What do I want to find out?

For my personal study I want to explore more in depth the role of women within our modern society and how they are portrayed. I want to explore the unfair advantages and mainly disadvantages faced with women in our society. I believe that this is a very important subject and it interests me and I want to exaggerate these stereotypes in my images in order to make a clear and obvious message to my spectators on inequality of the sexes.

– does everyone see the inequalities faced with men and women
– how our first world countries have inequalities [social aspects]
– will my work impact my spectators
– the ideals faced with body image on both men and women as well as the expectation put on both sexes to succeed in different ways [women encouraged to get married and have children whereas men are encouraged to work and make money]
– how the fashion industry shapes gender

Hypothesis | Questions

Chosen Question: How does the work of Claude Cahun and Cindy Sherman question the politics of gender and female stereotypes? 

What is feminism?
(linked to a previous post)

Feminism could only come about after the Suffragette movement as women were only then starting to get a voice and being seen more equally. Here feminism came about because men and women are faced with unfair standards and stereotypes. Feminism is the social, political and economic equality of the sexes. This movement does not see women as more important than men but it sees them as equals. In recent years it has become a very controversial topic of which some people are saying it to be a ‘man hating’ movement claiming that women ‘are more important and that men don’t face problems’. This is the wrong perception of the movement as there are male feminists. People tend to get it confused because of the name of the movement suggests feminine which is obviously associated with women. Feminism urges to change stereotype, objectification and derogatory lexis that mainly women face day to day. For example, if a woman were to sleep around she would be labelled as a ‘slag’, ‘slut’, ‘whore’ etc unlike a man who would not even be labelled or even be called a ‘lad’ by friends. This is a hypocritical and unfair label that women are constantly faced with. However, there are many other aspects to feminism that seek the equality of life for both men and women. Another example would be that if a male is seen to be sad or to show emotion he is ‘probably gay’ which is completely wrong as women are allowed to be emotional. There are so many unfair and unrealistic stereotypes faced with men and women which feminists are trying to change. Many photographers use this within their work to further the movement of feminism such as Cindy Sherman, Yoko Ono and Claude Cahun.