Making it more interactive?

I want to make this pack/book really interactive for whoever picks it up, so I'm thinking of dotting a few of these types of pages in throughout? So far I'm presenting them with images of things they could be (as in jobs/roles etc) but I'm also considering that I can't cater to absolutely everybody because we're all individuals and even though I'm promoting choice with this work, I also see that it's fairly limited/almost flawed in doing so. Maybe I'm over thinking this? Like with the essay aspect of this, there is no simple answer to what I want to achieve. Perhaps I should just go with my gut and put in these extra pages (but work on the design of them, maybe some decorative elements somewhere..). 

Colouring pages progress

The first three images are some of the colouring pages I drew in my sketchbook. Initially I was going to work to a square format book but since I've stepped away from producing a book specifically, I've chosen to work with A-format because it's more efficient for printing (less trimming/wasted paper) and I think it's easier to work with for characters.

I decided that the first three pages weren't very successful because of the simplicity of the composition and I felt like the characters needed a bit of an environment to give them context. Instead of just working in my sketchbook I've started to use loose paper so the spine doesn't get in the way and I don't draw in the center of the page. The last three drawings are definitely an improvement and I'm much happier with how they fill the space. I still need to draw eyes into them all though! I've been putting it off because I have a tendency to draw very over-exaggerated feminine features.
Although I've only drawn female characters so far I still want this colouring book/pack/whatever format I decide on, to show that we all have the choice to be who/what we want to be, so I'm thinking I should draw some more male or androgynous characters in similar roles?

Tutorial Feedback & action plan

Feeling really positive about both the essay and practical project after that tutorial! I've only got around 1000 to write to finish off the essay so we discussed/clarified exactly what I want that final chapter to cover.

Chapter question: to what extent does the media influence perceptions of gender roles and gender identity? (work in progress, it was difficult to articulate.. so this may change)

• depictions of gender roles
• the use of pink/colour
• body image
• possibly a fourth point, depending whether my research/analysis brings anything else to mind.

My analysis in the chapter so far has been okay, but it's important that I highlight the complexity of the topic throughout - it's not just as simple as 'the media reinforces gender roles by using X or Y' etc..

I've also made a note to narrow down the images I want to use and dot them throughout my essay (as long as they're appropriate) and then I can compare them in the final chapter/use them to either back up or contradict my argument. 

For the practical aspect, I was just advised not to let the book format dictate the work. The important part of my project is creating images that the audience can colour themselves, so this doesn't necessarily have to be a book.. If I find that trying to produce 32 pages is getting too much and affecting the quality of the work, I can always step back and present it another way. 

Over the Christmas break and through January my plan is to:

• Finish essay by the 18th Dec which should only take a couple of days
• Produce at least one (2 most days) pages/drawings per day until 1st January
• 1st Jan make decision about final format, packaging/presentation
• Prepare files for print for 7th Jan
• Final crit 8th Jan
• Make any alterations, re-read essay & get bound before submissio

Sketchbook Work

Based on the feedback I got at the tutorial, I've been starting to draw female characters in typically 'masculine' job roles. I really like how they look so far so I think I'll stick with hand-rendered drawings. There is way too much white space however. I thought about filling that space with tools associated with that job or I could draw the environment (or sections of it?). The page format I'm going to use for the colouring book will be square so I need to start considering that more when drawing.
By cropping the images I think it makes them a bit more interesting.. Not only does it help with the composition but it shows more of the detail. I think cutting out unnecessary information also looks better, I need to consider how I can communicate that job role as simply as possible. It doesn't work with all of them, but it will help me vary the illustrations throughout the book rather than have one figure slapped in the middle of each page.

Gender roles in advertising

For the last stretch of my essay I want to focus on how gender roles or stereotypes are used to target specific audiences in advertising/the media. These are some of the examples I've found so far - I didn't even have to look very hard to find exactly what I wanted. The point of this analysis is to point out that there hasn't been much choice regarding attributes associated with gender because it has been reinforced so much in the past. Contemporary examples are slightly different because there are different advertising standards and society has progressed a lot in terms of gender equality. However I want to point out that there are still elements of gender stereotyping so although people have more choice about what defines their gender, the media does still reinforce gender binary to an extent.

Self Evaluation

At the moment I think the way I have been drawing the line-work shown in this post works because the thick outer line will help children be neater with colouring. I also think some of the subjects I am starting to investigate, such as women in 'masculine' jobs, communicate what I want to say really well. To capitalise on both of these I will be exploring them both further in my sketchbook and reviewing each piece - what I like or dislike about it and how I can do it better next time.

Up to this point, I think that my time management has been pretty good. I've managed to stay up to date and have significant progress between each review. The next time my peers see my work will be the final crit so I actually need to step it up if I want to get this work finished in time. I'm going to work out how many drawings per week I need to finish to meet my target and still have enough time for production.
Another thing I could improve on would be how I use my sketchbook. I'm disappointed that I haven't filled one up yet so perhaps I need to be a little less precious with what I put in there. Although I'm at the stage where I need to be producing more refined work, I don't think I should stop investigating/trying out new things altogether.

Over the next four or five weeks I will be producing a 32 page colouring book and then re-appropriating some of the images to promotional posters/point of sale designs and packaging. It's a lot of work but I will only actually be producing the book and possibly the packaging. Anything else I decide to do can be mocked up and presented on boards.

