Theoretical Context

Some questions that I will be asking myself during my project are; How do we know what is ‘beautiful’ and what is ugly? Does the media influence women on how to look?  Can the impact of the media make a woman feel the need to change her appearance? Can ones identity become blurred as a result of this?  These questions I will explore throughout my project and incorporate into my photographs.

The ideas that are being explored in my project are how the media represents and portrays women.  These ideas came from looking at media sources, in particular magazines.  After looking through many it became clear that magazines advise their audiences on fashion style, what products to use to make you look better, weight loss techniques, etcetera.  One can argue that this may have a significant impact on its audience because they are using beautiful women to market these ideas and products; ‘The reader is constantly being told to buy products which are supposed to make them look better. Products are no longer sold for their uses, for example it promises to make you beautiful’ (Anon 2009).

My idea has been developed by many different writers and online articles such as, B. Englis who discusses that people know what beauty looks like when they see it and how the consumer is looking for the newest product to acquire this. A helpful source was the ‘Dove: Campaign For Real Beauty’ as it discusses how women and teenagers feel about the depiction of women in the media, ‘Many women and teenagers feel that media and culture show only the most attractive women.’  Another particular and key online article called ‘Women and The Fashion Magazine’ strongly influenced my idea because it discusses that magazine portray ‘perfect’ women, which its audiences might strive for, but realistically in unachievable.  The theoretical research helped to develop my ideas of how the media can make women feel about their appearances, for example unsatisfied, self-conscious, maybe leading them to want to change themselves and thefore potentially changing their identity.

Anon. (2009) Women and The Fashion Magazine [online]. Available from: http://www.nowpublic.com/style/women-and-fashion-magazine [Accessed 10 November 2011].

Englis, B., Solomo, R. And Ashmore, R. (1994) The Journal of Advertising. Beauty before the Eyes of Beholder: The Cultural Encoding of Beauty types in Magazine Advertising and Music television, Vol. 23 no 2.

Dove: Campaign For Real Beauty. (2011) About the Dove Self-Esteem Fund [online]. Available from:  http://www.dove.co.uk/cfrb/self-esteem-fund/about.html [Accessed 30 November 2011].

Proposal

Throughout this term I am going to investigate women’s representation in the media and how this may have an impact on them and their identity.  For example one may feel influenced by the media by what they see and read, thefore feeling the need to change their appearance to fit into what is seen as ‘stereotypically’ beautiful.  Media sources that potentially portray what constitutes as a ‘beautiful’ woman is shown through, television, film, photography, websites, magazines and adverts which I will look at. I would like to focus on women’s appearances, for example facial features. I will also look at women’s body image and how woman may feel self-conscious and flawed about their appearance because of what they see in the media.
I will explore how women may not feel comfortable in their own skin because of this constant portrayal of ‘beautiful women’ in the media.  Thefore this could leave women wanting to change their image to feel more confident, for example through extremes such as plastic surgery.  It can be said that a women’s identity could become blurred or lost because they are ‘conforming’ to what she sees in the media. I believe that the mass-media shows a 'stereotypical' image of women and one may feel the need to change their appearance to fit in to feel more accepted or secure about their appearance.

 For my final piece of work this term I am going to relate my images around how women feel pressurized by the images they see of other women in the media.  One can argue that women’s depiction of beauty or how to achieve it is a strong influence in media sources.  For example magazines show ‘beautiful’ women on the front covers to attract their audiences, promising to help them find beauty through information and tips advertised to achieve this.

Diana Vickers advert link for 'Very' online shopping

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BIvlBJ-KtE

This link is to the Diana Vickers 'Very' online shopping advert, which I have mentioned in my research project in the 'Research' section.

Daily Mail Online article

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2070393/H-M-putting-models-heads-generated-bodies-sell-swimwear.html

In the 'Daily Mail' online the article discusses how H & M (clothing online shop) used the same female body for its bikini photographs and stuck the models head on top.  This body is not even from a female, but it was virtually made by a computer.  Then H & M edited the skin so that it matched the different ethnicity and skin colour of the models. I found it interesting because they apparently used a generic body so that the consumer focuses more on the garments.  I believe though that they may have made the ‘perfect’ body so that women were more likely to be attracted to the product on show, hoping it will look the same or similar on them.  The photographs that are in the article are below:

Photographic Shoot 7

 

For this photographic shoot I wanted to show how society’s constructions of ‘beauty’ through the media may make women feel the need to change their appearances, potentially losing their identity or blurring it.  The bricks in the background are to symbolise how society’s structure can be seen as solid and powerful, and how it may be hard for women to step out of these images produce, for example through the media portraying what defines ‘beauty’.  This idea came from B. Gunter’s reading because he argues that beauty is defined by what is constructed in one’s society socially and culturally, for example what is beautiful and what is not.  The lines of the bricks symbolise how people may feel constricted by the pressure of the media on their personal identity.  The bricks show a strong structure and the women fading into the background with their faces being blurred symbolise how one may fell that they blend into society.  This is because they feel the need to ‘conform’ to what they see in popular media cultures, for example changing their appearances.  

I experimented in Photoshop, trying out different ideas to produce my final product.  I experimented with different coloured brick walls to see which one looked better.  I also tried out blurring one girls face or all three of them, as I was unsure which photograph portrays my idea more clearly.

Photographic Shoot 6

This photographic shoot is a continuation on my other photographic shoots, for example ‘changing appearance’.  In the last photographic shoot 'changing appearance' I used Photoshop to place her desired facial features on to her face; this time I stuck the images on instead.  This gave a more realistic look to the photograph and the model has an eerie doll look to her, which I like.  The last photograph of the model peeling of her lips is to symbolise that she does not want to conform to what she sees in the media because she feels pressurised, but just wants to be herself and be happy with her appearance.

Next term I would like to continue with this idea and produce more photographs using this theme.

Unbearable weight: feminism, Western Culture, and the body by Susan Bordo

An extract from the book that I found related to my project were quotes from ‘Dr.Randal Haworth in a Vogue interview, “I don’t have a problem with women who already look good who want to look perfect.” Perfect.  When did “perfection” become applicable to a human body?  The word suggests a Platonic form of timeless beauty-appropriate for marble, perhaps, but not for living flesh.  We change, we age, we die’ (Bordo, 1959, p. xvii).  It can be said that women who already look good are still looking for ‘perfection’ and are unsatisfied with their already good looks.  Could this be because of what they read and see in the media?  The plastic surgery industry helps women and men to change their appearances un-naturalistically using surgery, instead of trying to enhance their natural beauty a naturalist way, e.g. exercise or other non surgical products.  These days surgery can change almost any part of your body if one desires to go down that route.  Below is an interesting photography of a woman which is labelled with all the plastic surgery she has undergone.

It can be said that in the world we live in the obsession of beauty or for those looking for it has evolved over the years, ‘It’s hard to imagine a world where idealized female imagery is not plastered everywhere, but our current situation is a relatively new phenomenon. Before the mass media existed, our ideas of beauty were limited to our own communities.’  I found this quote from the online article ‘Body Image: The Media Lies.’  It discusses how the mass media has a large influence on depicting ‘beauty’ and what it is and how this has advanced over the years.

Bordo, Susan. (1959) Unbearable Weight: Feminism, West culture, and the body. California: University of California Press.