In my last project I explored different female stereotypes of the 20th Century, selecting a cultural or political stereptype for each decade from the 1910’s to the 1990’s. I explored this characters with an outside perspective and now I would like to explore groups and stereotypes associated with these groups that I personally fit into. I think it would be interesting to play off these stereotypes and look at to what extent I conform to them. I hope to create a series of studio portraits that exaggerate these stereotypes in a way that will hopefully show that I am all of these and a the same time none of these stereotypes. I hope to make viewers consider the different stereotypes or boxes that they fit into.

Feminist 

I personally identify as a feminist. “Feminism is the conviction that gender has been, and continues to be, a fundamental category for the organization of culture. Moreover, the pattern of that organization usually favors men over women.” P. Phelan (2014) It is my personal opinion that women and men should be equal and as of yet, women are considered not as important as men. I believe that people of any gender identity, race, cultural or financial background, nationality or sexual orientation should have the same rights. I do on occasion conform to the stereotype of an angry feminist, when in discussions surrounding women’s rights I can get frustrated with narrow minded people with misogynist ideals. I also think that when discussing issues surrounding gender inequality, sometimes women need to be loud and need to be passionate about what they believe in to be heard, and this can make them come across as angry. I hate the stereotype that feminists hate men. It is untrue, feminism is not about women being more important than men it is simple about women, the oppressed gender, to be equal to men, the socially dominant gender in our patriarchal society.

Art Student

There are a few stereotypical qualities associated with art students. They are many different preconceptions about artists and art students, these include: mental health problems, drug abuse, middle class backgrounds (presumably because the struggle of living hand to mouth is not something the middle class are used to and art is often not a very lucrative profession) and a need to feel like a “unique snowflake” while at the same time looking like every other art student. Another stereotype is that art students can be full of self importance and are often very pretentious when discussing art work. Some art students are not however, self confident and full of self doubt, always feeling like there work is not good enough and that other artists on their course are much better than them. Aesthetic stereotypes of of a female art student is the tumblr and instagram popularised hairstyle known as “space” buns, some kind of facial piercing, statement lipstick, a “indy” brand back pack and doc marten boots.

Opera/ Classical Singer

As a young person I feel that I don’t fit into most of the preconceptions of what a female opera singer is. The most common opera singer stereotype is a large middle aged woman with huge blonde braids and a horned helmet introduced by the soprano singer Frida Leider (1888-1975) who played Sieglinde in the Wagner Opera “Die Walkure” Above is a modern recording of the role performed by Karita Mattila. Other stereotypes associated with female soprano opera singers like myself is that they are overly dramatic and consider themselves superior to alto singer because of the extreme range of high notes that they can perform. Another stereotype is of course the beautiful dresses and gown that they perform in as well as the range of facial expressions and hand movements that they utilise to make their performance more dramatic.

Blonde

The stereotypes associated with women with blonde hair are that she must have a low IQ, be incredibly high maintenance, a diva, a bitch or be sexually promiscuous or “easy”. For the most part these preconceptions tied to women with blonde hair are rather negative and also often, untrue. Most positive stereotypes for women with blonde hair is that they are fun and bubbly or are simply of Scandinavian decent. As a child I had blonde hair but as I got older my hair darkened into a mousy, ashy light brown. I have coloured my hair many times from the age of 13 and have been blonde more than once during this 5 year period. I had been bleaching my hair to a platinum blonde coloured for over a year in order to die it pink, when I was sick of doing so I decided to leave it blonde and just maintain he brown roots. I had some bad experiences being a young blonde woman. I experienced cat calling much more frequently than when i had pink or brown hair, the most popular being “Hey, Blondie”. I also experienced multiple scenarios on the one time I went clubbing with blonde hair, two different men in different clubs thought that they had the right to touch me without asking or even talking to me. This bad experience along with a concern for my own safety and the health of my hair drove me to die my hair back to it’s natural colour. I hate that men associate blonde hair with someone who is “easy” because I believe this is why those men thought that they could do whatever they wanted. I have experienced much less catcalling since being a brunette again, only two instances in two months and I have had no bad experiences out clubbing either which reinforces my reasons to believe that it was my hair colour that was sending the wrong message. As a feminist I want to live in a world where women should be able to have whatever hair colour they want without being judged, but unfortunately that is not the world we live in and my safety comes first.

 Beauty Pageant Winner

I think that there are many pre-conceptions about women who enter beauty pageants, they are often perceived as vain, high maintenance and full of self importance. I personally think that these seemingly negative qualities are inaccurate and what people are picking up on is high self confidence. To a certain extent these sort of competitions are superficial as generally speaking, it is attractive, conventionally beautiful women who enter. However, these women also need to be well spoken and articulate as they are ambassadors for their country, state, county, province, town or village. On Saturday 11th March I was crowned Miss Saint Helier 2017. My experience was very positive as I felt that the focus was definitely on the public speaking skills than the beauty aspect of the competition. I want to explore and research the ideas and history behind beauty pageants further before producing a response to my experience in the beauty pageant world as i was also a runner up for Miss Jersey Battle of Flowers 2016.