In response to the feedback, I think I need to focus on consideration of composition. When I work in my sketchbook, a lot of the time I draw things in the middle of the page. Perhaps drawing on square paper or just drawing a square on the page will help. I also need to think about how to make each page interesting for a younger audience - e.g. lots of things to colour in, but not overly complex.

Action Plan

1. Investigate gender & professions - women in 'masculine' jobs etc. Does it work the other way around?
2. Work out how many illustrations I need to finish per week in order to meet deadlines
3. Look at existing colouring books in shops for packaging/presentation ideas.

Peer Review & Formative Feedback

Feedback

Comment on the appropriateness, scope and ambition of the proposed outcomes in relation to the subject.

Strengths:

• The outcomes are very appropriate for what you're trying to produce & say
• Exploration of character design, type and pattern shown
• Consideration of idea linked in with dissertation research
• Strong idea to have a colouring book to challenge gender presumptions aimed at children

Suggestions:

• Some of the toys you've drawn/listed are now out of date (i.e. action man no longer in production)
• May need to include some more recent toys to stay relevant 
• 21x21cm seems big enough, depends on the size of the illustration in the book.
• 32 Pages is a lot to produce

Comment on the quantity and quality of visual investigation and development of ideas in response to the theme and subject.

Strengths:

• Lots & lots of visual research, great quantity and variety
• Great idea to juxtapose the female characters in what are considered 'masculine' jobs
• The topics you've picked allow for a broad investigation
• A pattern can be seen throughout the body of work, always connecting to the specific subject of gender identity.

Suggestions:

• May need some consideration of composition within the square format of the colouring book, how everything sits within the page
• A lot more of the recent drawings can feed directly into your colouring book

Comment on the documentation of the conceptual and practical development of the work evidenced on the blog.

Strengths:

• Shows up to date work
• Research into existing colouring books
• Exploration into character design
• Consideration of feedback
• Good documentation, lots of contextual research.

Comment on the decisions regarding the production and proposal of outcomes.

Strengths:

• The outcome seems to be an appropriate amount of work
• Seems appropriate for what you intend to produce

Suggestions:

• Could have experimented more but I'm not sure it would have been relevant
• Consider a side poster using imagery from the colouring book to help advertise the product

General Comments:

• The scale could be a little bigger - think about young children, they may struggle to keep within the lines
• The introduction of other activities does sound interesting - it would probably be best to stick to colouring activities such as dot-to-dot, spot the difference etc
• Could design packaging for coloured pencils to go along with the book
• Projec looks good so far, was hard to find things to suggest.

I'm really happy with this feedback because I was worried that my intentions wouldn't be so clear to other people. I was also concerned because it seems like I've proposed something different at every peer review session and it took me a while to reach this point. 

I will definitely be taking note of some of these suggestions - I think producing additional posters and packaged colouring pencils is a great idea. Consideration of composition is also an important one. It's not that I haven't forgotten about it, I just wasn't at that stage in my sketchbook yet. I guess 32 pages is a lot to produce, but I'm pretty confident I can do it. It just means I need to stay focused. If I find that I'm struggling to reach it, considering how long each drawing has taken me so far, I can always lower it. 

Sketchbook/idea development

Continuing with the colouring book idea, I started to draw children's toys that are typically associated with a specific gender. I decided to have them all on the same page so that it didn't suggest that there were any categories (i.e. girls toys/boys toys). As I went along I decided to simplify the composition because of the target audience - young children.

At this point in time, I'm unsure about most of the content for the colouring book - definitely something to talk about in the peer review. A few categories I could explore are jobs/professions, clothing and play - all of which are affected by gender in my opinion. Perhaps I could show men/women (or any other gender-non specific person) in roles or jobs that challenge stereotypes.. For example, a male taking care of a baby, male nurses and ballerinas, female builders etc. Perhaps I should show multiple genders doing the same thing - to suggest that everyone can do these things if they choose?

Looking at existing children's colouring books

I've picked out these because they demonstrate the kind of composition and varying lines usually used in children's colouring books.
The illustrations are fairly simple but have some details and varied line weights which all make it more interesting to colour. These are all things I need to consider when making my own pages.

Practical Progress/Thoughts

Since the last peer review, I've been focusing on developing some characters. One thing that I've noticed though, is that I really need to practice child anatomy & faces - I don't seem to be able to draw anything believable yet, so I haven't got very far with it.  I'm going to go back to basics and do some studies before I play with the tone of voice.

One major development is the idea of putting these into a colouring book. The idea was suggested in peer review for something entirely different, based on my Monster Grrl zine. I'm so happy this was suggested because I've wanted to work making a colouring book into one of my projects somehow and it seems much more appropriate to this problem than just creating characters for a potential children's cartoon (the idea I proposed at the last review session). It also allows the audience to choose their own colours, so each finished book would be reflective of the individual's interests.

I'm still playing round with themes for the colouring book. I like the idea of having a few sports related pages, which I've done some initial sketches for. The overarching theme is gender and encouraging children not to feel pressured into adhering to gender stereotypes. I want to show that everybody can engage with these sorts of activities.

I really like Kristyna Baczynski's pages on a theme and I'd like to do something along those lines.. maybe a couple of pages of toys? Colouring books generally need to have a lot of interesting shapes to colour in, so it should be fun trying to fill up all the white space.

