Quotes from Jean Kilbourne

Addiction beggins whith the hope that something 'out there' can instantly fill up the emptiness inside.

But many people do not fully realize that there are terrible consequences when people becoming things. Self-image is deeply affected. The self-esteem of girls plummets as they reach adolescence partly because they cannot possibly escape the message that their bodies are objects, and imperfect objects at that. Boys learn that masculinity requires a kind of ruthlessness, even brutality. Violence becomes inevitable.

Our need for social and personal change and power is often co-opted and trivialized into an adolescent and self-centered kind of rebellion.

Indeed the very worst kind of man for a women to be in an intimate relationship with, often a truly dangerous man, is the one considered most sexy and desirable in the popular culture.

Children growing up today are bombarded from a very early age with graphic messages about sex and sexiness in the media and popular culture.

Sadly, today, instead of having the positive experiences they need for healthy development, many children are having experiences that undermine it. Today's cultural environment bombards children with inappropriate and harmful messages. As children struggle to understand what they see and hear, they learn lessons that can frighten and confuse them.

Jennifer thought it must be abnormal for such a young child to be thinking about diets, let alone wanting boys to like her for being "pretty" and "sexy.

Meghan and her husband had talked about how they wanted to be open and comfortable with Eva when talking about sex, but they had expected Eva's first questions to be about where babies come from, not this. This was not what they had in mind! Should Meghan actually describe oral sex? What could this possibly mean to a 7-year-old? And how would her explanation affect Eva's understanding about sex and relationships between caring adults, both short and long term?

Parents have always noticed how their children's world differs from the world of their own childhood, but what is happening now regarding sex and sexuality in the media and popular culture goes far beyond the changes that have occurred between other generations in the past. A revolution is taking place that we need to take seriously.