In order to do this, we tried to arrange the images in a certain way that created a progression through the piece. In the beginning, there are fragments of a woman's body arranged in a grotesque manner to create a "full" body. For us, this was representative of the ways the media attempts to reduce women's bodies to fragments before they try to piece it back together in a "proper" way. In conjunction with this beginning are the images of women's heads that go along the bottom. We were exploring ways the media relies on decapitation to silence women. The next section explored images that indicate the ways the media (specificially advertising) tries to sell women products in order to make them fulfill the requirements of normative femininity. The message is literally that femininity can be bought. The following section looked at images of women's bodies being objectified and sexualized in order to sell products. Only the bodies that have consumed the proper femininity are included in these images, because they are the only bodies that are visible. The final section explored what it means for a woman to become a literal product. In the images she is being held, consumed, gazed upon. The body is an object that is no longer connected to the individual.

This project proved to be a challenge and definitely changed throughout the process. We had to scale down many of our ideas due to budgetary and time constraints. At first this seemed unfortunate, but looking back, I think those constraints helped us to focus on the core message that was important to us at the time, and kept us form getting lost in extraneous elements.

The sources from my paper are listed below:

1. Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Great Britain: Routledge, 1990.
2. Currie, Dawn. Girl Talk: Adolescent Magazines and Their Readers. Canada: University of Toronto Press Incorporated, 1999.
3. Doniger, Wendy, and Howard Eilberg-Schwartz. Off With Her Head: The Denial of Women’s Identity in Myth, Religion, and Culture. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1995.
4. Foucault, Michel. “Of Other Spaces, Heterotopias.” Architecture/Mouvement/Continuité. Oct. 1984.
5. hooks, bell. Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. Boston, MA: South End Press, 1984.
6. Kaplan, E. Ann. “Is the Gaze Male?” Feminism and Film. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2000.
7. Wykes, Maggie, and Barrie Gunter. The Media and Body Image. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2005.

Some Pictures:

In my final paper/project I argue that in a media culture that perpetuates representations of the female body that reduce it to an exchangeable commodity, the female cannot find self-actualization or experience self-love.

-. “The media, which makes news as well as carry it, are the real sources of power in our pseudo-democracies
-“A woman’s body is the battlefield where she fights for liberation. It is through her body that oppression works, reifying her, sexualizing her, victimizing her, disabling her. Her physicality is a medium for others to work on”

I argue that the female body in advertising media is exploited in three ways:

1. She (the female body) participates in the perpetuation of self-hate to sell products for female consumption.

“As a way of inducing them (women) to buy products of no use or value, women have been deliberately infected with BDD (Body Dysmorphic Disorder).
Multi-million dollar industries exploit both her need for reassurance and her need to do something about the way she looks” (Greer 25).

2. Using the erotized female body to sell objects, sell commodities.The act of eroticizing the body is an act of silencing. It reduces the woman from “seer” to “seen.”

3. The media fully claims and oppresses the female form by transforming it literally into the sellable object. . This is a crafted representation, a ploy to dismantle female liberation under the guise of sexual freedom.

"If equality means entitlement to an equal share of the profits of economic tyranny, it is irreconcilable with liberation. Freedom in an unfree world is merely license to exploit."( Greer13).

Women must acknowledge that the institutions governing the media under which we function do not want our self-actualization, do not want our independence, these attributes take away from their control of our bodies. Take back the power, take back control, take back your body.

"Although the film tries to serve as a historical account, much of Boys Don’t Cry is actually pure fabrication. First and foremost, the leap from actual persons to scripted characters necessarily results in a series liberties being taken. Even if the person in question is totally compliant in being analyzed and recreated on film, the simple premise of an actor representing a subject automatically creates a gap between the “truth” and the “medium,” inevitably producing an imperfect duplication. Even the most iconic “method” actors who meticulously assemble their most memorable performances (for example, Don Cheadle as Paul Rusesabagina in Hotel Rwanda or Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote in Capote) openly admit the impossibility of living up to the real thing. This gap is littered throughout Boys Don’t Cry; how accurate can the many private dialogues between John Lotter and Tom Nissen (the rapists/murderers who did not contribute to the film) and Brandon Teena (the victim who died long before preproduction began) actually be?"