• Monteverde, Giuliana. 'Not All Feminist Ideas Are Equal: Anti-Capitalist Feminism and Female Complicity'. Journal of International Women's Studies 16.1 (2014): 64 - 68. Web.

"Whilst feminists still want to challenge gender roles and improve the lives of women worldwide, they no longer champion sisterhood as something of fundamental importance. Because of this shift, feminism is not supportive of all women merely by virtue of their reproductive organs, but is intertwined with particular progressive politics—often a radical one—that includes LGBTQ rights, environmental concern and class struggle."

Inspiration: Danielle Pioli

Came across Danielle Pioli on tumblr and I think the image above is really useful! Sometimes when I'm drawing characters/expressions/movements, I forget that simple directional lines can help a lot. 

Concept/Storyboard consideration

I'm a little unsure whether the final boards for this will be character/environment concept or more of a story-board kind of thing? I prefer the idea of just doing character concepts because to me, that's what's important to communicate how each character is challenging the usual gender stereotypes. Definitely something to think about.. I'm sure it'll make more sense once I've started to refine my ideas. 

Practical Crit Feedback

Comment on the initial relationship between the Theme and the proposed Subject?
Strengths 

• Good proposal & challenging gender roles for children links in well with feminism because you're looking at where we first learn these stereotypes
• Strong relationship

Comment on the appropriateness, scope and ambition of the proposed outcomes in relation to the subject

Strengths

• Specific in terms of age range.
• Appropriate for the audience doing a cartoon; and the fact it is going to be challenging reflects the theme
• 4 Characters, digital prints, merchandise - good amount of work

Suggestions

• I feel that instead of products you could expand on your character design with more narrative because how can children know that these characters are good role models if they don't know the story behind them?
• Also be more specific; how many characters will you produce/design
• Do they exist in a world?
• Are these really traditional parents that stop them from doing what they want?

Comment on the visual investigation and development of ideas in response to theme and subject.

Strengths

• Sketchbook is really nice
• There's some good investigation into pattern forming
• Your drawings are really good
• I really like the more androgynous characters vs the muscular ones

Suggestions

• Would like to see more investigation into what children are wearing these days; trends; how you challenge those
• More digital experimentation
• More writing in terms of how you feel your characters are going to be challenging the norm
• How do children engage with your characters?
• How do you tie your characters together?

Comment on the choice of media/format/series etc. in relation to the outcomes

Strengths

• Making lots of things that people/kids can use/play with
• I think digital is the best media to use for this and screen print for merchandise? Sounds manageable. 

Suggestions

• The more engaging the better

General Comments

Feedback sheet 1

• Very clear well done
• This is a good amount of work to produce. You could push the proposal further digitally -  apps, games, education? How can you make it more rounded?

Feedback sheet 2

• Where is the cartoon going to be seen?
• Could you mock up the some of it on an adult/in a magazine?
• Where specifically will the t-shirts/merch be sold?
• Print a t-shirt and take photographs of children wearing it who are all different
• Expand on just producing character designs because I feel this is a bit limited
• What is the cartoon going to be called?
• Do these kids have any kind of special power about them that makes them so different yet normal? i.e. how will you convey that it's okay to be different?
• I think 6 to 10 year olds is still too broad. I have a niece who is 6 and a nephew that is 10 - my niece loves disney & my nephew is into more reality, so this needs to be considered.

General points from feedback/things to consider:

• Think about the narrative more. Am I going to story-board an episode or is it enough to propose the environment/character/idea of the show?
• Are the products really relevant to the whole concept? I do think that young children will want to own something with a character on that they can identify with but at the same time I don't want to marginalise and make the audience feel like they have to identify with one of them..

Really useful feedback session! I'm glad I've explored so many possible responses to the problem but right now I just need to get started. I'm sure a lot of the feedback will make more sense once I start creating these characters and deciding how each one will challenge the gender constructs we see in children's media. 

Practical Progress Crit Boards

Hopefully these boards communicate what I'm intending to do from now! After looking at so many contextual references I'm really excited about drawing a fairly new subject and creating some playful characters. From the feedback session I'm just hoping to know whether they think this is an appropriate response to the problem I've identified.

Inspiration: Fabien Mense

Although quite simple, I think character 'boards' like these are a really great way of communicating a character's personality. I'm going to produce something similar with my own characters to show not only what they look like, but how they would interact with something or a particular situation. 

In terms of aesthetics, I really like Mense's colour palettes and the use of coloured line. I think it makes the images look more playful/lighthearted - which will be important in my work because I am dealing with quite a heavy subject. 

Inspiration: Dean Heezen

Particularly in the top image, I love how Heezen has communicated the figure by focusing on the shapes. This might not be specifically relevant to my work, but as I've noticed with the other artists I've been looking at, it's the exaggeration that makes it charming. The simplicity of the shapes & line will probably make it more interesting for children to look at too, which is important as they will be my primary audience. 

Inspiration: Guillaume Singelin

I can't get over how adorable these illustrations are! I think they're really effective at communicating the character's mood and personality because how how exaggerated the movements are. The anatomy is very stylised and I think the big head and short stubby limbs only add to the charm.

