Rebecca Chick

In today’s lecture we had looked at reclaiming beauty but in more detail discussing body positivity and how women are a main suspect due to how they also judge themselves and that a lot have eating disorders.

• How do you define body positivity?
• Body positivity is accepting and appreciating all of your body and other peoples human types. A good example of showing this is the image below as it is showing women with different human body types with their conditions visible.

• One response that is provocative is the art to question body positivity
  • This of which they have impacts on women to have eating disorders if they don’t look like the ideal body shape
  • It makes girls think they are not good enough
• The confidence gap – Is where women are judged on their appearance, this of which creates a barrier on career paths for them.
• “[W]omen feel that their accomplishments are not as great as those around them […] and this then becomes a barrier to a successful career trajectory. – Sarah Banet-Weiser, “I’m Beautiful the Way I Am”
  • They feel like they can’t accomplish much
  • It’s an upsetting statement
• Sarah also believed that the confidence gap in the 1900’s it was payed more attention to in girl hood and seen as a crisis.
• Jezebel which is a company wanted before and after images of girls who have been airbrushed as it had become an issue linking to how women saw themselves and the confidence it had given them. An example of this is shown on http://jezebel.com/278978/the-annotated-guide-to-making-faith-hill-hot
• Looking at the Dove video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk 
  • Analyse the Dove Beauty ad.
    • An artist defines the people by how they see themselves and what they have been told by others, then a stranger is told to get to know them and then describe them to the man giving at the end two images of each person
  • What is the story it is trying to tell?
    • It shows women they are more beautiful than what they really think they look like but also what they believe they look like
    • It also shows that everyone is harsh on themselves as they don’t want to say and know they are beautiful as they have to be told that they are.
  • How successful do you think it is at telling that story?
    • I believe it was a successful story as everyone who saw the two images had preferred and what shocked by how the stranger described them which was more accurate, as it made them think about how they should see themselves. As the world can be very judgmental.
  • How do you think the ad measures up in terms of body positivity?
    • The ad measures up due showing how people can be critical for how they look or how someone close to them has told them how they look, however with the limitations it could work better to show body positivity.
  • Can you identify any limitations with the ad?
    • Looking at the ad the limitations of what they did show was that all the women weren’t overweight or skinny they were all a neutral size but also they looked natural as there were none showing different human body types such as visual defects.

Overall, when looking back at this lecture of Reclaiming Beauty? I had found it very interesting as I had agreed with what was said about women and how they see themselves. This was mainly when we started looking at the confidence gap but also the dove advert, from this when looking at it myself the thoughts that had gone through my head if I was in that situation would of been the same. This had made me think that us women judge ourselves before we speak. But from this lesson it gave me a clear insight for what body positivity is exactly know as before there were parts that were bit unclear to understand for example the confidence gap.

This week in Politics of beauty, we have been looking at Queering beauty. Where we learnt about the gender and desire. But also what intersectionality is and the term of which it is understanding identity.

Discussion:

What if a girl / woman doesn’t have some of these markers of femininity?

• They would have less confidence and wouldn’t feel like they are attractive
• They could be seen as a male and feel like one as they don’t have the female aspects

What if a boy / man does?

• That they have lost the masculinity and can be seen as more feminine

What does femininity have to do with beauty?

• You would feel more attractive than if you weren’t feminine then you wouldn’t feel beauty
• In today’s society you don’t have to feel feminine to feel beautiful

Heteronormative: Ideology which promotes heterosexuality as the normal or preferred sexuality

• The traditional rules of beauty in the west women and girls must appear at submissive within the tradition
• Laura Mulvey defines the ideas of beauty feminine to the male gaze.
• The determining male gaze projects its phantasy on to the female figure which is styled accordingly. – Laura Mulvey 
  • There is a system on how females are seen by male figures
  • Women can practise the male gaze too (By how they look but also with what clothes they can wear)
  • “she holds the looks, plays to signifies male desire”

Looking at image 1 this is a case of male gaze due to the fact that the women who is dressed up with shaved legs and bold makeup is lead across the man being submissive showing that he has all the power and that he is in charge of her. Where he’s touching her and allowing him to do things to her.

