A3 Workbook // Gathering Ideas

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/10/feminism-not-humanism-youtube_n_6132414.html Humanism vs feminism

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2014/09/25/why-i-prefer-the-word-feminist-over-equalist/comment-page-2/ Why feminism is used and not equalism!!

http://www.guerrillagirls.com/#open (website of the Guerrilla girls, who fight for equality in art, including fighting against sexism.)

http://www.heforshe.org/en (feminist website focused on including males in the movement for equal rights)

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/oct/18/bambi-graffiti-artist-female-banksy-street-art-feminism (Bambi, female graffiti artist and feminist, described as a female-Banksy, which in itself is somewhat sexist, likening her work to another man’s instead of acknowledging her as her own artist)

It is interesting to note that Urban Dictionary (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Feminism) has many definitions of Feminism. Urban dictionary is full of vulgar, rude, misguided and opinionated definitions of words both legitimate, and colloquial. It does contain accurate information, but it is more widely known as containing humorous, and potentially offensive definitions of words. However, it’s definitions of feminism, at least the first ones loaded as the ‘top definitions’, are accurate, well informed and generally not at all what I expected from Urban Dictionary. I found the top definition to be more informative and understandable than the one that Merriam Webster gave me. Of course, skip through the page or so few definitions and you stumble across the ‘man hater’ jokes and accusatory definitons, but those were to be expected from the start.

http://everydaysexism.com/about
A website where you can post your own stories about being discriminated against or sexist encounters, which can be anonymous or not. It’s purpose is to remind people that sexism is still a serious problem, and needs to be addressed.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11609224/Sexist-beer-adverts-leave-me-frothing.-Leg-spreader-anyone.html
article about sexism in the beer industry

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/may/14/sexist-beer-ads-fosters
more examples of sexism in alcohol marketing, and why it needs to change

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3080856/Sexist-adverts-women-beer-says-Foster-s-boss-Chief-says-time-campaigns-insulting.html
article explaining that the sexist advertising beer companies have used are driving their female customers away. It explains that nowadays, there are twice the amount of women (in the UK) who drink lagers and beers, which means that the sexist advertising targeted at men is becoming totally void and increasingly damaging.

In New Zealand

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/299931/women’s-worth-and-sexism-in-sport I piece on women’s sport in New Zealand, and how they don’t get as much coverage, support or money in comparison to the men’s teams

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/288360/how-sexist-is-new-zealand-politics (News piece on NZ Politics and how nowadays it’s improving, but there’s still a way to go)

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=10822330
sexism in the NZ workplace, asking about future pregnancies in interviews.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/opinion/637729/i-Sport-the-last-bastion-of-sexism-i
more about sexism in sport, not just in New Zealand but also in Australia, and examples from elsewhere around the globe.

Advert Ideas and Stuff

I don’t particularly feel that this ‘man up’ poster works the best, but it is heading in the right kind of direction. Upon first glance, it would appear to be an ad for men, what with the hegemonically masculine man, arms crossed and intense beard and the rough looking title text. However the tagline clearly brings to light the idea that because of this you immediately thought this was an ad for men and about men. Not perfect, but it’s helped me realise the kind of direction I want to go in.

 

 

 

I really like this poster (ABOVE) because it highlights the immediate associations people have with femininity, and also challenges why you would think that way. By using stereotypical techniques common in advertising aimed at women, it represents every feminine advert ever, and yet it also doesn’t. It’s simple, yet fairly straightforward to understand, which is important if I want it to be seen and recognised by large amounts of people.

I created the above poster as a bit more of an extreme take on the sexist advertising in alcohol marketing. I’m hesitant to use this one, not simply because it’s very edgy, but because I don’t feel I have a tight enough grasp on what sexism is to start to attack it so aggressively. I like the idea of the advert, and how challenging it is, but it would be tricky to justify exactly what it means and exactly how I came to an educated decision to create it. It’s simply a bit of a visual joke that requires more in depth understanding, that I currently lack.

The above poster is a toned down version of the previous one. It still highlights the same issues, but is more passive and contemplative and questioning as opposed to aggressive attack. I don’t know if I like it over the “hey gorgeous” poster, but I feel it addresses another key issue with sexism in our modern day society. Also, having a ‘sexy model’ to advertise against sexism could quite easily be seen as hypocrisy, and would be difficult to argue against with my limited knowledge.

