Gender representation-"To what extent does advertising construct our ideas of gender?" study task 2

28th October 2014

Thinking on doing Gender representation:
came up with a few Questions as a starting/guiding point:

what is the role of women in Society?

What is real beauty?

what do women have to do today to gain attention?

has advertisement changed the way women see themselves today?

Why is it right nowadays to see what we see in adverts? differences between the 21st century adverts and other centuries -(Role of Gender in History) Marilyn Monroe

Sexual superheroes vs Masculinity

My own illustration/adverts displayed in public areas/ abstract idea

Fairly and equally

how are women represented in advertisement?

Beautiful/ no honesty/ stereotypical/sexual/Erotic/ provocative 

-why can't someone with tattoos or piercings be used on adverts?
-why can't women show how they are equal or stronger than men?
-Specific brand i would use for my illustrations/adverts
-what is the idea of beauty in adverts?
-Tall and skinny women tall/handsome/buff men
-Does skin color have an effect on advertisement? (First disney black princes "The Princess and the Frog)
-What happens with those people that do not look like people on adverts? (young girls with cancer watching disney movies)
-Side effects within advertisement
-Women and men sexual attraction (why don't we say gay couples as much on adverts?)

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*Biologically determine - Male/Female
(Refers to a socially constructed set of behavior patterns) --> Femininity/Masculinity

-Advertising/Music/Film/...

-Children's perceptions

-Men and Masculinity

-Women as Sexual objects

-Sex and Violence

-Beauty before Brain

-Stereo types

-1960's, feminist have argued that "it matters who makes it". -> continues to be men
-Studies have found that although the number of women working in the media has been increasing globally, the top positions Produces, Executives, Chief Editors and Publishers, are still very male dominated.

-The media needs to portray both male and female in a honest fair accurate manner, the medic all over the world does the contrary.
(Ethical and professional)

-Women feature more in stories that portray them as victims/family status more often than it relates to men/women are less likely to feature in major headlines(Men seen as experts more that it regards females with the same qualities.
*To the media, women are dependent on their husband or men for various things or for attention.

-The media has also caused stereotyping on male figures in the society largely.
The media normally characterizes men as powerful and dominant and gives little or room at all for alternate masculinity visions.
*Media also tends to demean the ability of men to take up domestic roles, case, or oppose violence.

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Context
Historical
Visual
Aesthetic
Technical
Style
technology
Language- Communication
Concepts
Ideology/politics
Identity
Value/Ethics

Task 2:
Based on what you have documented in your mind map research write a short hypothesis for your essay.
Your hypothesis should aim to offer an answer to the essay question…

Gender Representation question: To what extent does advertising construct our idea of gender?

Gender representation- To what extent does advertising construct our ideas of gender?

Consumerism- "what is the relationship between branding and the consumer self" (Ewen)

NOTES:

*Karl Marx 1818-1883

theorist behind the political communism manifesto - unfair government 

*Critique of consumer/ commodity culture

-in commodity culture we construct our identities through the consumer products that inhabit our lives

-this is what Stewart Ewen terms 'the commodity self'

-Judith Williamson author of Decoding Advertisement 

'instead of being identified by what they produce, people identify themselves through what they consume'

Commodities that we buy or invest -

-Energy (oil-natural gases)

-Metals (Gold-silver-platinium-cooper)

-Agricultural 

How does commodity culture perpetuate false needs?

*Aesthetic innovation

*Planned obsolescence 

*Novelty 

Commodity Fetishism 

*Basically, advertising conceals the background 'history' of products. in other words the contact in which a product is produced is kept hidden.

Reification

*Products are given human associations

*Products themselves are perceived as sexy, romantic, cool, sophisticated, fun etc.