Looking at the image 2 called “Judgement of Paris” by Ivo Salinger shows another case of the male gaze due to the the fact that there is only one male who is surrounded by three females, this shows myself that all the females are being submissive to one male showing that they look up to him to be naked in front of him when he is fully dressed and by what it looks like an apple in his hand

• “In a heterosexist world that continues to tell us that femininity is the ultimate available object for universal consumption and contempt, taking a stand on and through (queer) femininity is both intense pleasure and clear and present danger.”- Ulrika Dahl, Femmes of Power (2008)
  • A example can be if a man wolf whistles at a girl and she ignores it the initial response from the man being ignore can be turned into anger which can lead to violence
  • Doesn’t cause male desire but can be dangerous as it challenges everything in a heterosexist world
• femininity can be practised on with anyone who has a body
• beauty doesn’t have to be feminine at all

During this lesson about Queering beauty, I had found that male or female we can all still be judge by our appearances. For example if a male looks more feminine they can be then judged not by their beauty but by what gender they are, but it can be shown in my eyes the femininity can be a big part to people in todays society as we all want to be seen attractive. Another part in the lecture that I had found shocking was that women have to be seen as submissive to men as they have always been seen as superior. From this lesson I had found it challenging in places when it came to figuring out what the passages meant with what the people had said but also easy due to giving points about feminine features.

With the lecture I had today, we have discussed in groups what the intersecting of beauty is like.

• Intersectionality – Kimberlie Crenshaw gave it a name
• We live in a world with a variety of identities which includes race and gender
• You either get privileges or you get discriminated
• Intersectional approach in the beauty industries

Race & beauty

• Creates a narrative around exotic beauty
• Race within the beauty industry is so much better however there are still structural barriers
• Whiteness is the majority – it is incorrect ideology, presents the inequality of race

Cultural appropriation

• Braids (accessible, affordable) hair
• Accused of creating cultural appropriation
  • Stealing another cultures traditions
    • Bell hooks “cultural canabinism”
  • Stealing other cultures practises (Kim Kardashian image with braids)
    • Can lead to invisibility and financial exploitation
  • Braiding gets put in advertising
  • No acknowledge of the history
  • Mainstream popular culture celebrates racial differences
  • Celebrate being diverse
  • Sexual stereotypes of African American women
  • Revival of old stereotypes but in a post-modern way
  • Likes seeing different representations
  • Black model in leopard print
    • Goes back to African cultures

Throughout this lecture today, I had learnt that being a different race or gender it can be a 50/50 chance you can get a privilege or be discriminated by what you look like if you are not white. I had also learnt that the majority of seeing people in beauty is mainly shown as white not black where I believe it should be equal and in today’s society it is now seen more often in magazines and adverts. However, what I had also found different and fasinating was when we learnt about the hair braids and of which it is was said that cause it is a tradition for black people to have them that it was unusual for example Kim Kardashian to have them in her hair and steal their culture.

At the start of today’s lecture our warm up activity we had set ourselves into small groups and were allocated by Jen which image we would be analysing this of which my group had been given

Janine Antoni’s Loving Care

What’s the message of this image?

• Cleaning the floor with her hair but is making a mess
• Black and white to give an edgy effect to make you think if its blood or paint
• Shown looking down on the person to give an interesting view
• Dressed all in one colour
• A bucket beside her that could be paint but looks more like blood

Modernism and the flapper

Modernism and the flapper

The Abject

• Smoothing out feminine figures
• The name given is called the ‘abject’ also referred to abjection
• Julia Kristeva- that the abject exists as a “border”. It is a site of bodily ambiguity where what is inside threatens to overflow.
• Elizabeth Grosz ‘Abjection is a sickness at one’s own body’ – we identify our bodies as unclean and contaminated
• Pus, urine, semen, breast milk is all seen as abject known for contamination
• Cellulite, fat are all seen as unpleasant
• “[U]napproachable and intimate”, the abject is a part of the body.
• She argues that the abject is a“confrontation with the feminine”. (image of a girl asleep who’s bled through her clothes thats gone on the bed)
• Second wave feminism during the 1970-1980s, was happening mainly with upper class white women in the west. Reclaiming all the bad thing that was took about feminism
• There was an approach of celebration to feminity
• Carolee Schneemann, Blood Work Diary (1972)
  • Period Blood
• Why do you think the abject is gendered to be feminine?
  • Because women are seen to be beautiful
  • Women are told to have a higher standard than men for beauty
  • Due to women having periods each month they would less likely to be employed due to them having to have sick days to get better
• Gender essentialism- The idea that women and men have a set of fixed attributes or characteristics—often understood to be biologically determined.
  • Not all women bleed so that to say that they do says that some women are more feminine due to the fact they bleed more than others
• Bridesmaids women’s comedy
• Discuss the advert: https://be/P4DDpS685iI
  • How do you think it engages with and / or rejects the rules of beauty and the idea of abjection?
  • It gives women both options that if they want to shave that they can
  • Normal shaving adverts don’t show hair they show the shaving foam first and then them stroking the body part and it being no hair anymore.
  • Pushing boundaries

