Theory: readings and articles found

Women as sex objects and victims in print Advertising: 

• Reading describes women "She is a sex object, who is completely powerless and out of control"
• ' Women are 'simultaneously sexualised and victimised in advertising'

Reading has case studies and content analysis of how many times women are used as sexual/victimised objects over a certain period of time. The reading Describes advertising as a very persuasive form of media and because of this if women are sexualised in adverts, people therefore see this as the norm-constantly bombarded with this image of how women should be.

• advertising provides social messages-that then go unquestioned-THE NORM
• Desirable objects and people-women make objects look more desirable especially if they are basically half naked

p3 "At the very least, advertising helps to create a climate in which certain attitudes and values flourish, such as the attitude that women are valuable only as objects of mens desire..."

• body positions, facial expressions-contribute a lot to adverts-half naked women-sexual power to buy a product
• Women presented as sexually powerful-objects of  mens desire to go along with what ever product they may be advertising
• Sullivan and O'conor-between 1970-1983-60% increase in images that portrayed women in sexualised roles. 

Huge increase in nudity as a way of advertisement

• Plous and Neptine (1997) actually compared body exposure and how much flesh was on show compared to that of men and women
• 2006-Millard and Grant-30% of advertisements in 3 popular fashion magazines featured nude or 'scantily clad' women and more then half of these suggested women as objects
• 2001- 70.9% of pictures in men magazines presented women as objects

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-437343/The-little-girls-sexualised-age-five.html

article

interesting article on men thinking women as sex objects-science is now there to back it up.

http://articles.cnn.com/2009-02-19/health/women.bikinis.objects_1_bikini-strip-clubs-sexism?_s=PM:HEALTH

OBJECT: Challenging sexual objectification of women

http://www.object.org.uk/

OBJECT is an award-winning human rights organisation specifically set up to challenge the sexual objectification of women. We were set up in 2003 because of an ever-accelerating culture of objectification:- Lads' mags were becoming increasingly popular, internet porn and lap dancing clubs were more and more mainstreamed. Despite the social effects of this culture, there was little or no public debate on these issues. Many individuals concerned by what they saw felt alienated and silenced.

The scene was set for the 'pornification' of society – a culture saturated by sexualised and one dimensional representations of women and girls, in a way which has little or no parallel for men or boys. This has been so successfully accomplished that in recent years mainstream retailers market pole dancing kits or Playboy bedding to children and jobcentres carry adverts for escort agencies and massage parlours (although, thanks to our campaigning, such ads were withdrawn in 2010!).

Articles

Frith, Katherine, Ping Shaw, and Hong Cheng. “The Construction of Beauty: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Women’s Magazine Advertising.” Journal of Communication 55.1 (2005): 56-70.
This study examined the cultural differences of female beauty ideals in the US, Singapore and Taiwan in the context of magazine ads. The study found that, based on magazine advertisements and depictions of female beauty, the US places more importance in terms of beauty on the female body, whereas Singapore and Taiwan focus more on a pretty face. They were able to come to this conclusion because US ads focused more on clothing, whereas the Asian ads focused more on cosmetics.

Lavine, Howard, Donna Sweeney, and Stephen H. Wagner. “Depicting Women as Sex Objects in Television Advertising: Effects on Body Dissatisfaction.” Pers Soc Psychol Bull 25.8 (1999): 1049-1058.
This study examined how women’s and men’s perceptions of their own body image changed as they viewed sexist or nonsexist ads. Both men and women that viewed sexist ads had a more negative perception of their body than those who viewed nonsexist or neutral advertisements. The study found that sexist advertisements cause women to want to be thinner and cause men to want to be more muscular, indicating that depression or loss of self-esteem may be indirectly exacerbated or caused by exposure to sexist TV ads.

MacKay, Natalie J., and Katherine Covell. “The Impact of Women in Advertisements on Attitudes Toward Women.” Sex Roles 36.9 (1997): 573-583.
This study examined the link between negative images of women in advertising and attitudes about sexuality and feminism. The study found a link between increased viewing of negative female sex portrayals in advertisements and attitudes supporting sexual aggression and a lower acceptance of feminism in both males and females. This implies that if women are shown as sex objects in advertisements, violence against them is seen as more acceptable, and that, overall, these advertisements are undermining major advances made by the women’s movement.

