, and the sales of cosmetics?
What does it mean to walk around in a body we are at war with? How does this affect the way we feel about ourselves and our rights to demand equality?
In what ways do such images impact on our relationship to food? Having a healthy appetite is often seen as a sign of gluttony and lack of self-control. The problem here is that we need food to live and that healthy eating is a sensuous experience that should fill us with pleasure.
In many developing countries, women are the last to be fed. They are denied food because of its scarcity and their political standing in society. In this country, where most women do have access to enough food, we are now starving ourselves rather than being purposely starved.
What is the relationship between the images of women and eating disorders? Eating disorders in the extreme are anorexia and bulimia, but many women have a difficult relationship to food, one fraught with guilt, shame, and secrecy. This could be seen on a continuum of eating disorders, not as a rare, deviant behavior exhibited by a few anorexics and bulimics.
In the past, women with large hips and sturdy thighs were seen as sexual and desirable. Why have we now moved to a culture where these traits are seen as “fat and ugly” and it is only extremely thin women who are viewed as the most desirable?
Do standards of beauty differ between various ethnic and racial groups? If so, what are some of those differences?

IV. Pornography

This topic is extremely controversial in both academic and non-academic circles. Many students will come to class with strong opinions on both sides and the aim should be to explore the different sides of the debate using a range of readings. The brief discussion in the documentary takes the position that much of pornography is a threat to women’s dignity and their right to be safe in their homes, workplaces and communities. From this framework, pornography is seen as a propaganda tool used by patriarchy to legitimize, condone and celebrate violence against women.

The argument is not that pornography causes individual men to rape women, but rather produces and sustains notions of femininity and masculinity that perpetuate violence against women. The pro-pornography position argues that pornography is a form if sexual fantasy that allows for both women and men to explore their sexuality in a sexually repressed society.

To assume that pornography is just fantasy, however, ignores the economic dimensions of the industry. It is also argued that any attempts to limit pornography will result in the censorship of sexual expression and freedom. Yet those who do not have money, cannot produce their own forms of sexual expression. It is also useful to ask whose image of sex is being depicted, male or female.

Issues to Consider

Pornography is not just fantasy, rather it is a multi-billion dollar a year industry that is produced in a capitalist, patriarchal system. This means that we need to explore the conditions of its production in terms of who controls the industry and the lives of the women who are used in the industry.

Some of the women who work in the industry have written about their experiences. It would be useful to examine the range of experiences these women discuss.
There is a growing body of literature on the relationship between the trafficking of poor women and the production of pornography. Since pornography is a multinational industry, it is important to examine how women from developing countries are increasingly being exploited and abused by a global sex industry.
Pornography uses specific codes and conventions (the “come get me” look, bondage, women enjoying rape, etc.) to represent the female body. Exploring these codes and conventions facilitates a development of a definition of what pornography actually is.
The pornographic codes and conventions filter down to mainstream images of women, especially in advertising. This means that we are often viewing pornographic images without consciously recognizing it. What impact may this have on our acceptance as pornography as mainstream media?
Pornography is now a major part of the Internet. To gain a full understanding of pornography, we need to explore the accessibility and nature of Internet pornography.
The video pornography industry has grown over the last 10 years to the point that the industry magazine (Adult Video News) has reported that approximately 10,000 new videos were released last year, compared to about 3,000 in 1994. Clearly, the Internet has played a role in the marketing of pornography, but this does not completely explain the growth. What could be the long and short-term effects of this increas?

V. Resistance to Media Images

One of the themes developed in cultural studies is the notion of resistance. Media scholars have explored the concept theoretically in order to discern what resistance actually means. Some theorists argue that consumers do not necessarily decode the images in ways that they were encoded. This has been termed “reading against the grain” whereby individuals bring their own histories, world-views, and experiences to a text which results in them making a range of meanings not necessarily intended by the producers.

Other scholars however, have argued that this “reading against the grain” is a pseudo form of resistance, since it does not change the political and economic context of media production. It is important to keep in mind that texts are polysemic (have multiple meanings) while also acknowledging that texts are encoded within a dominant ideological framework.

Given this debate, it is useful to think of resistance in terms of both individual resistance and organized resistance, which calls for structural changes in the ownership and control of media production and distribution and more access to alternative media.