Inspiration: Jin Kim

What I like about Jin Kim's work is the way they capture the character's expression. They draw the characters over and over, which really familiarizes you with how that character moves and how to portray their personality. I also really love how unrefined these images are because they still communicate the character really well, even without using colour. 

Inspiration: Clement Lefevre

I'm coming to a bit of a dead end in my sketchbook so I figured I need to look at some other people's character based work! I love the colours in Clement Lefevre's work! They're quite soft & warm and I think they create quite a playful, inquiring atmosphere. I also like the way they have exaggerated particular features on the characters. 

Existing Children's TV Characters

Just from looking at these examples, I can see how often characters are gendered using colour or characteristics typical of their assigned gender. The Powerpuff Girls save the world almost on a daily basis, but they do it with big eyes and pretty dresses. The same can be said for most female heroic characters. In one aspect, why do these female characters have to have pink somewhere, or wear a dress? But another part of me questions why they shouldn't have a pink dress just because they're a hero? I think to justify/answer these questions I'll have to draw out a range of characters and ask what people's initial thoughts of them are. If I can create something that people can't really assign a gender to, then I'll be happy.

Gender Specific Product Research

At the moment, I feel as though my ideas for the practical work are just going round in circles. After the last tutorial I decided to research gender specific products and I thought I was going to target a teen-age audience. Now that I've had a look at gender specific products I think I'm going to return to 7 to 11 year olds being my target audience.
I've made this decision because I noted how much children are targeted by products that enforce the gender binary and that 'pink is for girls'. I think adults are slightly less concerned with what colour the products they buy are, but the whole notion that a colour = gender starts when they are young.

Proposed response:
Design a set of characters for a children's cartoon and corresponding merchandise that challenge gender 'norms'.

Target audience:
6 to 10 year olds

Specific Products:

• 4 x Character design sheets including names & a little background info
• Mugs, t-shirts, posters, lunchbox designs, key-rings, stickers

Context:

The characters would exist in a cartoon for children ages 6 to 10. Related products would be sold in super-markets and toy shops.

Second Chapter thoughts

The first chapter of my essay has been more about relaying information and I haven't really had a chance to form many critical arguments. The second chapter will lend more opportunity to this however.
Questions I want to explore in second chapter:

1. What is contemporary feminism?
2. How does it relate to the internet?
3. Does this affect the kind of people who engage with it?
4. Are contemporary ideologies different to those of the previous waves?

I'm not sure whether this is too broad so far.. I'm hoping to cover this all in 2000 words (so roughly 500 words per question?)

Zack, Naomi. Inclusive Feminism. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2005. Print.

"Some feminists have insisted that women of colour experience multiple oppressions, resulting in unique identities of raceme gender, and class"

"Intersectionality is believed to be democratic because women of colour now have the authority…" …"to create their own feminisms."

Although intersectionality means that people develop their own meaning of feminism, it is important to reclaim the idea that women all have something in common.

"The questions are how different" (are women) "and how their differences due to race, sexuality, and class get constructed".

"perhaps even more importantly, third wave feminists need to be able to listed to Third World women"

"Hooks and others objected that when early second wave white feminists compared themselves to 'blacks' in terms of oppression and disadvantage, they ignored the very existence of black women".

"Since gender distinctions were actively deployed by white feminists and valued by blacks, the result of the feminist comparison was an erasure of existing black women because it seemed to be assumed that all blacks were male."

In this text, Zack writes how the voices of black women have been either completely ignored or not heard due to their positions in the race/class system in the past. It is widely known that feminist scholars have largely been white, middle class women with access to higher education or leisure time. With things like forums and websites on the internet, it makes feminism so much more accessible to various levels of oppressions. It could be seen as an outlet for women of colour to address the issue of 'white feminism' and challenge how it completely marginalises women.

Wrye, Harriet Kimble. 'The Fourth Wave Of Feminism: Psychoanalytic Perspectives Introductory Remarks'. Studies in Gender and Sexuality 10.4 (2015): n. pag. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

"The first phase focused on political change as the suffragette movement was undertaken at the turn of the 20th century by feminist activists who lobbied successfully for women's right to vote"

"the second phase, a broad sociopolitical-cultural movement located in the 1960s and 1970s, focused on consciousness-raising around gender issues, women's liberation, and job and economic parity"

"third phase evolved in the 1980s and 1990s, emphasizing women exploring gender pluralities"

"The fourth wave moved into the 21st century as women turned toward spiritual concerns about the planet and all its beings"

Contemporary Feminism Research

Munro, Ealasaid. 'Feminism: A Fourth Wave?'. Political Insight 4.2 (2013): 22-25. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

• "the internet has created a ‘call-out’ culture, in which sexism or misogyny can be ‘called out’ and challenged. This culture is indicative of the continuing influence of the third wave, with its focus on micropolitics and challenging sexism and misogyny insofar as they appear in everyday rhetoric, advertising, film, television and literature, the media, and so on" 

Younger people are engaging with media in a critical way and actively discussing it's how it could affect society. This 'call-out' culture creates a generation of individuals who are aware of the importance of challenging media and the politics behind it.

• "The existence of a feminist ‘fourth wave’ has been challenged by those who maintain that increased usage of the internet is not enough to delineate a new era"

Internet activism is also known as "slacktivism" because it doesn't involve engaging with these issues in person (most of the time). However online activism can and has triggered large scale protests which might not have received the same attention without the word being spread online. 

