Stereotypes of Feminine Identity as Controlled by The Media
The modern media gives women an identity based on stereotypes (e.g. housewife, mother, lover, career woman, film star femme fatal), yet simultaneously tells her that she is not good enough to fulfill this identity in her natural state.
Not to worry, though, says the media -- just the right
commodity to transform them is available for their consumption. Women,
in essence, are asked to buy themselves. The media have stolen, and
continue to steal, women’s identities, and offer them back to her for
the price of a product. But the satisfaction is always partial, and
each part of herself she buys may be soon contradicted by another form
of representation. Just as she buys the product that promises domestic
perfection, she may subsequently receive a message that she can or must
now be a femme fatal.
How do women react to this closeted controlling of their identity?
They often manifest a post-modern form of ‘hysteria’ – not the
dismissive, sexist term of yore, but a new concept -- an oscillation
between women’s impossible-to-obtain self-expectations and neurotic,
nervous anger at finding themselves a never-quite full, or empty vessel
– not quite a person, but rather a malleable cultural object.
This study will seek to illuminate and explore both the media’s role in the psychological battle between self-expression and cultural ideals, and how women react to this battle for their own souls.
INTRODUCTION
The formation and proliferation of feminist conscious-raising groups in the 70’s led to a radical transformation of the female role in society.
Within the format of these enlightened and supportive settings, women
were able to explore issues related to self-perception, as well as gain
an insight into how they were perceived by men. By exploring these
issues, women acknowledged the psychological oppression of being
“stereotyped, culturally dominated and sexually objectified” and were
able to assert that beauty practices were oppressive and a waste of
time. (Jeffreys, p. 7)
These explorations continued throughout the 21st century, as women
attempted to re-invent themselves as individuals in a society that
remained largely patriarchal. However, instead of embracing new roles,
positive images and healthy self-perceptions, the consciousness-raising
efforts of the previous decades came under challenge by the post-
modern feminist, who asserted that women had the choice to ‘play’ with
beauty practices, so that instead of being seen as oppressive the
practices were promoted as being fun.
This view was endorsed by the media, where women were constantly
bombarded with ubiquitous images of beauty, which were “reinterpreted
as fascinating resources from which girls and women can be inspired and
creative rather than playing a role in dominant ideology” (Jeffreys, p.
16)
The approval of the beauty ideal by post-modern feminists
and the media had an alarming affect on how women perceived themselves
and the resulting actions they took, thus defining the ‘hysteria’
engineered by the female inability to please both feminine self and
patriarchal society at the same time. The brutality of beauty
practices that women performed on their bodies became much more severe,
to include the breaking of skin, spilling of blood, purging of bodily
nutrients and the rearrangement or amputation of body parts.
In the heyday of feminism, the exhortation for women was to make
something of themselves and change the world. In the post-feminist
era, they were pressured by a society which was imbued the concept that
women’s bodies were inherently constructed as ugly, and in constant
need of improvement. Engulfed with feelings of self-hate,
worthlessness, and inadequacy, many women strived to achieve the beauty
ideal and in doing so, risked physical, mental and emotional
well-being.
The ambivalence of the two messages that women have received from
feminine critiques, society and the media – “You’re equal… no, wait,
you’re subordinate” (Douglas, p. 161) -- brings to light the constant
struggle and mental torment that women have to address in their daily
lives, often leading to both outwardly and inwardly manifested neuroses
– the ‘hysteria’ -- which has ominous implications for women’s
futures. It is this ongoing struggle that I hope to address in my
Project Proposal.
CONCEPT
• In our culture, not one part of a woman’s body is left untouched,
unaltered. No feature or extremity is spared the art, or pain, of
improvement. (Dworkin, pg. 112)
• “To her belongs all that is beautiful, even the very word beauty
itself – ‘she is a doll’. I’m sick of the masquerade.” (Germaine
Greer, in Wolf, 1991, p. 12)
RATIONAL
“The more legal and material hindrances women have broken through, the
more strictly and heavily and cruelly images of female beauty have come
to weigh upon us.”
(Wolf, 1993, p.10)
Being a woman in society today, one is constantly aware of the
conflicting messages that we are fed by feminist teachings and the
media. Both spread the word of feminism throughout the world, but also
manage to inhibit and/or co-opt the cultural movements with the most
liberating potential, by advocating the beauty ideal.