Issues to Consider:

How does capitalism as an economic system shape media production and distribution? The last few years has seen the incredible growth in mergers of multinational corporations that have resulted in six major corporations controlling a vast amount of the media worldwide. Thus the question: How can free speech really exist in capitalism?
The international nature of these conglomerates has enormous implications for the authentic culture of countries. If the United States is exporting its media across the world, what happens to the culture industries of poorer countries?
Corporations have political interests in creating and sustaining ideologies that legitimize consumerism as a way of life. What does this mean for democracy since to flourish, it needs a range of ideas and information?
What role can the Internet play in opening up debates and allowing access to ideas that are not found in the corporate controlled media?
Groups that are excluded from the mainstream have tended to produce their own media, often in the forms of magazines and newspapers. The aim of this media is often to create a community among the minority group and to provide a forum for discussion of issues that directly impact on the lives of their members.

Scenes from Beyond Killing Us Softly

1) Images of Beauty Segment:
Gloria Steinem @ 4:58min.

Before watching:
Ask each student to collect images (from magazines, newspapers, CD covers, internet sites, etc.) of five women who they think best represent their ideal of beauty.

After watching:
Organize the class into pairs. After students have shared their image collections with their partners, ask each of them to address the following questions as their partners take notes:

What physical characteristics do the women in these images have in common? (Consider such features as hair color and texture, skin color, height, weight, etc.)
Did you consider anything other than physical characteristics when you chose these five images?
Do you think your best friend would choose images that are similar to the ones you chose? Why or why not?
Ask each pair to review their notes and discuss whether the film has challenged or supported their analysis. Reassemble the class and engage a discussion of the students’ analysis. Encourage them to use specific examples to explain their ideas. Ask students:
Where would you look for images if you did this activity again?
Were there any general differences that you noticed in the images that boys picked vs. girls?
What role do boys play in deciding who/what is beautiful? How are you affected by this?

2) Self Portraits Segment:
Gloria Steinem @ 22:51min.

Ask students to create a self portrait that reflects, as accurately as possible, the way they see themselves. They may make use of drawings, photographs, magazine cutouts, computer generated graphics, or other visual media to create their self portraits.

Next, ask them to add single words or short phrases that describe how they see themselves.

As an alternative, students may use the following sugges- tions to create a “word portrait.”

TITLE Your name (first middle, last or nickname) in capital letters
Line 1 Four characteristics that best describe you
Line 2 [Brother, sister, son, daughter, foster child, etc.] of [relative/guardian’s name] Line 3 Friend of [name]
Line 4 Who loves [list three objects, people or places]
Line 5 Who feels [three items]
Line 6 Who needs [three items]
Line 7 Who fears [three items]
Line 8 Who gives [three items]
Line 9 Who would like to see [three items]
Line 10 [Choose your own descriptor]
Line 11 Repeat the name you used in the title

What parts of your self portrait (either your images or words) do you see reflected in the media?

3) Men and Women Segment:
Gail Dines @ 14:55 min.

Before you view:
Ask each student to find an image (from magazines, newspapers, CD covers, internet sites, etc.) that includes both women and men (or girls and boys).

After viewing:
organize the class into small groups. Ask each group to analyze how men and women are portrayed in the images, and to list their observations, specifically noting:

Who is placed higher in the shot? Who is lower?

Who is in the background? Who is in the foreground?

Who is looking at whom or what?

How are the men dressed? How are the women dressed?

What attitudes are conveyed by their body language?

Who appears to be the most powerful? Why?

Do the images support the assertions made by the people in the film?

Ask students to comment on the following quote from Jamila, the 13 year old girl in the film

“Whenever I see an image of a young man hurting a women or acting tough and “manly,” I feel sad. Not just because women can never be portrayed in charge of themselves like that, but because of what it does to boys my age. Boys grow up thinking this is how they have to be. Not only is it a body image, but a whole aura that they have to show.”

4) Music Videos Segment:
Brittany Spears @ 1:22 min.

Ask students to watch six music videos (two by male artists, two by female artists, and two by groups), with the following questions in mind. For each one, they should record the time the video was shown, the network on which it was shown, the name of the artist, and the title of the song.

Describe the physical appearance of the women in the videos. What did most or all of these women have in common?

What were the women doing? What were the men doing? What did their actions have to do with the lyrics of the song?

