Jean Kilbourne

Spin the Bottle offers an indispensable critique of the role that contemporary popular culture plays in glamorizing excessive drinking and high-risk behaviors. Award-winning media critics Jackson Katz and Jean Kilbourne contrast these distorted representations with the often disturbing and dangerous ways that alcohol consumption affects the lives of real young men and women. Illustrating their analysis with numerous examples, Katz and Kilbourne decode the power and influence these seductive media images have in shaping gender identity, which is linked to the use of alcohol. Nowhere is this link more cause for concern than on America's college campuses.

By exploring the college party scene, Spin the Bottle shows the difficulties students have in navigating a cultural environment saturated with messages about gender and alcohol. Interviews with campus health professionals provide a clear picture of how drinking impacts student health and academic performance, but it is the students' own experiences and reflections that tell the real story behind alcohol's alluring public image.

Spin the Bottle concludes with concrete strategies for countering the ubiquitous presence of alcohol propaganda and challenges young people to make conscious decisions about their own lives.… (more)

"As timely and important as ever. . .A must for everyone who cares about media literacy and gender equity." -- Susan Douglas | author, Where the Girls Are: Growing Up With the Mass Media

Jean Kilbourne continues her groundbreaking analysis of advertising's depiction of women in this most recent update of her pioneering Killing Us Softly series. In fascinating detail, Kilbourne decodes an array of print and television advertisements to reveal a pattern of disturbing and destructive gender stereotypes. Her analysis challenges us to consider the relationship between advertising and broader issues of culture, identity, sexism, and gender violence.

Includes a bonus 25-minute interview with Jean Kilbourne.

Sections: Does the beauty ideal still tyrannize women? | Does advertising still objectify women's bodies? | Are the twin themes of liberation and weight control still linked? | Is sexuality still presented as women's main concern? | Are young girls still sexualized? | Are grown women infantilized? | Are images of male violence against women still used to sell products?

Jean Kilbourne
Jean Kilbourne is internationally recognized for her pioneering work on alcohol and tobacco advertising and the image of women in advertising. Her films, slide lectures and television appearances have been seen by millions of people throughout the world. She was named by The New York Times Magazine as one of the three most popular speakers on college campuses today.

Filmmaker Info
Producer, Director, Editor: Sut Jhally
Creator: Jean Kilbourne
Production Coordinator: Susan Ericsson
Camera: John Hawkes, Susan Ericsson, Jeremy Smith, Jeremie Winslow
Sound Engineer: Thom Monahan
Graphics: Sut Jhally, Jeremy Smith, Chris Perry, Matt Soar
Assistant Editor: Susan Ericsson
Graphics Assistant: Luke Andreson
Research: Elizabeth Ablah, Michele Morris, Sylvie Schlein
Transcription: Alison Speights
Production Assistants: Erika Nagae, Jennifer Plante… (more)