More Refined Thesis Question

To what extent does a patriarchal society influence women to modify their appearance?

Patriarchy relates to the aspects of society I have chosen to focus my research on. Gender roles and the way women are inferior to men who generally are portrayed as powerful and having the default point of view in many aspects of life, including in cinema and the media.

Advertising - Promotion of Youth, links to Cosmetic Surgery

Celebrity Endorsement - Anti-ageing

All the adverts I found below use a certain terminology to promote their products. Words like 'lift' are used throughout, which straight away has connotations to cosmetic surgery and 'face-lifts'. Doing this, the makeup brands are subtly claiming that these creams can achieve the same effects as a procedure.

Lancome Paris - Eye Cream

Helen Mirren - Anti-ageing Cream

Davina McCall - Anti-wrinkle Cream

Andie MacDowell - Anti-wrinkle Cream

Tutorial with Pete

The tutorial today with Pete really useful in pinpointing where I want go with my project. I have felt a bit stuck recently with cop as we have so much work on in all modules so have been putting it to the side. Over the Christmas break I want to really make sure I know what it is I want to take a stand against and things I want to research in order to do this effectively.

Making the Cut, How Cosmetic Surgery is transforming our lives - Anthony Elliott

Key Notes

1. Drastic Plastic - The Rise of Cosmetic Surgical culture

• 'Narcissistic obsession'.
• 'One of excess, fear, disposability anxieties and melancholia'.
• 'Beauty business' - cosmetic surgery in US, worth $15 - $20 billion a year.
• Culture - concerned with sex.
• Mentions Kathy Davis' books - decisions. 'Drawing on feminist and sociological notions of power'. 'Thesis of cosmetic surgery as pure (patriarchal) oppression...'
• 'Pro-choice'.

2. Celebrity obsession: fame, fortune and faking it

• 'Personal identity comes under the spotlight and open to revision'.
• 'Globalisation of media looms large'.
• 'Celebrate a culture of in-authenticity'.
• Role models - Identity.
• 'Celebrity, I am suggesting, is becoming increasingly synonymous with self-reinvention' - 'artificial beauty' - becomes the norm, idea of 'perfect' - fashions/trends.

3. Want - Now Consumerism: Immediate transformation, instant obsolescence

• Social Media - google, instagram, snapchat culture, impatience. Quick fixes.
• Beauty products - makeup.
• 'Women are beautiful to the extent that the project of anti-ageing and its marketed strategies are adopted and followed'.

Study Task 5 - Initial Ideas - Definitions

Line, shape, colour, texture, collage.

To start my practical work, I experimented with line and colour, later developing into collage and how this effects these elements.

Line

Primarily I wanted to use line as a way of mimicking lines drawn on a person's face, linking to plastic surgery. Stitching lines helped me to create definitions and highlight how people take portions of their own face in order to change them. I want to continue to describe this mis-jointed element within my theme of changing appearance.

Reshaping the Female Body, The Dilemma of Plastic Surgery - Kathy Davis

 

Themes explored that link to my research question -

• 1. Plastic bodies - 'fashions and cultural values'. The idea of a 'perfect' body, or a 'perfect' woman. The problem with defining perfection. Celeb culture - 'from celebrity junkie to the girl next door'. The cosmetic surgery boom. Pornography and the male gaze. Social Media - photo filters and persona.
• 2. Patriarchy - 'power hierarchy between the sexes' - 'women's quest for beauty'. Norms. Women are expected to be beautiful.
• 3. Public face/private suffering - psychological needs, just as important as physical needs? - 'once they started making comparisons, it rapidly became an obsession'. Comfort - the difference between being at home and in public/the outside world.
• 4. Objectification.
• 5. 'From fantasy to reality' - Ideals, the grass is always greener..
• 6. Choice.
• 7. 'Listening to women's voices' - 'choices' - 'the problem of political correctness'.

Study Task 4 - Images and Theory

Commodity Fetishism

In Karl Marx's critique of political economy, commodity fetishism is the perception of the social relationships involved in production, not as relationships among people, but as economic relationships among the money and commodities exchanged in market trade.

How this could link to my project - Consumerism and social media, how people are influenced to buy clothes, makeup, things to make them 'look their best', could also link to advertising.

Link to visual culture - Social Media, selfies and the want-now generation. Store products, advertising.

Images that relate - https://uk.pinterest.com/sw255328/pins/

Scopophilia

Sexual pleasure derived chiefly from watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity; voyeurism.

How this could link to my project - Male gaze, how women are seen/ in society.

Link to visual culture - Porn, film, makeup ads, perfume advertising ,etc.

Images that relate - https://uk.pinterest.com/sw255328/pins/

Intertextuality

The relationship between texts, especially literary ones.

How this could link to my project - Triangulation,Terminology used to describe the sexes. 

Link to visual culture - Advertising, how words are used to label genders, etc.

Images that relate - https://uk.pinterest.com/sw255328/pins/

1. 
   

Metacommunication

Metacommunication is all the nonverbal cues (tone of voice, body language, gestures, facial expression, etc.) that carry meaning that either enhance or disallow what we say in words. There's a whole conversation going on beneath the surface.

How this could link to my project - The limitations of plastic surgery, changing your face. Body language, women and men. Expressions used in Advertising and promotion of products.

Link to visual culture - Hidden meanings within imagery, conversations amongst people about our society.

Images that relate - https://uk.pinterest.com/sw255328/pins/

1. Reproduction

1. 1.

   
   

   the action or process of copying something.

   
   

   "the cost of colour reproduction in publication is high"

   
   

   synonyms:

   copying, duplication, duplicating, replication, replicating

   • 
     

     
     

     
     

     
     
   • 
     

     
     

     
     
   • 
     

     
     
2. 2.

   
   

   the production of offspring by a sexual or asexual process.

   
   

   "toads converge upon lakes and ponds intent on reproduction"

   Images that relate - https://uk.pinterest.com/sw255328/pins/ How this could link to my project - The natural forms of human bodies and what makes us think of each gender in a certain way. Link to visual culture - Sex Sells! Advertising where sex is the theme of focus in order to sell a product, eg. perfume Ads.

Research Question

To what extent do the pressures of society influence women to modify their own appearance?

My proposed research question focuses on body modification and what drives women to make the decision to alter their own appearance, however big or small that alteration may be. I chose to focus on this because the pressures of society on people, social media in particular, is something I have noticed recently and is something I worry about, especially for future generations. Adolescents start to engage in more adult behaviours (looking older) a lot earlier now than in the past, I have noticed this even in the past few years since I left school. What will be expected of future generations in regards to this?