What are some of the themes than run through the videos?

How many of the videos you watched portrayed women in a negative way? What made them negative?

How many portrayed women in a positive way? What made them positive?

Were the videos by female artists significantly different from those made by male artists? If so, in what ways?

5) Using Your Body Segment:
Athletics/Boxing @ 24:02 min.

One of the strategies suggested in the film to resist the media’s unrealistic images of beauty is to use your body physically — to get to know your body as something other than a reflection in a mirror or a source of dissatisfaction

6) Getting Real—Images of Real Women Segments:

Gloria Steinem & Photo montage @ 23:00 min. and Catherine Steiner-Adair (photo tree activity) @ 28:48 min.

Ask each student to bring in pictures of two women they admire, look up to, or who have been positive influences in their lives.

Have students design a bulletin board to display these images.

As students place their two pictures on the board, ask them to introduce these women and describe why they admire them.

At the end of the period, ask students to reflect in writing about what it means to focus on real women... ...and/or ask them to reflect on this quote from Briana, a 14 year old girl

“It has helped me so much to have my mother and sister as role models to me. They look just like a woman should, and they are beautiful. They are opinionated, assertive and loud, and encourage me to be as well. And I am. These are not the only strong, confident women in my life. I have a whole community of them, and I can’t tell you how much they have helped me. Just like the models in the magazines influence young girls, my role models influence me to be who I am — but in a good way. Obviously, I, being 5’7” and over 110 pounds with curly brown hair, a Jewish nose, big hips and big thighs, am not perfect in the society’s image. But I am perfect in many other peoples’ image, and I am just fine to me....Why can’t we just be ourselves?”

The Voices of Girls
essays by Jamila Capitman and Briana Deutch

Briana — October 28, 2000

My name is Briana. I am in the 8th grade at Cambridge Friends School. I am 13 years old (almost 14).

It used to be that when someone saw a young girl who was around 5’3" and over 100 pounds, they’d keep living their lives and wouldn’t comment on it. Now, if a girl is the weight she should be, she is criticized by the world. One form of this criticism is teen magazines. They send subliminal (or not so subliminal) messages to young teen girls telling them to live up to the expectations of the society.

The magazines put skinny blonde white girls in their pictures and pretend not to realize that these fake women are what the future women of our world look up to as role models. These “role models” are usually wearing tight, popular, cute clothes that many teen girls either can’t fit into or can’t afford.

When girls realize this, they think of some way to change it, but the only thing they can change is the “fitting into” part. They set to work, making themselves skinnier, and they usually don’t stop. Eating disorders are taking over the world, and teen magazines certainly aren’t helping to stop them.

Teen magazines are also making girls want to be dumb. The models often pose in positions with their finger in their mouth, looking stupid yet innocent. Teen girls already have trouble speaking their minds because they are afraid to look inferior to boys, but the magazines encourage girls to act stupid and just be giggly and shy. When these girls become anorexic or bulimic, they don’t have the courage to speak up to themselves and tell themselves to eat, or to keep their food down.

If a model isn’t looking stupid, she’s looking sexy. Magazines have commercials in them with women lying on the floor, touching their bellies, or something. And they almost always look depressed, but nobody ever notices that because they’re too busy staring at the fake breasts that are popping out of the model’s shirt (if she’s even wearing one.) Of course, girls want to be beautiful, so they go and get implants or surgery and destroy their natural beauty, which can never be recovered; once you have wanted to be different, there is no way you can ever be the same.

If it weren’t for our strong women of the world, we teenagers wouldn’t survive. It has helped me so much to have my mother and sister as role models to me. They look just like a woman should, and they are beautiful. They are opinionated, assertive, and loud, and encourage me to be as well. And I am. These are not the only strong, confident women in my life. I have a whole community of them, and I can’t tell you how much they have helped me. Just like the models in the magazines influence young girls, my role models influence me to be who I am — but in a good way.

In the video, some psychologists said that something happens to girls when they go from being young girls to being young women. They lose some part of them, the loud part and the opinionated part.

I do agree with this idea, but I think that it happens more to girls who don’t have a big community of strong women. I can’t say that it didn’t happen to me at all, but I know it happened less to me than it did to other girls I know, and I think this is because I have a huge community of strong women who I am very close with. In the video, someone said that they “give themselves up” to be liked by others. I think this is true, not only for girls, but for boys too. I think it happens to girls more and it is also more noticeable in girls because they lose their loudness and their opinions and they give themselves up to be liked by others at the same time.

