Votes for women! Hot, nude women!
Context:
This is the cover image for the DVD of Iron Jawed Angels, the beginning of which we watched in class. I originally saw it on display at Hollywood Video.
Content:
This image of an anonymous, white, apparently naked woman's back depicts women as interchangeable sex objects.
Form:
The woman's head is cropped off, and her identifying characteristics are invisible. Her back is brightly lit, standing out over a black background. An American flag is loosely draped over her lower back, and the slogan, "VOTES FOR WOMEN" is written in red letters, graffiti-style, over her back.
Reading:
I think this image makes a statement that's pretty obviously contrary to the purported message of the film it advertises, as well as the spirit of the women's suffrage movement: With her body cropped in this way, the woman in the picture could be Hilary Swank, Frances O'Connor, or Julia Ormond (probably not Angelica Huston, though); she is, more likely, a model that was employed specifically for this photo. While the leaders of first wave feminism sought to give each woman a right to an individual, political voice, the woman shown here has no individuality--her (conventionally) attractive body is being used as an attention-getting sex object.