In the past decade, through feminist enlightenment, women were
successful in usurping the patriarchal power structure. Women had more
money, scope and recognition than ever before. Simultaneously,
however, cosmetic surgeries became the fastest growing medical
procedures performed; eating disorders reached epidemic proportions;
pornography (hardcore and softcore) became a mass media mainstay, and
woman often claimed that they would much rather lose weight than
achieve any other personal goal. Indeed, research has shown that
inside the mind of the successful, attractive woman “lies a secret
‘underlife’ poisoning our freedom; infused with notions of beauty, it
is a dark vein of self hatred, physical obsessions, terror of aging and
dread of lost control.” (Wolf, 1991, pg. 10)
So many potentially powerful women are led to feel this way, as they
are caught in the midst of a violent backlash against equality from the
media, who use images of beauty as a weapon against female advancement.
The advent of the post-modern feminists and their view that beauty
products were a way in which women could express their “creative
expressions” also aided in undermining women’s emancipation from
patriarchal control.
This conflict is a matter of utmost significance for all women to
consider. Accordingly, it is this conflict, between mixed messages
from the media and feminist critiques, and the psychological impact
they have on women, that I hope to address in my Project Proposal.
CUSTOMER PROFILE
The customer that I am targeting is a female within the age bracket of
25-40. She is a well-traveled individual with a comprehensive knowledge
of the arts and culture.
She has a positive image of women, one that is based on morality and
belief in a value system. Her philosophy emphasises individual liberty
and personal independence. She fights for causes, not fame, and is
strong and free-spirited. Although interested in fashion, she is an
individual who will take a garment and use it to interpret her own
style, therefore rejecting trend in favour of determined modernity. She
will be drawn towards garments that are a complex and inspirational
marriage between creativity and exploration, and that are innovative,
functional and individual. She is also a customer who appreciates that
a garment can be regarded as a sculptural aesthetic, or wearable art.
SEASON
Spring/Summer 2006
LITERATURE REVIEW
Primary sources for this research have been books and articles that
explore the myths of femininity and how women react to their plight,
from a variety of perspectives (full bibliographic details available in
the Bibliography section of this proposal), as follows:
• Naomi Wolf’s groundbreaking book The Beauty Myth offers an
in-depth analysis of the “beauty backlash” that has served to
˜hypnotize women into political paralysis.” (p.7)
• Susan Douglas' book Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with
the Mass Media offers an enlightening discussion of the media
representation of feminism as a 'false dichotomy' that helps “to
reaffirm, more than ever, the importance of female attractiveness to
female success.” (p. 191).
• Mary Pipher's books, Hunger Pains: The Modern Women's Tragic Quest
for Thinness and Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent
Girls, offers an insight into the effects of the media on the young
female psyche. Phiper suggests that despite the advances of feminism,
media-impressionable young women continue to be victims of abuse and
self-mutilation.
• Harold Koda’s book Extreme Beauty addresses the ideals of beauty
that have persisted or shifted through the ages. The book explains how
the mechanism of costume has transformed the zones of the body that
dictate shape and proportion, in order to alter its physical structure.
• In Cindy Sherman, edited by Zdenek Felix and Martin Schwander, the
famous photographer’s works are depicted as brilliant, yet painful
parodies of the dictate imposed by media images on every girl, that she
should “perfect her clothes, her make-up and her posture so as to
imitate an apparently desirable but simultaneously unattainable model
of immaculate feminine beauty.” (p. 14)
• Catherine Redfern’s article “Teenagers and Cosmetic Surgery”
explains that in our society “adult female bodies are treated like
mistakes that continually need correcting.” From makeup to plastic
surgery, these beauty rituals are “almost seen as an essential part of
the female experience.”
• Barbara Homeier’s article “Eating Disorders: Anorexia and Bulimia”
explains why women, particularly teens, may fear any weight gain and go
to extreme measures to prevent it: “We’re overloaded by images of thin
celebrities, people who often weigh far less than their healthy
weight.”
• An article on the BBC news website, “More Young Women Seek
Cosmetic Surgery,” gives an insight into the increasing popularity of
cosmetic surgery, citing a 1999 survey which shows that one in three
British women have considered such surgery.
• Alfred Hitchock’s films Vertigo, Psycho, and Rebecca, all of which
depict women in stereotypes and harrowing duress, highlighting
society’s expectations of them.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research will explore how artists and their subjects manifest and
depict the conflict between feminism and media expectations, and the
resulting hysteria, from both a physical and mental perspective. This
type of exploration will give the widest variety of perspectives on the
conflict and how it is both perceived and experienced by women and the
creators of their media expectations:
Physical aspects
• Japanese fashion designer Rei Kawakubo seems to regard the
conventions of fashion as a necessary evil. While contemporary fashion
is usually tailored to follow the body’s silhouette, Kawakubo
challenges this principle by wrapping the body in sheathes of fabric,
therefore blurring the margins between body and dress.