Frankfurt School (set up 1923)

*Herbert Marcuse Author of

(Ways of seeing) John Berger– First two questions

Women as a sex object or domestic image

(What does possession mean to you) Victor Burgin

“Men act and Women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at”

Hans Memling ‘Vanity’ (1485) – Birth of certain models of gender

*Social bases of the production of the image:

1. Produced by a man for another man

2. men where they only ones that could allow themselves to buy the material and be capable to produce something

*Please a male eye

*Erotic Function

*Same time as causing erotism + produces a piece with a hidden message (saying how superficial/vain she is- justifying the sexualisation of women towards men- power to keep the image of men as the leader.)

Ingres ‘le grand odalisque 1814

*sexualise

*youth and innocence

answers its own question

putting herself on display for you

Do women have to be naked to get into the Met.Museum?

Guerrilla Girls

Summary

Karl Marx

…..

Module Questions

Social/Political: “Discuss the role that graphic design had played in

(contemporary 20^th century graphic design examples)  - subtext – different forms of propaganda – stetic and style (style of representation and amply it to contemporary)

Look at Russian resconstrivition

This Question is not only about propaganda!

Visual communication

Look at – Oz Magazine

OUGD401- Study Task 2- Modernism & Post-modernism

Modernism

"Abstract art uses form, color and line to create a composition which exists outside of visual reality. From the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, Western art had been based on the logic of perspective and was generally an attempt to reproduce an illusion of visible reality."

Author: Northwest Collage Graphic Design

Title: Graphic Design History

Date: October 19th 2014

Link:http://visualartsdepartment.wordpress.com/modernism/

Picasso: Woman playing the Mandolin (1909)-
Abstract Art
nonobjective art
nonrepresentational art
(related terms).

*Does not attempt to represent external, recognizable reality.

*Tries to achieve its effect using shapes, forms, colors and textures.

Movement called Dada. (early 20th century international movement in art-literature-music-film).

*Dada was launched in Zurich in 1916 by Tristan Tzara and others.

Poster for DADA "soirée"

- Italian poet- Marinetti --> "The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism" 1909

*Inspired artists such as Carlo Carra,
Umberto Boccioni
(influenced the art movement throughout Europe).

Funeral of the Anarchist Galli, Carlo Carra

Constructivism - soviet youth movement.
Russian Revolution 1917 - many Russian artist.
Combination between political propaganda and commercial advertising.
*Communist Revolution.

Alexander Rodchenko (1889-1956)

Equality under Communism ---> designed posters and packaging with the intention to attract buyers.
-Advertising became a means for artist, poets and others.

Abstract Painters/Graphic designers - Alexander Rodchenko + Liubov Popova.

Rodchenko worked in variety of media - Film making (Posters within photo collage).

El Lissitzky - Russian constructivist and designer - devoted a big change to propaganda work.

El Lissitzky - Drive The Red Wedge into The White  Troops!

*Developed rules within typography and design that latter led on to grid systems.

De Stijl- Developed in Holland
*Flourished during the 1920s in Europe.

Piet Mondrian

*Anti-emotion-concerned only with formal esthetic problems.

Widely known painters of the period - Piet Mondran + Theo Van Doesburg.

straight black lines set at right angles to one another - asymmetrical balancing primary colors.

The end of Modernism-
Revolt against the conservative values of realism.
Modernists believed that each new generation must - Build on past styles in new way or break with the past in order to make the next major contribution.
*Innovation.
*Progress.
*Rejecting tradition
*Embracing new technology

Post-Modernism 

*term used since 1980s

*Jeffery Keedy Emigre Type Specimen Series

Booklet No4: Keedy Sans, Typography 

Illustration, Emagre, USA, 2002

(wikis.otis.edu/…/Special_Collections_Sources)


Album Cover for the Sex Pistol's 1977 "God save the queen". 
*Designed by the British artist Jaime Reid
*Symbolize the Punk movement
*1970's England






*I-D, British youth culture magazine

*Aggressive collages
*Heightened use of color
*Experimental typography
*Dramatic design aesthetic
*Image manipulation
*Anti-humanism