• "the uptake of new technologies such as Twitter is growing in geographical areas where women still face social injustices – in Turkey, for example, women make up 72 per cent of social media users"

The result of this is that the movement is becoming active in corners of the globe where it previously wouldn't have been able to reach. The internet has ultimately made the movement more accessible.

• "Earlier this year, Facebook was forced to confront the issue of gender-based hate speech on its webpages after initially suggesting that images of women being abused did not violate their terms of service. In the UK, websites such as The F Word and The Women's Room, and online campaigns such as The Everyday Sexism Project and No More Page 3, have attracted thousands of supporters who find that the internet works both as a forum for discussion and as a route for activism."

• "There is concern that online discussion and activism is increasingly divorced from real-world conflicts"

As these discussions aren't happening face-to-face, some would argue that they become increasingly irrelevant to the real world. There are real people behind those computer screens though and they have valid opinions and experiences to offer. 

• "due to the closed nature of some social networks, feminist discussion is often ‘hidden’ from those who are not sufficiently networked"

The problem with the internet is that websites or forums can end up being very secluded from more potential users. Usually to reach a website you have to already know the address, or find it through an ad or search engine. If someone doesn't have links to sufficient relevant websites then there is the possibility that they cannot engage with it. 

• "Perhaps the shift to internet activism reflects the continuing lack of political representation in western democracies – at Westminster, for example, of the 23 seats around the coalition government's Cabinet table, only four are held by women"

As the movement isn't getting much attention from current politicians, people on the internet are responding to the lack of change and questioning why it is taking so long for women to reach equal positions. 

• "One of the key issues for contemporary feminism is intersectionality – the idea that different axes of oppression intersect, producing complex and often contradictory results

Intersectionality seems to be at the forefront of contemporary feminism. It is about acknowledging that different levels/types of oppression all affect each other. 

• "Academic feminists have been comfortable with the idea of intersectionality since at least the 1980s, when prominent third-wave feminists such as hooks, Gloria Anzaldua and Audre Lord spoke out about women of colour being sidelined within feminism. These feminists undermined the idea that gender alone was a sound basis for identification."

Although intersectionality has been a part of the feminist movement since the 1980s, some of the feminist advocates from the second wave were also homophobic & transphobic, which almost contradicts the whole idea. 

• "As a tactic, privilege-checking is about reminding someone that they cannot and should not speak for others"

• "The phrase ‘check your privilege’ was born on the internet, and young activists who grew up communicating via internet chat rooms appear to have considerably less trouble with the phrase than older feminists"

• "The emergence of ‘privilege-checking’, however, reflects the reality that mainstream feminism remains dominated by the straight white middle-classes."

• "many women tend to encounter feminism at university. Women who do not go on to further education face a barrier when attempting to engage with those academic debates that drive feminism."

• "The realisation that women are not a homogenous group has brought with it a set of new terminologies that attempt to ensure that those who hold a given identity are not spoken for, or carelessly pigeonholed."

• "On the internet, you may have your privilege checked, or in extreme cases you might be ‘doxed’ (have your personal files hacked, and distributed – the term ‘dox’ is derived from the .docx file format"

• "Terms such as WoC, cis and TERF are invaluable given the 140-character limit imposed by Twitter, and lend themselves to the practice of hash tagging"

• "The political potential of the fourth wave centres around giving voice to those women still marginalised by the mainstream"

Contemporary feminism (also known as the fourth wave) is about understanding that you cannot just have one category of women as this just marginalises and creates the idea that all women are from the same background or race. There are multiple oppressions at work within society and they all affect gender differently. Contemporary feminists use 'privilege-checking' to deduce whether they are speaking from an informed perspective based on their experience or their understanding of another's situation.

Tutorial Feedback & Action Plan

Initially I went into the tutorial a bit unsure of what I wanted to do for the practical work. Since the last peer review, I have chosen to step back from my initial proposal of creating a publication for children because I felt I needed to investigate the topic through drawing more.

We discussed what my intentions were for the practical - I knew I still wanted to educate/create awareness of gender identity through my images and I'm sure I would just get lost/confused with a more open-ended project. At the moment I am moving away from the idea of targeting children and thinking that Young adults/teens would be more appropriate. This decision is based on my experience with 16 year olds and how I've noticed that once people leave secondary school, they feel more able to talk about/acknowledge their sexuality or gender identity. I'm interested in focusing on those pivotal points in a person's life, when they're making decisions about themselves and figuring out how they fit into the world. 

Fred pointed out this image which I hadn't really thought about taking further. It's interesting because you can't really tell whether it's a very feminine man or very masculine woman. I really like the concept of androgyny and I think that in order for people to ignore gender stereotypes/expectations, we need to see more androgynous characters in the media. 

I am thinking about creating some sort of awareness campaign aimed towards 16 to 18 year olds to try and get them to be more open to gender fluidity so that individuals who struggle with their gender identity, don't feel so pressured to conforming to the binary. As of now, I'm not sure what context these images will fit in - as Fred suggested, it could potentially be for an androgynous make-up line. I'm interested in exploring products aimed towards a specific gender, so that's what I'll be researching next. 