• For British fashion designer Alexander McQueen, the old maxim that
“fashion is a cruel mistress” is apropos. He redefines the experience
of the fashioned body by negotiating his designs in terms of brutality
and aggression. Models are either imprisoned in painful corsets, metal
skirts or dresses constructed from sharp material, or put into garments
that extend their presence beyond the borders of the human body. In
this way, each model has the ability to wound or attack. McQueen also
uses his designs to investigate the theme of probing and exploring the
body’s interior. He recognises that while traditionally focused on the
body’s surface, fashion also unconsciously reveals the anxieties of the
flesh beneath it. By imprisoning his models in garments made from
rough, sharp and dangerous materials, they are unable to control their
inner feelings of fear and turmoil due to wearing the garment, and at
the same time are only able to react in a defined, slow manner, to
prevent the dress from causing more pain.
• “Unladylike” Exhibition / East West Gallery
Artists : Marcelle Hanselaar, Sadie Lee and Laurie Lipton
The term ‘ladylike’ is considered the benchmark of femininity, and
often regarded as a constraint paradigm conceived by men to force woman
into subjection. It should stand to reason that a woman is a woman
without trying, but not every woman can become a lady in the sense of
being “ladylike”. This often involves a performance in some way,
determined by actions, gestures and demeanour. Artists, Marcelle
Hanselaar, Sadie Lee and Laurie Lipton strive to challenge this
concept, with the introduction of their “Unladylike” women who are
coarse, outspoken, and ‘unsuitably’ dressed. Based on feminist
teachings of the desire to be free, rather than compliant and
conventional, they expose “ladylike” behaviour for what it is: merely
another performance expected by a patriarchal society.
Mental Aspects
• The female characters in Alfred Hitchcock films reflect the
stereotypical blonde. They are cool, remote and sensual -- and
imprisoned in costumes that subtly combine fashion with fetishism. They
are frequently placed in psychologically harrowing situations, where
their true identity is put under challenge when they are forcibly
moulded into something they are not. By subjecting his leading ladies
through a mental ordeal, often indistinguishable from the films’ plots,
Hitchcock was able to give the viewer an intense combination of
feelings, oscillating between desire and horror; fascination and
discomfort. Vertigo, Psycho, and Rebecca all had this unrelenting,
provocative impact.
• Photographer Cindy Sherman uses photographs to expose the
stereotypes of women found in the mass media today. She draws
attention to their function and deeper significance, by revealing the
suppressed psychological material that is not always evident on the
surface: the subject’s imagination. Photographs portray the housewife,
student, lover or film star in their conditioned and socially
prescribed roles, who then through the medium of role reversal and
illusion convey a disturbing mental image of humanity, exposing inner
fear and anxieties: “the female body petrified into a mask, a
prosthesis, or a doll.” Sherman’s photographs, Disaster Pictures, Fairy
Tales, and Fashion all use this method, to reveal what lies beneath the
cosmetic surface. (Bronfen, p. 16)
• Orla is an artist who takes part in self-mutilation in order to
dramatize the rules of male dominance, that a woman’s body must be
controlled and punished. A self- confessed feminist, she objects to the
“dictates of a dominant ideology that impresses itself more and more on
feminine flesh.” (Jeffreys, p. 164) While undergoing extreme forms of
mutilation to alter her body, Orla’s performance requires
disassociation, that of splitting her emotions from the body, a
necessity required by women today to survive the pain of extreme beauty
practices, in order to transform themselves into something they are
not.
TIMETABLE
Summer Holiday
• Visit museums/galleries/exhibitions for inspiration
• Collect visuals
• Research and develop ideas
• Analyse and abstract research
• Decide what form your Independent Study will take
Autumn Term
Start sewing and Photoshop classes on Friday - second week of term
WEEK ONE
• Continue to research, explore and develop ideas
• Collect visuals to support concept
• Plan Budget
WEEK TWO
• Source Photographer, Models, Theatre Make-up Artist
• Start looking for location for shoot
• Start developing and sketching ideas
WEEK THREE
• Define concept
• Start manipulating fabric on stand
• Continue to sketch ideas
WEEK FOUR
• Start design developments
• Start looking at fabrics
• Start thinking about samples
• Research for theatre make-up/masks
• Consider background possibilities
WEEK FIVE
• Continue with design developments, explore possibilities of placement
• Research and experiment with fabrics
• Start making samples
WEEK SEVEN
• Continue with design developments
• Continue with samples
• Think about presentation methods
WEEK EIGHT
• Continue with developments
• Continue with samples
• Continue with research on theatre makeup/masks
• Continue looking at location/background/lighting
WEEK NINE
• Finalise developments
• Finalise fabrics and buy for toiles and final garments
• Call photographer, models, theatre make-up artist and arrange date for mock shoot
WEEK 10
• Continue with research