"In the case of Boys Don’t Cry, the subject of Brandon Teena is realized by the medium of actress Hilary Swank. In her article “Branding Teena,” however, essayist Annabelle Willox illuminates some shortcomings of a representation that relies solely on a reconstructed subject. The filmic character of “Brandon” is based upon interviews from those who knew Brandon Teena but not Brandon himself, and without that authenticity as a frame of reference, his life, passions, and quest become “simplified and described in uncomplicated and unquestioned terms” (Willox 408). In this sense, Willox demerits the efforts of both Swank and Pierce, labeling Boys Don’t Cry as a film that only “attempts to show the complexity of the main character” but never actually succeeds (408). She also denounces the efforts of critics and audiences to fully understand the complexity of Brandon Teena through the film alone; they will “almost inevitably fail” (408)."

My quote from Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation:

"Something has disappeared: the sovereign difference…that constituted the charm of abstraction. Because it is difference that constitutes the poetry of the map and the charm of the territory, the magic of the concept and the charm of the real. […] This imaginary of representation…disappears in the simulation whose operation is nuclear and genetic. […] It is no longer a question of imitation, nor duplication, nor even parody. It is a question of substituting the signs of the real for the real… (Baudrillard 2)"

And my references:

• Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1994.
• Dannenbaum, Jed, Carroll Hodge, Doe Mayer. Creative Filmmaking From the Inside Out. Fireside, 2003.
• Imdb.com. 11 December 2007. .
• Mitchell, W.J.T.. “Representation.” Critical Terms for Literary Study. Ed. Frank Lentricchia, Thomas McLaughlin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. 11-22.
• Wikipedia.org. 11 December 2007. .
• Willox, Annabelle. “Branding Teena: (Mis)Representations in the Media.” Sexualities. Vol. 6. California: SAGE Publications, 2003. 407-425.

The three brands I selected were Dolce & Gabbana, Calvin Klein and Sisley.

A common misconception about fashion advertising is that they are only selling products. But rather, they are selling and portraying a lifestyle that they want their brand to be associated with. If you buy into their brand, you are participating in lifestyle that fits into a certain gender, race, class and so forth. Being a huge fan and follower of the fashion industry, I am very aware of the different representations for each brand. Given this inherent understanding, I found it easy to dissect each advertisement and relate it to this brand representation. I took these constructed lifestyles and used that to shape my critiques of the ads.

The results were that there is a common, underlying misuse of female bodies in fashion advertising. I found varying degrees of objectification and sexualization of females in these ads. Some, like the Dolce & Gabbana advertisement, were blatantly putting the female on a platter for pure objectification purposes. On the other hand, there are others, like the Calvin Klein advertisement, which displayed objectification and sexualization in a more subtle manner. It doesn't have to show a woman in a direct sexual situation in order for it to be considered misuse of the female body. There are many other actors that play into this determination, like the positioning, visual techniques of the ad, camera angle (gaze) and so forth.

Citations:

"Calvin Klein: Corporate." Calvin Klein. Phillips-Van Heusen. 2007 .

"Dolce & Gabbana: Coporate." Dolce & Gabbana. Dolce & Gabbana. 2007 .

Kaplan, E. Ann. “Introduction.” Feminism and Film. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Lindner, Katharina. "Images of Women in General Interest and Fashion Magazine Advertisements from 1955 to 2002." Sex Roles 51 (2004): 409-421.

Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Feminism and Film (2000): 37-38

"Overview: Who We Are." United Colors of Benneton. 24 Oct 2007. Benneton Group. 12 Dec 2007 .

In analyzing the accuracy and process of cinematic representations of true stories, I considered a few important factors that I thought effected the Peirce’s construction of reality. One is Peirce’s auteurship in the production of film, and how this might effect the representation of the truth. Another is the context of the film, which is useful in determining how the circumstances the film was made in might have also effected its production. Also, the use of cinematography within the film’s construction of a true story can show how the depictions of the true story are helped or hindered by the cinematic affects. The use and understanding of the viewer’s spectatorship can additionally help establish how Perice might have changed her representation of the truth according the audience. Lastly, the (mis)representation of the subjects in the film, and the effects these representations have on an audience (especially when it is understood that the film is representational of a real story).

Bibliography:

Althusser, Louis. "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses.” Notes Toward an Investigation (1969).