For the written aspect of this work, I feel like I am on track but only if I keep this momentum. I need another 3500 words for the next tutorial in two weeks. I'm a little stressed about it, but mostly because the first chapter is proving more difficult to write than I initially anticipated - mostly because it is such a broad chapter so organising information and references is taking a while. 

ACTION PLAN:

• Explore androgyny in sketchbook
• Start writing second chapter of essay
• Research gender specific products 

Sketchbook Pattern Play

In my sketchbook I've been exploring what makes something look 'masculine' or 'feminine'. I like the idea that these can be combined because nobody has purely 'masculine' traits or vice versa. For these I was focusing more on shape and colour and how I can depict these traits people associate with specific genders. The colour palettes are informed by the boards I put together in this post and the idea of using text from the last image in this post.
These are just rough ideas but I think I'd like to refine this further - possibly make a set of screen prints? I'm veering away from my initial practical proposal but I think there are other ways of communicating choices within gender. Something to talk about in my tutorial anyway!

Fourth Wave Feminism!

It had never really occurred to me before that we were into a new wave of feminism.. I found a few articles dates from around 2013 and it seems like I've been a bit slow on the uptake. It seems so obvious now! Fourth wavers essentially came around because of the internet and in response to political issues and are much more concerned with intersectionality (the theory concerned with how multiple oppression's intersect).
I am unsure of whether to include a section on this in my essay because there won't be as much info on it (since it is more recent). However, I think it would be good to have a section on how the internet has had an impact on feminism - so perhaps I can write about both?

This article on The Guardian is pretty interesting:

"Younis considers intersectionality the overriding principle for today's feminists, and Ali says she constantly tries to check her privilege, to recognise how hierarchies of power are constructed."

"But many of those at the forefront are in their teens and 20s, and had their outlook formed during decades in which attitudes to women were particularly confusing."

"They grew up being told the world was post-feminist, that sexism and misogyny were over, and feminists should pack up their placards. At the same time, women in the public eye were often either sidelined or sexualised, represented in exactly the same way as they had been in the 70s, albeit beneath a thin veil of irony"

"But the feminist consciousness of the fourth wave has also been forged through the years of the financial crash and the coalition government, and many activists have been politicised and influenced by other movements, particularly thestudent campaign against fees, but also the wider campaign against cuts and the Occupy movement."

"With so many pressing issues, feminists are fighting on several fronts, and the campaigns of the past few years have often been started by individuals or small groups, who have responded to issues they feel strongly about, and can usefully address"

"As the philosopher Nina Power notes, there are teenage girls today, growing up with Twitter and Tumblr, who have a perfect grasp of feminist language and concepts, who are active on a huge range of issues"

Masculine / Feminine colour palettes

For my sketchbook work, I've quickly put together some boards for masculine/feminine colour palettes. There definitely seem to be some common themes in the two! I'm pretty familiar with feminine colour palettes etc but I find it harder to visualise more masculine things..
           Follow Sophie's board Feminine on Pinterest.                 Follow Sophie's board Masculine on Pinterest.    

Hey Rooney / Andy Simmonds illustration

I came across Andy Simmond's work and I realised it's so similar to what I want to explore in my sketchbook! He's taking the concept of 'masculine' and kind of clashing it with femininity. His work is challenging gender 'norms' through simple images and colour. If some of them were coloured differently, they might not create the same message.

Thoughts for sketchbook work:

• consider colour and how it can contrast with content
• will it have the same effect the other way around? (women with more masculine elements?)
• refine male anatomy

Sketchbook Play

Following the peer review feedback session yesterday morning, I went away with the aim of just drawing in response to my topic. I took a step back from my practical proposal because potentially I could develop and make that pretty quickly without having explored gender stereotypes and expectations very much. 

These drawings were all pretty quick (considering I'm rubbish at male anatomy), and I tried not to over think them too much. I was just focusing on taking typical masculinity and clashing it with femininity. There's a lot more I can do with this and I'm eager to keep drawing this sort of thing. I'm interested in exploring masculine/feminine appearances/jobs/characteristics. I have no idea where this is going - which for now is good, because I need to think less at this point. 

Peer Review

Initial Proposal:

Overarching theme
Feminism

Specific Subject
Gender identity awareness

Research Question
How has Western feminism changed in the last 150years?

Products
An information book/activity pack for children 7-11

Proposed Outcomes
In addition to the book, I am proposing how the content can be applied to an interactive app and workshops in primary schools

Media Processes
Primarily digital processes, e.g. creating the book pages in Illustrator, arranging in InDesign. Sketchbook will be used for initial ideas and creating textures.

Question 1
Based on my proposal, is there anything I haven't considered about the outcomes?

Question 2
Do you think this is an appropriate response to the topic?

Question 3
Do you have any suggestions for activities or topics I haven't thought of?

Feedback

Comment on the initial relationship between the Theme and the proposed Subject?
Strengths
- Strong relationship between the two at this stage
- Clear link between the two
Suggestions
- Document character development more on blog

Comment on the appropriateness, scope and ambition of the proposed outcomes in relation to the subject.
Strengths
- You've got a lot of ambition
- Outcome strongly addresses the question/product idea
Suggestions
- Maybe include more activities. 7 to 11 year olds learn through doing quite often, more than reading. See if you can show them rather than tell them. You are on the right track.
- Rather than having all the activities in the back, have some mixed throughout the book, relating to the subject/topic on that page.

