It impacted me the first time I saw it fifteen years ago. The documentary Killing Us Softly treats of the relentless messages in advertising about women's bodies. It is appalling to see how women are objectified, sexualized, and silenced. The pinnacle of their worth is in their appearance, and a girl learns from a very young age that she must expend enormous amounts of energy, time, and money perfecting it. 

One of the jarring points the speaker made is that as a culture we manage to both trivialize and inflate the place of sex. How is that even possible? Sex is held to be as casual as passing a beer at a kegger, yet more paramount to self gratification than breathing. 

In the wake of the "Me, too" campaign on social media, it is helpful to understand the underpinnings of violence against women. While I am at a loss for ways to clean up the assault on our gender that is exemplified by such advertising, mutiny against the muteness that is pervasive within those ads is one inroad. The images of women who are portrayed as bottles of whiskey or video games, or tethered by ropes, or whose mouths are blocked to prevent them from speaking need to stop. 

I want to be one voice that says "no more."