• Kept free for anything that has been omitted in timetable
Spring Term
Sewing and Photoshop classes to be carried out on Friday of each week
WEEK ONE
• Continue with samples
• Work on technical development to ensure that project shows appropriate level of 2D & 3D abstraction
WEEK TWO
• Continue with research on make-up/masks
• Continue looking at location/background/lighting
WEEK THREE
• Explore presentation possibilities
• Select location/background/lighting
• Finalise make-up/masks
WEEK FOUR
• Take photos of make-up
• Take photos of location
• Start writing up research for make/-up selected and location
WEEK FIVE
• Select garments for final presentation
• Finalise presentation method in relation to media and materials explored
• Finish putting together make-up book and location book
• Call photographer/model/make-up artist – ensure they are prepared for mock shoot
WEEK SIX
• Start on toiles
• Start story board for shoot
• Ensure you have all accessories for mock shoot
WEEK SEVEN
• Continue with toiles
• Work on presentation of technical file
• Continue with storyboard
WEEK EIGHT
• Continue with toiles
• Finalise any amendments to be made on toiles
• Finalise storyboard
WEEK NINE
• Mock shoot
• Amend any details on garments/make-up/location/background
• Select poses for final shoot
WEEK TEN
• Kept free for anything that has been omitted in timetable
Summer Term
WEEK ONE
• Start to make garments in selected fabrics
WEEK TWO
• Continue to make garments
• Make a list of everything required for final shoot
WEEK THREE
• Continue to work on garments
• Confirm final shoot date with photographer/models/theatre make-up artist
• Confirm location
WEEK FOUR
• Model fit session
• Make any amendments required to garments
WEEK FIVE
• Organise everything for final shoot
WEEK SIX
• Model fit session
WEEK SEVEN
• Final shoot
WEEK EIGHT
• Select photos from shot
• Work on presentation of photo shoot
WEEK NINE
• Keep free for anything that has been omitted in timetable
WEEK TEN
• Keep free for anything that has been omitted in timetable
CONCLUSION
Ideally, the research will yield a variety of fascinating examples of
how the ‘hysteria’ manifests itself in women, both internally and
externally; both personally and artistically. From that point, it may
be possible to extrapolate and suggest methods for women to understand
and then combat the patriarchal oppression, and women’s own complicity
in it, by a variety of personal, social, political, and artistic
means. Some of the questions which may be answered in the research
itself, or in the work that it may inspire along the way, include the
following:
• Why do women oscillate between dissatisfaction and criticism
of the roles prescribed to them by the mass media and their own selves,
on one hand, and an ongoing collusion with the mass media by imitating
precisely the repertoire of identities offered to them?
• What are some of the passive-aggressive, vs. active and overt ways
in which women manifest their dissatisfaction and criticisms?
• How do women currently answer the questions “Who am I? Do I exist
as myself or as a function of what society expects of me? Am I a
human, doll, model, plaything?” and how should they answer these
questions in the future?
• How can women who work in the mass media, e.g. film, television,
the fashion industry, modeling, etc., work to curb the hysteria created
by the messages created by the industries within which they earn a
living, and presumably some of their power and self-worth?
As all good research should, this research will seek to not only
justify itself, but have practical implications: perhaps it can
suggest ways in which women can not only come to understand their
plight, but take an active role in deciding it.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Jeffreys, S. (2005) Beauty And Misogyny: Harmful Cultural Practices In The West. London: Routledge
Bronfen, E., Zdenek, F. Schwander, M. (1995) Cindy Sherman. Munich: Schirmer/Mosel.
Douglas, S. (1994) Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media
New York: Random House
Koda, H (2001) Extreme Beauty. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Pipher, M. (1995) Hunger Pains: The Modern Woman’s Tragic Quest for Thinness. New York: Random House
Quinn, B (2002) Techno Fashion. New York: Berg
Wolf, N. (1991) The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women.
New York: Doubleday
Wolf, N. (1993) Fire with Fire: The New Female Power and How It Will Change the 21st Century. New York: Random House
Internet Sites
BBC News “More Young Women Seek Cosmetic Surgery”
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/288562.stm>
Homeier, B. P. MD. “Eating Disorders: Anorexia and Bulimia”
<http://www.kidshealth.org/teen/food_fitness/problems/eat_disorder.html>
Redfern, C. (2001) “Teenagers and Cosmetic Surgery.”
<http://www.thefword.org.uk/features/2001/04/teenagers_and_cosmetics_surgery?skin=...>
Davis, K. “Cosmetic Surgery in a Different Voice”
<http://www.let.uu.nl/~Kathy.Davis/personal/cosmetic_surgery.html>
Films
Vertigo (1958) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Universal Pictures, 128mins
[Video: VHS]
The Birds (1963) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Universal Pictures, 119mins
[Video: VHS]
Psycho (1960) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Universal Pictures, 109mins
[Video: VHS]
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