"Rick Poynor in his book “No more rules” (2003) is saying that if modernism  sought to create a better world, postmodernism – to the horror of many observers – appears to accept the world as it is. "
*David Carson, American graphic designer - “I never learned all the things you’re not supposed to do, I just do what makes the most sense…There is no grid, no format. I think it ends up in a more interesting place than if I just applied formal design rules.’ D.Carson
http://ha065.wordpress.com/gamswen/postmodern-graphic-design/

Image Analysis Exercise - Comparative (OUGD401)

Image Analysis Exercise - Comparative (OUGD401)

Image 1: - The uncle Sam Range (1876)

Advertising image by Schumacher and Ehinger

Notes:

-World sat at the 'Diner Party' table 

-Clock dosn't show the time. It shows the years 1876-1776

-World facing/showing (Asia/Europe/Africa)

-Men sat at the dinner table being served by a lady. (Uncle Sam's wife)

-Slave working next to the product that is trying to be sold.

-World reading a list with all the names of Countries and stereotypical food

-Location of the place could represent a historical event.

-Uncle sam's body language giving his back to the other men at the table

-Eagle on Uncle Ben's shoulder 

Bright patriotic colors --> whites/reds/blues

-Outfits, walls, carpets, curtains 

-stars 

"Feeding the world by the aid of…"

-100 year anniversary 

-Independence 

-Product = Cooker

-Buy the product and achieve the American dream

-Bold/flat/extravagant typeface 

-Philadelphia as the Background

                                             Image 2: - Poster by Savile Lumley (1915)

Daddy, What did YOU do in the great war?

Notes:

-Boy playing with soldiers/war toys- Represents how boys are taught they have to represent their country at war.

-Girl sat on her father's lap looking at him could be asking him a question (could be the quotation "Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?"

 -Man/Father shows an upsetting/guilty facial expression

-Word 'YOU' is underlined and in Capital letters --> similar advert "your country needs you"

-The role of the girl is different to the boys- She's reading and establishing a connection with her father when the boy is been brought up with the idea of war.

-Father trying to spend time with his family.

(Might not be able to get the idea of death out of his mind.)

-Red roses on the curtains (English)

-Font style- Italic 

-World War 1 (during war poster)

-Mother absent from image

-Royal symbol on the chair

-Soldiers uniforms (London soldiers that protect the Queen)

Comparison:

These two posters can be analysed and compared within a different purpose, illustration, font, and the historical context behind it, … but we are also able to find a few similarities.

Both posters seem to be targeted at men, due to being, men the ones to fight at war and provide protection and money to their homes and families.

Image 1, could also be targeted to women, representing the idea of achieving the American dream by buying the cooker. Being a better Samaritan by following the trends of their nation, showing their patriotism.

Image 2, is a direct and personal poster that all men could feel engaged and influenced as it is what their country expects from them; go fight for their country and have a story to tell their family to gain their respect.

Both posters seem to have the same goal, to persuade a certain audience and share the idea of gaining ‘pride’ or satisfaction not only as ‘one’ but also as part of a ‘whole’, part of a nation.

Another similarity with both images is that the range of people in it seems to be wealthy, middle or upper class. The only clear difference is that both images belong to a different era. Image 1, was created to represent the 100^th independence anniversary in America, where on the other hand, image 2 was created during world war 1 and was aimed to influence men to enlist in the army.

Image 1- has seemed to lose the point of the advert, being the cooker; we can interpret this by having so much going on in this image and leaving the cooker to the side. There’s more patriotism than anything else. Whereas, image 2, is direct and straight to the point. It has less going on, Lumley has made it personal just by underlining the work ‘you’ in the caption and the use of color is less but equal as strong.

To conclude this comparison between the poster created in 1915 by Savile Lumley and the poster created on 1876 by the Uncle Sam Range, I would like to mention how both messages have been managed and shared with the public differently but equal in effectiveness.

The authors of these ads have managed to handle a tense conflict situation, which was known by the society back in the day for the own benefit, both using the idea of war and sharing it differently.