What factors and influences inform, affect, and shape an individual’s self-perception or identity? Is a person’s racial identity easily determined and defined – or is “race” a murky, artificial concept that defies simple explanation?
During the School’s annual Diversity Symposium last weekend, students and faculty gathered to consider and discuss questions like these, working to ensure that Middlesex is a thoughtful, inclusive, and empathetic community.
The symposium began on January 29 with an evening presentation by filmmaker and media educator Jean Kilbourne, who is well-known for her work on the use of imagery in advertising and the negative messages that are frequently conveyed, especially with regard to women. “Just as it is difficult to be healthy in a physically toxic environment,” Ms. Kilbourne said, “it is hard to be healthy in a toxic cultural environment.” Recognizing the prevalence of advertising in everyday life – and its power as an educational force – she has spent her career speaking out about the harmful ways in which “ads tell us who we are and who we should be.”
Illustrating her talk with numerous examples, Ms. Kilbourne explained that the retouched, manipulated pictures of women in advertisements imply that girls should be beautiful, thin, and flawless – as well as innocent, yet provocative – giving both girls and boys an impossible standard by which to measure real women. Images of men are altered, too; but, while women’s bodies are made thinner and frailer, men are made to appear more muscular.
The advertising industry’s emphasis on youth, beauty, and seduction “keeps us trapped in rigid roles,” Ms. Kilbourne stressed. To combat these damaging messages – which may foster serious health problems such as eating disorders – she urged students to become attentive viewers who are aware of the meanings behind many ads. The creation of more “counter-ads” that promote positive messages about women and men are another constructive way to debunk gender stereotypes. “We need to get involved in any way that moves us,” Ms. Kilbourne said. “We need change that is profound and global.”
The symposium continued the following morning with an address by Dr. Michael Baran, who spoke about his research on racial identity.