Comment on the visual investigation and development of ideas in response to theme and subject.
Strength
- You've made a clear template for your content. Remember their age too so will have to be simplified.
- Really food. I think you have a really clear idea of what you're going to make and how you're going to do it.
Suggestions
- Draw a bit more to visually explore the subject
- Don't skip ahead to the product too fast
- Look at more illustration on feminism and out it on blog to show informed on what has come before you & how you've learnt from that.
- Draw more! You'll also have to think about your choice of colour

Comment on the choice of media/format/series etc. in relation to the outcomes.
Strengths
- Digital will work well in allowing you to arrange or adapt to different outcomes
- Really good book idea/layout. Great way of thinking.
Suggestions
- Experiment a little more with what you're going to include.
- For the paper dolls, you'll have to test which paper will work best as they tend to need quite thick stock.

General Comments:
- Draw more and put on blog - show how you're responding as you are being informed. An activity could be flash cards/pair up cards (research it more).
- Could talk about gender roles in jobs e.g. men being ballet dancers/women being plumbers. Equal rights could be done on paper dolls. Teach kids not to restrict themselves from doing what they want.

My thoughts
Overall, this feedback session was really useful. It was good to see where everybody else was with their work and I realise that I'm at a point where I need to take a bit of a step back and not focus on the outcome too much.

• I have identified what I would like to make, but by the end of the project I want it to have developed much more
• DRAW MORE! I've spent way too much time reading and writing so far. 
• Stop worrying about making final outcome, draw in response to gender roles/identity. 
• SKETCHBOOK PLAY BEFORE FINAL IDEA

Peer Review Prep'

I've made a few boards to help explain my practical proposal in tomorrows peer review. I've kept it pretty simple, partly because I'm at a point where I can't talk about it much more - I need to get on and start making it, and partly because they don't need to hear every bit of information I have gathered on the topic.
In the meantime, I am going to make a really early mock up of the book, so I can show them the content I am proposing, which will hopefully help structure the feedback. I'm mostly concerned about my (lack of) ideas for the activities, so I'll see if anybody has any suggestions.

Gender Conditioning

I found this image and I'll admit that my initial response was that the hairy legs must belong to a man. Almost straight away however, I thought to myself, "why did I assume that?" and I realised it was because of gender conditioning. This is another topic I want to illustrate in my book. 

I came across this article about how we tend to raise children to fit into one of the two gender roles. This is why people who don't feel like they fit into either of the binaries, find it so hard to fit into society. 

As children grow up, we tend to buy them toys or encourage them to participate in activities based on their gender - we make assumptions that they'll like them because they're a boy/girl. Stories, toys, clothes and games etc, all subtly reinforce gender binaries. How often do you see pink clothes in the 'boys' section? Children pick up on these cues and they grow up thinking that because there were no pink clothes in the 'boys' section, pink must just be for girls. 

Gender Pronouns

[Found on EverydayFeminism]

"Binary trans people, in general, don’t feel terribly different about their gender than a cisgender person would about theirs, particularly those who are perceived (via bodily sex and expression)to be congruent with their gender.

People who are perceived this way experience society through the same lens as a cisgender person, which is one of the reasons that it is appropriate to allow binary trans people to exist in spaces designed for their gender."

"Pronouns for genderqueer folks, like the rest of my descriptions about them, are difficult to describe concisely due to the inherent diversity in the demographic, but some generally preferred pronoun sets include gender neutral pronouns, such as “they/them/theirs” or “xe/hir/hirs,” rolling pronouns (which involves changing the persons pronoun each time that one comes up in a sentence – for example, “She went to the store, and on the way there he ran into an old friend who asked hir how they were doing”), or not having a preference toward any pronoun in particular.

Like with every person, though, even if they appear cisgender, it is always in best taste to ask what pronoun the person uses instead of assuming."

Once again I'm leaning more towards creating an information booklet for children based on gender. I still want it to be interactive, but I obviously need to make sure I get the correct information on the importance of pronouns in gender identity. As a cisgender female, I've never really given pronouns a second thought, but obviously when a person identifies as transgender, you refer to them with a different pronoun. There are more gender identities than cis or trans however, but we only have two sets of gender specific pronouns! (he/she). I had never considered that some people would using rolling pronouns (where you switch between he, she, they) and I think it's quite an important bit of info for my publication.

The Genderbread Person

[Found here]

"Let’s take “Gender Identity” for our example. I identify as a man, but I identify with a lot of what it means to be a woman. I’m sensitive, kind, familial, and I really like dark chocolate (kidding — stuff’s disgusting). Possessing this “woman-ness” doesn’t make me any less of a man. But it’s a large part of my gender identity, and those traits affect my life and influence my decisions as much and more than many of my “man-ness” "

So I came across this when looking for current illustrations based around gender identity. I've come to understand gender as more of a spectrum, rather than a binary. This illustration has definitely helped me understand it a little further, but I think it's still quite hard to understand. I'd like to create my own version of this, simplified and aimed towards children aged 7 - 11 to go in the publication I'm proposing.