Some of the women in the film said that the way you react to media images is that you lose sight of how you really look. I agree that this is one of the many ways of reaction to media images. You see all these pictures of skinny blonde white girls and then you see all these people who have been affected by that image and have tried to match themselves to the image, and then you lose sight of what women really look like, and what women should look like. You start to think that blonde, skinny and white is the norm because that’s what everyone looks like in the ads. Instead of trying to make everyone see what’s happening, and trying to make everything go back to normal, you make yourself look like everyone else and ignore the lies that are swirling around right in front of your eyes.

I think that when girls say that they don’t want to be fat, they are really saying that they don’t want to grow into their mature bodies. They don’t want to have hips, or a stomach, or big thighs, which is a woman’s mature body, and actually, most people are attracted to it, which is what girls want. They don’t want to grow into their mature bodies because they think they won’t be attractive, when it’s actually the other way around.

Some people might think that the film is too harsh on the cosmetics industry, and that cosmetics are just playful and fun, and don’t send messages to girls to fit a certain image. I think that is definitely not true. Cosmetics commercials are always advertising new things that you can put on quickly and just throw in your bag, things that won’t wear off easily, so that in situations like when you have a meeting, you don’t have to keep re-applying your lipstick or cover-up. You don’t put cosmetics on for fun when you’re going to a serious meeting. Also, if cosmetics commercials weren’t sending a message to young girls to fit a certain image, there wouldn’t only be blonde skinny white girls advertising the products. This is the image that society tells us to fit. Why can’t we just be ourselves?

Changes need to be made in our society, and I think this video can help. Obviously, I, being 5’7" and over 110 pounds, with brown hair, a Jewish nose, big hips and big thighs, am not perfect in the society’s image. But I am perfect in many other peoples’ image, and I am just fine to me.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Jamila — October 28, 2000

My name is Jamila. I am thirteen years old and I go to school in Cambridge. I live in Arlington with my Mom and Dad — my brother is away at school. I like dancing, soccer and music, and I spend a lot of time with my friends. I really enjoyed being in the video with my mother. It gave me a chance to talk about some very important issues and learn about the technical process of making a movie.

After seeing the film I found myself wanting to talk about the role of race in media images. There are by far less black women in the media than white. This is very confusing to young black girls because, unlike the white girls they know, no matter how hard black girls try, they can never become white. Black girls can starve themselves, can straighten their hair and even sometimes lighten their skin but, no matter what, they are still black.

Another part of the race issue is the “exotic look”. In magazines, TV and movies, Asian and Latina and Black women are portrayed to have a sort of unearthly charm. Most often, these women do not really look fully Asian, Latina or Black. Boys that I know have talked about models and singers of color being attractive but they are usually referring to the light skinned, straight haired Black models or the Latina Jennifer Lopez look-a-likes.

Obviously, the push to be skinny is a major factor in the media today. I personally feel that weightism is just as important as racism, sexism and homophobia. The difference is that people can control their weight. This would not be such a problem because there is nothing wrong with being healthy, but when the images that young girls strive to be like are unhealthy it is a problem. The control can turn to chaos, or eating disorders.

I think one of the biggest problems about the push to be skinny is that it is meant to be attractive to men. Not only do women get taught by the fashion magazines, but by men as well. It is really only a few men who choose these standards, not normal men we see on the street. Women are constantly told, get smaller, and men are constantly told that woman should get smaller. They lose sight of what real women’s mature bodies look like and think that these skinny super models are perfect and everyone else is fat.

As teenagers in our world, we want to be cool, we want to have fun and we want to have friends. All the time, everywhere we go, someone is trying to tell us how to do this: “Wear these clothes, listen to this music, be like this.” Media screams these things at us and even if we try not to, we have to hear.

These images, about how to dress and how to act, really limit us. If I do choose to buy these clothes and listen to this music, I am limited in my choices of my appearance and what music I listen to. I am nothing but these clothes and this music. It puts me in a clique of people who dress like me, and because of my “category” I am from a completely different planet then, for instance, a close friend who chooses to dress a different way.