Research Activity:

• Identify an artwork, artefact, image, advert, etc. that engages with the idea of the abject.

https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/a13034226/bodyform-advert-first-show-period-blood/

https://www.businessinsider.com/feminine-hygiene-ad-crushes-period-stigma-2016-6?r=US&IR=T

• Explain its relevance to today’s topic: is it critical, regulatory, both? Why?
• They are both body form adverts showing blood, the first video was the first advert to show actual period blood instead of coloured water to represent blood.
• The adverts give young female girls who haven’t had period the reality for what they will expect when they are older and show that they have nothing to be afraid of and that they are prepared for when it happens
• the second video shows that female athletes fight through sport injuries and shows actual footage of real blood showing that blood doesn’t stop women through sport so why should we view period blood different. As women can fight through whatever blood it is.
• Its quite critical and shocking

Throughout this lecture I had found it very useful although quite challenging at the start when we were giving the image “Loving Care” this was because as a group we couldn’t tell if it was blood or paint due to the image being in black and white. From this it showed me another perspective of an image where you can’t just say what it is without sitting and thinking about what the image is trying to show. In the lecture I had also found it very interesting with when we started to looked for videos ourselves of women showing the feminine side where the first image was to showing the first advert to use red blood, this showed me that women were becoming stronger in the scenes of the nation. But also the second video that we had found showing that women are actually stronger that what men actually think, gave me the insight that todays society has changed a lot that when looking back in the past.

On today’s lecture we learnt about ‘Rethinking the rules of beauty’ and how it helps us think about the views change into chronological order from the early 21^st century.

• Modernism was at its peaks in the 20^thcentury
• Marcel Duchamp ‘Nude’ Picture1 says he was to capture the movement in a static place
• Beauty produces the “mental state of relaxation”. – Christine Battersby
• Realism is to reproduce the beauty and feeling
• A function of realism is to “preserve various consciousnesses from doubt” – J.F.Lyotard
• Open up the realistic representation, to make us feel uncomfortable
• People didn’t understand who they were which made them question themselves (ww1-ww2)
  • They wanted viewers to feel disconnected
• They wanted to capture more than one perspective
• “I think in particular that it is the aesthetic of the sublime that modern art (including literature) finds its impetus and the logic of the avant-gardes finds its axioms.”J.F. Lyotard,
  • When we produce the sublime in our work that is the motivation
  • Modernist art doesn’t want beauty it wants sublime
  • Gives us new rules to understand beauty
  • It challenged the status within the culture
• Lots of modernist people thought bodies were more than mechanical parts
• The “beginning of the twentieth century” marked the “heyday of industrial aesthetics”. Umberto Eco, On Beauty: A History of a Western Idea
  • It becomes the new beauty in the west
• The figure of this period is the modern manikin Picture2
  • France 1920s
  • Was painted in a metallic sheen and bend into sharp angles
  • Had minimal features on its face and streamline to show industrial tastes
• The manikins and figures show a context of new qualities in the modern world, they didn’t just have a functional quality.
  • These figures worked to “legitimate women’s presence […] as active consumers and spectators” while simultaneously” position[ing] them as part of the public spectacle”. – Kim Toffoletti
  • They showed women how to dress
  • It showed women on how to be beautiful by teaching them
• Models were told to walk in a very angler way like a robot when on a catwalk
  • They were told how to pose

Revisit your collage and consider:

• How does it disrupt beauty ideals?
  • They have disrupted beauty ideals due that they have gone back to being soft
• How does it reproduce beauty ideals?
  • The collage shows that women are always being told what beauty is
  • It was soft to being rigid looking and it has now become mixed
  • The body shape links to looking more like the manikin and figure look by being small.

From this lecture I had found it very different, this was due to the fact I had strongly been surprised by when in class we talked about the manikins and how women in todays catwalks or pageants are seen to represent the way how a manikin would look, posing and walking in very sharp angles and not having much of a facial feature, and how its changed to be shown as beautiful. But I also learnt that it’s like being a young toddler or new born on how they have to look and dress which showed me that women aren’t independent for themselves.