Dannenbaum, Jed, Carroll Hodge, and Doe Mayer. Creative Filmmaking from the Inside
Out: Keys to the Art of Making Inspired Movies and Television. New York City,
New York: Fireside, 2003.

Mulvey, Laura. Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. UK: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Wang, Zheng. Plot Summary of Boys Don’t Cry. 2007. IMDb. 6 Dec. 2007
.

Willox, Annabelle. Branding Teen: (Mis)Representations in the Media. Cardiff, UK: Sage
Publications, 2003.

We attempted to highlight all of the misconceptions that exist regarding the women’s movement, feminist theory, and gender equality. Throughout our film you can witness an abundance of misinformed responses regarding these issues. Some of the students thought a feminist was someone who dressed girly, another thought it meant she looked like a boy, she hates men, she’s an attention-seeker, and on and on and on. To be fair, there were of course several high school students who had a more legitimate grasp on feminism and recognized its role in gender equality. We also found that the students had extensive knowledge about actresses, models, and other celebrities, but couldn't name Roe v. Wade, female politicians, when women got the right to vote, and other questions regarding women in power and women's rights. It was blatantly obvious that our culture values and emphasizes a certain type of woman over the other.

I believe we captured and created several moments that stress the importance of still studying women and gender today. It was an incredibly challenging project which required hours of filming, editing, and re-editing – but it was an awesome first experience with film making.

Thesis: In this paper, I intend to explore the ways in which stereotypical representations can be challenged through feminist praxis activities and to discuss some areas where feminist praxis may be useful to challenge stereotypical representations.

My basic argument is that forms of media with feminist theory as an influence are more socially progressive and less stereotypical than other forms of media. For this reason, I determined that feminist praxis should be part of media studies. My paper focused on the concept of voice and especially on the concept of representation. I used The Watermelon Woman and NO!: The Rape Documentary as examples of 'positive' representations. These specific films construct identity in a new and interesting way, and their subject matter is very feminist. Additionally, the independent spirit of these productions, and Simmons' creation of a female production team are also feminist in nature.

I contrasted these representations with the representations presented in surgical reality TV shows. While this is an odd choice to make, given the obvious differences between the mediums, I thought it was a useful one. Many of the surgical reality TV episodes center on conception of self and how surgery will help make people "complete." Additionally, this is a different way of presenting reality in comparison to documentaries, or mockumentaries that seek to illuminate a social truth. I thought that feminist praxis could be useful in these kinds of shows, to highlight the racial and gender bias that drives many people to have cosmetic operations -- and to present a more honest, holistic picture of the recovery process.

My last example was FIRE (Feminist International Radio Endeavor. I thought it was interesting to use this form of media, because it is online and thus very widely available in Western contexts. Additionally, I thought that it was telling that a source dedicated to expressing the voices of Third World women, who are so often bearing the brunt of world conflict, features these women in such a disembodied form. So while it is certainly a problematic representation, I thought that FIRE was a really interesting counter-production in comparison to "ordinary news."

My conclusion was that given the differences in representation between feminist praxis projects and projects with no interest in feminism, we can hardly afford to not have feminist praxis in media.

A Black Feminist Statement by the Combahee River Collective

The War Against Black Women, and the Making of No! by Aishah Simmons

Feminist media coverage of women in war: 'You are our eyes and ears to the world' by Margaret Thompson, Maria Suarez Toro, and Katerina Anfossi Gomez (Gender & Development journal)

Television and the Domestication of Cosmetic Surgery by Sue Tait (Feminist Media Studies journal)

Initially, we believed that the students would be very uninformed about issues outside the walls of high school. However, after talking with the students we learned that we had undermined their intelligence. The students were aware of the inequalities that exist but they were also very uninformed about women that have been or are in power. For example, some did not know the current secretary of state, speaker of the house, or when women got the right to vote. They did know characters from Grey’s Anatomy and Friends, who played Michelle Tanner on Full House, at least one of the Victoria’s Secret models, and at least three of the names of the Spice Girls. Therefore, this shows that it is necessary for feminist studies.

It took us a little over two weeks to put this project together. We taped most of the footage in one day while we were at the high school. The majority of time was spent editing and discussing the message that we wanted to convey. I have made other videos before, but I found this one less stressful than the others for some reason I am unsure about. It was a great experience though, and shifted my view on high school students.