Much of today’s media is targeted to young people. It get us in their trap and makes us fall in love with it. We don’t usually notice how much media images make us hate ourselves. It is not fair for us, as the main consumers, to be given such a narrow perspective of how life for young people is and should be. We accept this version which hurts us and we don’t even notice it is doing us harm. There needs to be a revolution!

Whenever I see an image of a young man hurting a woman or acting tough and “manly,” I feel sad. Not just because women can never be portrayed in charge of themselves like that, but because of what it does to boys my age. Boys grow up thinking this is how they have to be. Not only is it a body image but a whole aura that they have to show.

Black men watch these stereotypes of other black men and think that is how they should look and dress. I personally think that if someone wants to wear baggy jeans, they should be allowed to without being looked at suspiciously, but since this is not the case, young black men need to see positive role models that are not always dressed a certain way. Women need to see men who are different so that men do not feel so concerned about being “manly” enough.

I think that experimenting with clothing and make-up can be a lot of fun for young girls. I love nail polish and make up because I enjoy seeing myself in new ways. I certainly don’t feel as though I need these things to be who I am, or to be beautiful, but I enjoy the decision. I don’t think there is any reason why young people should not be allowed to have make up, just so long as they know they don’t need it.

The girls we see on television are always heavily made up and, if we see them get out of bed in the morning the first thing they do is put on more. Girls think that is beauty, that is how I must be, so I need make up. I certainly go through never leave the house without lip gloss fazes, but when I stop and really ask myself if I want to wear lip gloss for me, or because of the ad I saw on TV some times I put it down and sometimes I don’t.

It is hard to be sure I am being true to myself all the time. I think sometimes, do I try to look nice because I want to? Or is it because I feel I have to? I don’t know how I make the decision about what looking nice is, or whether I do look good or not, but I usually am happy with myself. It is important for girls to explore options, there is more than one way to be.

I think that the strong women in my life have played a very important role in keeping me healthy and confident about myself. Stories of my grandmothers, my mother and my many Aunties — all of these women who are not fashion models, but role models — have shaped my life. I think for a girl to grow up with strong assertive women around her is a wonderful gift. For some young girls it ends up being the gift of a voice in teen years. I love all the strong women in my life for being themselves and loving themselves, and I also am inspired by remembering all the struggles they went through to get where they are now.

Working with Girls 10-12
by Cheryl Hirshman

(Cheryl Hirshman is an artist, founder and former director
of the New England Children’s Film Festival and a media
literacy teacher in the Lincoln, MA school system)

Background
As parents and educators we accept the arduous task of helping our children navigate the hills and valleys of childhood, while they strive to become adults. Along the way we attempt to provide them with experiences that they can use to build strong values and find purpose and meaning in their lives.

The challenge is made harder by media imagery and rampant commercialism that rely on and support social stereotypes. No longer are parents, teachers, community and churches alone in providing the fuel for a child’s life journey. Now, more than ever, we find ourselves coparenting with disturbing media messages that predominate our society.

Gender conditioning begins from the moment a child is born. Being male or female pre-determines how society will view and teach them about the meaning of their role in the community. Even before the ink is dry on the birth certificate, marketers have begun to target the newborn with”free” samples and coupons such as his or hers disposable diapers. Male children are most often welcomed into this world with paraphernalia decorated with images that symbolize masculinity: footballs, baseballs, cars, trucks and boats; while female children are given frilly, pastel colored items adorned with flowers and hearts.

The mood is set. Females receive the message that they are supposed to be nurturing, passive, cooperative and emotional, while males are defined as independent, aggressive, assertive, and ambitious. By the time children reach puberty they have been subjected to intense marketing campaigns, woven with themes of racism, sexism, ageism and violence.

According to recent studies, children spend an average of 1,456 hours watching TV in one year, while viewing at least 20,000 commercials during that time. These statistics do not include the number of programscartoons -- sitcoms and made-for-TV movies -- increasingly using product placement in the production. In addition, over the last few years we have seen a greater number of marketing campaigns directed at children via printed materia -- magazines, newspaper ads, billboards, posters and web sites -- more than ever before. Companies that are not only selling products, but also image and lifestyle are pursuing younger and younger children.

In response to this commercial blitz, we must provide children with the tools to become media literate citizens; so that they may fully understand the impact that message laden commercialism has on their well-being.