Hey!I hope you all are enjoying your Spring Break...THis week's journals centered around the complex issues of visualities, theories of representation, and images of women in cinema and art. What I found striking ws that each journal entry discussed this from a slightly diffrerent viewpoint, much like the many diff interpretations that may come along with a single piece of artwork. As a whole, the journals allowed us to reconsider womens represenation and find new ways of representing women.
First, Renee spoke about Pollocks description of adolescent female identity. Girls, she claims, try on womens bodies wrought with conflicting feelings of falsity and maturity, discomfort and empowerment. Society allows this to happen, but refuses to pay the consequences when it goes too far I feel. For example, toy stores carry makeup kits, jewewlry, anic high heels for girls age 3 and up. Dressup is a populat game in nursery school for girls. YEt, when these girls age 9, 10 ,11,12...put on thier makeup a little too well, dress a little too sexy, and pass for 16 and up...become pregnant, party, ....society refuses to take responsibilitly and blames the parent for not waching thier child and enforcing morals. .As Pollock says, femininity is seen as a masquerade. Jen furthered this by expressing her concern over Brittney Spears' half naked pose on the cover of Rolling Stone-a MUSIC magazine, not a centerfold or fashion mag. In the article,Brittney discusses being a postivie role model for teens and the importance of having high self esteem. However, media has depicted her success through her objectified body and status as sex object, even though she is 17 years old.
Next, Haley, Carly, and JOcelyn analyzed the conflictign images of female representation in the arts, media, and cinema. The BAyer ad was a popular example-although the body was asexual, it was clear by the thin, curved, concave body that it was a female. The female body is objectified as a construct that has political and social meanings. Carly brought up the image that we discussed in class about the female being looked at through the male gaze in film love scenes, so that a man can visualize himself in the position. This follows in line with objectification theory, which is used both in feminist theory and psychological theory of sexual self-objectification, where the female body becomes the object. Society teaches women to internalize the observers perspective as the primary view of themselves.
Finally , alot of the journals concluded on almost a challenge to curent representations-that we need to come up with new ways of represneting femininity and women. For such artists as Kahlo and Woodson, they have begun to destabalize and denaturalize the representaiton of woman as object , the norms that have been constructed ,as Deanna stated. By giving agency back to the female to define herself and choose the way she is represented , as is seen in the works of these and other Surrealist artists, we can then redefine traditional constructs.
-Hydi Dickstein
Like most of my other classmates, I particularly enjoyed this week's readings concerning theories of female representation in art, cinema, and popular culture. I also enjoyed getting an outlook on the opinions of my classmates concerning these readings. The journal entries of this week all varied in focus. Some chose to respond to the Bordo article focusing on representations of women with ethnic features and the ideology of the ideal (Aryan)look. Others brought up the issue of female representations in art, focusing on the Chedgzoy article and the art of Frieda Khalo. The representation of women in cinema and daytime television was also a vibrant issue for many in may of the journals. Finally women and their representations reflected in popular culture was of concern to the class.
To form a general opinion of what I believe the class had to say about the theories of representation and how it can help or impede the feminism itself, I got the idea that art, cinema, and popular culture can be used positively for the feminist thinkers. To do this operatively women should use these various mediums to produce art, movies and music that truly reflect the female. Haley and Sarah both reflected on the Bordo article her arguments on how the physical attractiveness as depicted in popular "ladies" magazines produce unreal images of the ideal woman's body. Haley made an interestingg point on how her mother idealized Cher of the sixties, pre plastic surgery, because of the ethnicity in her looks that reflected her own features. Now Cher, post- plastic surgery has become a living picture of how this ideology of the perfect woman has so transformed a woman that she becomes almost a new but unreal person.
Sam, Renee, Karen, all made vital issues concerning women and their representation in cinema art. Sam raised a great issue of how the patriarchal language in cinema and films need to be changed in order for women to overcome oppressing representations in the film industry. Renee used the Pollack article to depict how femalerepresentationn in the media can negatively or positively reflect society and women. Society's continual display of the perfect figure woman has been liked to influencing adolescent eating disorders. On the positive side some commercials such as Nike's, despite it's own contradiction in itself, has recently filmed commercials and used ads that promote strong and independent females. Karen used the Pollack article to point out how posture and gesturing as represented in the cinema are unfair and unreal representations of women.
Veronica, Carly, and Hydi all focused more on female representation in art with the Kuhn and Godeau articles. Veronica gave great insight into the art of Frieda Khalo and how her continual representations of her own self in her work has positively affected women in Surrealist art. Carly focused on the works of Judy Chicago and how art can be used as a medium to open up a possible solution to a definition of female representation. Hydi went into further detail concerning the work of Frieda Khalo focusing on a poignant work of hers depicting miscarriages.
Both Deanna and myself both posed issues of feminine representations in pop culture. Deanna focused more on current depictions of women in popular culture and female representation. I focused more on the African-American woman and how her negative reflection in popular culture in the past and present. Lisa made a point of how daytime television and it's feminine adds progress the negative stereotyping that has become typically female. Jennifer brought up the issue of Brittney Spears near naked cover of Rolling Stones magazine being used to promote male pleasure but denigrating female ideologies. Jocelyne chose to peak about visual art and how cinema has become problematic for feminist ideology. She uses the Woodman example, in taking away the privilege men have in identifying and representing women in cinema.
As stated before this weeks journals were of the classes opinions on theories of representation concerning all issues of art, cinema, and popular culture. I hope that I have interjected a bit of everyone's opinions because they all were great in and of themselves. I believe that we all responded so fully to these issues because they all are of things that we do in our free times as well as in our work. Art, cinema and popular culture are all mediums that we in feminist theory can reach out to other women and young girls and encourage positive representations of women in future works of art.
-Rochelle Spooner