Women's International Day

In aid of Women's International Day (on the 8th March), Dazed magazine asked 5 illustrators to create an image that answers the question, what does it mean to be a woman today? All five were completely different but the image by Polly Nor stood out most to me. The image is bright because she wanted to celebrate the progression of women. If you haven't noticed already, the background is a climbing wall. This represents an ongoing struggle for equality and a completely safe society for all women. 

Before reading what the picture represented, I thought the image was all about diversity and the steps that women have taken to gain freedom of speech and the equality that we have today. The names on the t-shirts refer to strong women who have suffered, Sandra Bland causes a lot of controversy because we still don't know the truth leading up to her death and Sarah Reed was allegedly sexually assaulted in hospital. Also, the statement 'black lives matter' really stood out to me because I believe that in this day and age, racism should be abolished but unfortunately, it is still around. The only thing that I would criticise about this piece of work is the fact that all the women are the same size, where is the diversity is body shape? 

Photo Credit - Google Images

Exhibition - The World Goes Pop

When I think of Pop art, Andy Warhol and Roy Litchenstein are the only artists that come to mind. I automatically think of modern and comical art work that uses graphics and logos to convey a message. What I didn't know was that pop culture was often used as a subversion of language for historical events such as war and protests. The World Goes Pop exhibition at the Tate Modern explores how different cultures and countries responded to the pop movement and how they used the art to convey a certain message. The photographs of the artwork below focuses on the representation of the woman's body. 

Photo Credit - Chloe Ferdinand

The first two images feature artwork from Jana Zelibska who trained as a graphic designer and illustrator. The work shows fragmented female dancers outlining their bodies and using mirrors for genitals, flowers have also been placed on the wall piece surrounding the mirror to create more emphasis on the area. This refers to a temple in India and reflects on the Hinduism and sexual rituals. Originally, this art was supposed to be featured as street art but it was seen as too explicit so could not be published on the streets. The third image shows a body but as something that is experienced from within (the television screen) showing female liberation which focuses on a global and political view.

This exhibition made me realise that a lot of art is made in order to show a deep message, whether it being pop art or a type of sculpture, what you interpret is never what the artist wanted to convey to the audience.

Mushpit - My favourite duo

Last week I went to Raw Print which is an event in Nottingham that happens the first week of every month, aimed to celebrate the making and publishing of independent magazines. Guest speakers are invited to share their publications with us and explain their process, personal experience, struggles and successes. This week, the magazines were based on feminism and as you guys know, I love independent women that stand for what they believe in. I was intrigued to see how people of such a young age with no funding could create such professional magazines and bring together a successful end product. Charlotte and Bertie, the founders of the magazine “Mushpit” were hilarious and stood for everything I believe in. They had an idea/dream and made it reality! I was fascinated by their story and felt like I could relate to them because they were young girls who went to university, loved to party, were dedicated to their studies and had a mare with InDesign – any student who studies FCP can relate to this, especially me! 

I loved how they didn’t hide their weaknesses, for example they made it clear that they had no funding but they used their creativity to make money and provide clothing for their photo-shoots. For example, they spoke about one of their shoots where they photographed elderly women and then tried to replicate their outfits by using clothing and accessories that they already owned or found in charity shops to then place on a younger model in a different location. They aim to make their readers laugh and even flicking through some of their old issues I can easily say that they have accomplished this!

3 things that Charlotte and Bertie taught me:

1.“Trust your gut” – listen to advice, but at the end of the day do what you want to do

2. Be realistic – we all have bills to pay, spend time on your projects but remember you still need to eat, pay for rent and have a social life!

3. “Know your worth” – Negotiate, don’t let people take advantage

The current issue of Mushpit is sold out but I can’t wait to get my hands on Issue 8 and follow the duo to see how they progress! Good luck girls!

Photo Credit - stackmagazines.com

My Love for Stacey Dooley and Feminism

Stacey Dooley has always been my favourite presenter, she is down to earth and always gets completely involved in the topics that she investigates. Alongside fashion, I am also very passionate about feminism and the way that women can be portrayed and objectified. Recently Stacey Dooley has been documenting issues around the world that put women and young girls at risk, purely down to their gender. The second documentary ‘Stacey Dooley investigates - The World’s Worst Place to Be a Woman’ made me think just how lucky  women of Britain are and how our basic rights can be taken for granted. Within the episode, Stacey visits the country of Honduras and some of the despicable acts that happen there are completely unbelievable. This documentary reveals the utter disrespect that the men have for women, they feel no remorse or guilt in abusing and even murdering their wives; many men's response being soley 'They deserved it.' Honduras has the worlds highest murder rate for women, and statistics prove that the numbers are increasing. There has even been a word created for the murder of a woman – femicide, and in the last year alone '1100 women were either murdered or kidnapped'.

A common reason for the murder of a women in Honduras is their beauty. Santa Barbara is known globally for its very beautiful women and the most publicised case of femicide was the death of the ‘countries sweetheart’ Miss Honduras and her sister. Miss Honduras was shot 12 times by the host of the party (her boyfriend). He then went on to shoot her sister who tried to intervene. The brutality of their murders was one of the worst Honduras has ever seen, and the reason for her murder? She was dancing with another man when her boyfriend saw, he used this as his opportunity to kill. Some of the men at the party even helped bury the bodies, when I heard this I felt so angry and disgusted, not one person reported the crime to the police and the other witnesses watched as he shot them both. Watching the interview with the girls' mother made me feel outraged, I wish that her questions could be answered, this is the least he could do after killing both of her daughters for what seems to be no reason at all.

Other cases that were discussed in the documentary were the murder and/or kidnapping of models in general. Models in Honduras are huge targets, this type of job is one of the few ways to escape poverty in this country and some men do not like women having this independence and freedom. They use this as an excuse to take control away from them in an extreme way. Throughout the programme I kept thinking that in our country, women are so lucky as we have a voice and aren’t treated differently just because of our gender. However, then I went on to think about how various brands use women and their beauty to sexualise their campaigns. 

 For example, the Tom Ford campaigns use women as an accessory in order to show the male domination in the shoot. Personally, I think using naked women is demoralising and a disrespectful way to promote clothing and fragrances, it does not increase sales so why do brands do it? The huge clothing chain, American Apparel is best known for its sexualisation of women within its campaigns, customers are always intrigued as to what their new advertisements will be because they always push the boundaries. However, I don't think that showing women's beauty should be displayed to this extent - it is degrading. Unsurprisingly American Apparel recently hit the headlines with their provocative advertisements leading them to bankruptcy, this highlights how women of today's society are no longer standing for this demoralisation.

Quotations referenced from documentary: BBC - The World's Worst Place to Be a Woman

Photo Credit - Pinterest

Is Barbie really a good role model for children?

The new Barbie advertisement focuses on young girls and their wishes for the future. Initially, I loved the advert and thought it was so much better than previous advertisements for Barbie. The little girls featured in the advert are dressed as their dream professions and put in front of adults, expressing their imaginations as if they were playing with their dolls at home. The concept behind this advert is very clever and everyone can relate to it. 

What do you think?

The idea of promoting the message that any dream can come true is great for the target audience, however it could also be seen as controversial. Personally, I believe Barbie is not a good role model for young girls. Her figure is unrealistic and promotes obsession with a skinny frame, big breasts and a face full of make up. Although the advertisement captures a lot of attention, is Barbie really the best character to promote this?

In my opinion - No! Everyone is different and a role model for young children should promote this and embrace that everyone is different.

Although dreams can come true, not everyone can look like Barbie.