Week 12 // Final Post

The final work

 

Sexism is one of the most widely accepted forms of discrimination, and it has become such an ingrained part of our society that it is incredibly difficult to completely abolish it. It does not dwell simply within the few misguided people, it affects all of us in the media we consume, the interactions we have with each other and the messages fed to us throughout our daily lives. Far too often people get uncomfortable and aggressive when confronted with sexism and movements against it, like feminism, because they don’t understand it or have pre-conceived ideas about the whole issue. There are many excellent movements to combat sexism, but it is slow battle, and specifically in New Zealand “… despite the groundswell of support and the numerous initiatives aimed at equality, statistics show we’re failing women, and in particular our most vulnerable women. We need to stop treating many of our women, consciously or unconsciously, like second-class citizens.” (Enabling Women’s Potential, 1). The key phrase here is “consciously or unconsciously”, implying that sexism is not always directly noticeable, which is incredibly true. Sexism is so common in our society, that it invades our thoughts and controls our pre-conceived ideas on the sexes.

Therefore, to fight the way we think, I created this poster for the fake campaign “#ChangeHowWeThink”, which focuses on questioning why we think these ways by manipulating stereotypical understandings of what a ‘feminine advert’ would look like. More often than not, if we as a society see a poster with: a) flowers b) pink colour and c) fancy cursive fonts, we will immediately assume that the advert is aimed at a feminine audience, because those things are deemed to be feminine. By using this common, but misguided idea, I played with how we interpret everyday media. Upon first glance, we see an advert for women, addressing the viewer as “gorgeous” and “perfect”, such descriptions often used to boost a woman viewer’s self esteem, because the common ideal is that women have a fragile self esteem that needs boosting. However, when studied closely, the tagline “why did you assume this advertisement was for women?” immediately makes the viewer do a second take. It brings to light the assumption made simply by looking at some images and colours on a poster, and makes you question why you would make such an assumption. The final hashtag further emphasises this concept, that we need to address how we think, and change it.

Mirzoeff says “Today we can actively use visual culture to create new self-images, new ways to be seen, and new ways to see the world.” (Mirzoeff, 297), which I feel coincides quite well with my concept. My poster creates a new way to see yourself and the world, because it challenges what you assume is concreted into your way of thinking. In the 21st Century, it has become easier, and therefore imperative, that visual activism is utilised when confronting world issues, as such visual efforts can challenge the way we see the world around us.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

National Council of Women of New Zealand. “Enabling women’s potential the social,economic and ethical imperative.” ncwnz.org.nz. Web. 5 June 2016.

Nicholas, Mirzoeff. “How to see Yourself.” How to See the World. London: Pelican, 2015. 31-69. Print.

Week 11 // Development and Art Ideas

After much more research and digging through various other examples of sexism and discrimination in New Zealand sport, it has dawned on me that it is incredibly difficult to actually decipher where the problem in New Zealand sport lies. Sexism is a huge issue that affects the entire world, and to narrow it down into one single problem affecting sports athletes is only addressing a tiny section of the larger problem. I feel like I should be looking at it in a different way. Sport doesn’t have a sexism problem, society itself has a sexist problem, and because of that it bleeds into everything we see and do, including sport. It has been ingrained into our way of thinking so much that it is difficult to see where and how it affects us.
Because of this, I feel the best way to combat it is to challenge people to see the world from a different perspective. This is not an issue that can be solved simply by making people sign a petition or join a group. If we are to rid ourselves completely of sexism, we have to address the way we think, therefore the best way to do this is to create an easily understandable yet challenging visual work that brings to light certain points that might have otherwise gone unnoticed and accepted as normal.
Because I am aiming for this challenging approach, I need my visual work to be extremely noticeable and seen by as many people as possible. To do this, I could use a billboard, a bus stop  poster, or perhaps even a bus advertisement, to display my work. I want to display my work as something that on first glance seems to target to a certain sex, but upon further inspection highlights the question “why did you assume this advert was aimed at a certain sex?”.
With this idea, the aim is to make people stop and question the way they interpret the world around them, to question why they put the different sexes in their own pre-determined boxes.

Some ideas i have is to create a feminine looking poster, with a large heading like “Hey beautiful” in a cursive font, then small text below asking why you assumed this was an advert aimed at women. I might even create a fake hashtag that helps encapsulate the entire idea, like “change how you think”, or “why do we assume?”. I feel like that tag line will really summarise what the advert is aiming to do, which is to challenge our pre-conceptions.