Reichert, Tom et al. “A Test of Media Literacy Effects and Sexual Objectification in Advertising.” Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising 29.1 (2007): 81-92.
This study analyzed how subjects’ responses to advertisements changed after watching a media literacy video. The study found that, after viewing the media literacy video, women respondents were more likely to be offended by ads containing negative images of women, compared to women respondents who did not watch the video. Conversely, men who watched the video did not have any different response than those that did not watch the video. The study proves the effectiveness of media literacy education, but also perhaps something else needs to be done to better reach men.

Wiles, Judith A., Charles R. Wiles, and Anders Tjernlund. “A comparison of gender role portrayals in magazine advertising: The Netherlands, Sweden and the USA.” European Journal of Marketing 29.11 (1995): 35-49.
This study compared gender role portrayals in advertising in The Netherlands, Sweden, and the USA, and found that each country had similar portrayals. Specifically, the study found that all countries were more likely to depict men in working roles than women. The Netherlands and Sweden in particular were more likely to depict men as high-level executives.

Zimmerman, Amanda, and John Dahlberg. “The Sexual Objectification of Women in Advertising: A Contemporary Cultural Perspective.” Journal of Advertising Research 48.1 (2008): 71-79.
This study interviewed female undergraduate students, gaging their responses to female portrayals in advertisements. The students agreed that females are portrayed as sex objects in advertisements, but they were less offended than female respondents in 1991, if not entirely indifferent. This suggests that female portrayal as sex objects may have increased since 1991, causing women to become more accustomed and thus desensitized to the image. The study also found that a company’s use of negative female portrayals did not change the students’ desire to buy their products.

THEORY FOR PHOTOGRAPHY:

ARTICLE 1: Adolescents exposure to a sexualised media environment and their notions of women as sex object:

·         Gender stereotypes and beliefs-the idea that women are supposed to be sexually appealing-idealised to be sexual and look sexual

·         Fredrickson and Roberts (1997) the sexual objectification of women may be defined as the reduction of women to their sexual appeal in terms of their outer appearance and a focus on their body

·         Gives an inkling of sexual activity-if you buy these products

·         Men’s magazines-define women just by their image and sex appeal

·         Ward (2002) Though his research that young adults that watched TV and were exposed to multimedia content were more likely to believe that women are just sexual objects

·         Alternative explanations of women as sex objects-women as sex objects have cultural and social traits

·         Gender stereotypes-men in power-men be able and should be able to roam city-women in fixed places and should be able to be controlled-Simmel-metropolis of city life

·         Try to producer gender quality-and men superior to women-this links back to what i have talked about in previous posts of women being products of the gaze,

Yurie Nagashima

In one photograph, she holds an onion in front of her left breast while holding her t-shirt up by her teeth. This form of visual allegory and humorous photographic intervention locates Nagashima alongside artists such as Sarah Lucas who, in one photograph, placed two fried eggs in situ of her breasts. In the case of Lucas, the reference to female fertility and reproductive organs signified by the eggs is clear. In Nagashima’s case however, the onion is more difficult to locate since it does not immediately signify either the male or the female body. Instead, the onion might refer to the trope of perfectibility: the emphasis on aesthetic perfection of fruit and vegetable that is common in Japanese department stores. The perfect watermelon, the perfect carrot, the perfect onion, is, above all, determined by its symmetrical and even visual appearance. Nagashima’s photograph appears to question, even ridicule, this paradigm closely associated with consumerism and the representation of gender. Here, I am referring to consumerism in an economic sense but also consuming food as metaphor for consuming the female body. The onion thus functions as a pun on consuming and being consumed: in contrast to the soothing milk of the mother’s breast, Nagashima purposefully chooses a vegetable known not only for it’s acidic taste, but also, for causing tears. The unpeeling of the onion, and the allegorical pain associated with it, becomes the complete antithesis to the warmth associated with the mother

theoretical context

remember to type up notes in pink folder

Reflection on photographs and further notes:

Pictures taken are good, but need to be taken a step further:

• Need to take some more pictures of nude pictures and kitchen and house hold objects
• Really like the idea of cling film and suggesting that women are packaged and like products- really like the pictures because they look like they are plastic-but i think they need to go a step further and make them more original.
• De delicious products
  Clinge film-melting face-full face of makeup then smudge-melting plastis-katie price plastic
  More pictures with products-still do fried eggs-tribute to artist
  More house hold objects-need to use text as well-lots of experimentation
  More unsexed objects
  Different  types of packaging-anymore needed-polystyrene
  Clinge film needs to be pushed further-in a bath-cling film over bath-model under water-distrrted shattered glass
  Wrap up clinge film lots of times-gives more texture-vascaline on the lense-cling film over the lense-mummified 
  
  

Photos: 'The Perfect Face'

Film Strip of \photo shoot-women as objects

The perfect face?

More spoof ads

Gender Stereotypes:

This reebok advertising campaign was done by a student at university of Westminster in order to show and challenge gender stereotypes in advertising. The student plays on the fact that 'sex sells'. The original advert has a women in it, however she has re created the advert and used a male model in order to show that women are used to sell objects. i really like this picture as it really ties in with what i am doing.

   It is also interesting to point out the lighting in this image, very complimentary of the body as if it were a skin advert-this is something I want to incorporate in my final images.

Above: original image for Reebok campaign 

Above: recreated advert for Reebok- I think this is a really clever way of exploring women as objects and products of the mens gaze.

Photography lighting and studio notes:

Photography lighting and studio notes:

   I was in the studio today doing some experimentation with my own photography and realised that I needed to do a blog post on lighting. We are told that lighting is the most important thing in a photograph-it came to my attention today that I don’t just want one type of lighting in my pictures but also lighting is a way of potentially portraying or symbolising meaning?

Different types of lighting:

Hard and soft light

• ·         Hard light refers to whether the edge of the shadow that is cast is hard or an abrupt transition from park to light
• ·         Soft-soft gradual transition of the light

   Light that comes from a single point source such as a naked light bulb and falls directly on the subject from one direction without being reflected off another surface-known as hard light-causing to cast dark shadows and can produce high contrast pictures with deep blacks and bright highlights-not as flattering on the person or object- you wouldn’t use this for portraiture photography unless it is an intentional thing to portray something

   Soft light-light that falls on the subject come from multiple sources, multiple directions or from a single very large light source-quite close to the subject and usually reflected off something-does not cast deep shadows-more complimentary on a person

   Soft light: If the direction of your light source can be changed, such as when you are using a small desk lamp, you can often redirect it to bounce of another surface before it hits the subject. E.g- point the desk lamp at a wall, pointing away from the subject, this will effectively create a larger light source (the wall) which will cast a softer shadow. This method can also be used with dedicated flash guns with rotatable heads, where the head is adjusted to point at a white ceiling or a reflective wall. In the studio, this principle is used when the light is bounced of a reflective umbrella.

Shading the light

A lamp shade reflects some of the light coming from the bulb into a wider area, and effectively increases the size of the source of the light, and in doing so softens the shadows that it casts. This technique can be used on any light source. All you need is a large enough semi-transparent, diffusing material, such as tracing paper or a thin white sheet of cloth, to hold in between the point light source and the subject. This will effectively increase the size of the area of the light source to that of the diffusing material. In studio flash heads, this is normally achieved by means of a softbox.

What about hard light?

Hard light, as we have noted above, does have its uses. It creates hard edged shadows that will highlight the texture and form of the subject. Unfortunately it is much more difficult to create hard light if you are starting with a soft source. In a studio, you may be able to move your subject further away from the light, thereby effectively decreasing its size, or you may be able to substitute the large light source for a smaller one, such as by removing the soft box, but if you are working outside you may not have this control over the light and its distance from the subject, so the only option may be to wait until the clouds part and the light changes.

   From these notes it has made me think why I would like certain lighting for my photos. My photo shoot with un sexed objects I want soft lighting as if it were a cover girl esc shoot advertising for makeup or something along those lines. I want think to be the same for lots of my photos however I would also like harsh lighting for my shoot for women as products when they will be ‘wrapped up and packaged’ I want hard lighting for this to show women victimised and not always looking soft, but rather constantly watched.