The Design Council

After my tutorial it was suggested that I take a look at The Design Council because it has loads of free resources/case studies such as 'How to run a design a primary school design workshop'. I've been thinking about how this project could branch out to school programs, since that is a place where gender stereotypes/norms seem to be heavily enforced (for example, segregated P.E sessions)

Here is an example of one of the programs I am altering to fit this context:

A Ten Step Guide To Running A Design Workshop in Primary Schools: 
This workshop could be based around gender awareness and gets the children to make posters or leaflets, which could be stuck around the school and in the local community, to encourage people not to enforce gender stereotypes.

1. Take your class out on a trip to identify opportunities for design improvements.                           - Introduce the topic: explain what gender is and how some people find it hard to identify with just one side of the 'gender norms'. Give examples (boys like football, girls like pink etc). Ask the class if they agree with this. For this specific issue, it might be useful to have a discussion about where they think gender is enforced and how they feel about it. 
2. If you can't get the class out of school, get pupils to look for problems elsewhere.                        - Get the pupils thinking about where these posters could go and what they are trying to achieve. Is there anywhere in school where gender is enforced? (e.g toilets - do they think this is necessary?).
3. Think about what it's like to be someone else.                                                                                 - Get the pupils to think about what it might be like to feel uncomfortable with their gender and what they think they could do to make those people feel better. How do they feel when they are told that they can't do something because they're a boy/girl - what are those things?
4. Get the students to share the problems they identified with the class.                                             - A simple group discussion might help them understand more about the topic and if they can contribute an experience of their own of a time when they were told they couldn't or shouldn't do something, others might be able to relate. Ask them to make a list of five examples as a group.
5. Get the class to vote for which problem they want to use to address.                                             - In this context, it might be down to the individual to draw a poster based on one of the examples discussed with the class or a personal experience. 
6. Brainstorm initial ideas for the problem.                                                                                         - Do the pupils think it would be better to make a poster or a leaflet? How big do they think it should be and what kind of colours should they use?
7. Vote again.                                                                                                                                       - Or rather than voting (so that everybody can tackle the issue their own way) discuss on their tables what each of them have decided to do.
8. Sketch out a poster or leaflet design. What will it say? What will the picture be?                          - At this stage the students should have a rough idea of what their posters are going to look like (sketch). In small groups/each table, should discuss how to make their poster look more eye catching.
9. Time for production.                                                                                                                         - Let the students get creative with their poster designs, draw illustrations and eye-catching titles showing their opinion on gender stereotyping. 
10. Hang the posters around the school.                                                                                                - After the posters are up, ask the pupils what they want to achieve with these posters? Make five aims to review at a later date. 

I really like the idea of having some sort of workshop for children to make them aware of this issue. Not only is it a current topic in the media because of people such as Caitlyn Jenner, but we're at a time in society where people aren't so afraid of challenging social norms/constructs. Hopefully by getting children to be more aware of gender enforcing/stereotyping, they'll feel more comfortable being themselves and not feeling like they have to conform so much as they get older. 

Tutorial Feedback & Action Plan

In this tutorial I discussed my progress with the essay and where I am with the practical aspect of the project. So far I'm on track, but the discussion was really useful because it helped me hash out exactly what I wanted to achieve:

• Aimed towards 7-11 year olds
• Telling them that they do not need to conform to gender stereotypes (as they are at the age when they start to make decisions based on their gender)

How do you encourage this? Could it be a part of the curriculum in schools? A little book/publication? An app?

Action Plan:

1. Take a look at The Design Council
2. Produce boards explaining intentions (images not words, where possible!)

Children's comics

As I've decided I want to write some kind of story to go with the activity pack, I was thinking about different ways of story-telling. I don't really want to write and illustrate a whole book because that could potentially be 30 to 40 pages, which would take my focus off my main objective: to educate a younger audience on the importance of choice within gender. 

Creating a comic might be a faster way to communicate my idea using characters. They tend to be more fast paced than storybooks and in-between pages or panels there could be little activities or facts.

I was thinking about the comics I read as a child (there weren't many!) and I distinctly remember Dennis the Menace & Beryl The Peril. 

Dennis the Menace got into lots of trouble and got up to stuff that is generally considered quite typical of a young mischievous boy. 

Beryl the Peril definitely strays away from what would you would expect from a young female character. Her actions are much like Dennis the Menace's so she is considered to be pretty 'masculine' - even the way she is drawn suggests so. I really like that there are female characters that stray outside of their gender boundaries - it's also great considering it was written in the 50s, which was arguably when the female gender role was reinforced most in the last 100 years. 

After a brief look at what The Works had listed under their 'children's comics' section, I was quite shocked at the amount of content that ultimately reinforces gender stereotypes. A lot of the covers feature big muscly men and perhaps a few scantily clad women. Gender roles and representation in comics is a pretty big issue on it's own and I'm not looking to investigate it too much, but if this is what children are being shown, then no wonder they grow up with the notion that men should be big and muscly and it's okay to objectify women. Although this is only a small representation of comics available to children, perhaps there ought to be more characters featured that don't conform to the usual gender stereotypes.

Creating a character for children

I've decided that it would be much better to write/illustrate a little story to base the activity pack on. My idea for the story is pretty simple - about a young boy who is confused about his gender (not necessarily transgender, but doesn't feel that he fits in with gender constructs associated with being male). I want the story to show what it is like for this character being surrounded by others who all seem to fit into the gender binaries. Perhaps I could also show that once this character opens up about their issues/concerns, other characters step forward and talk about how they feel about either their gender or their opinion on gender expectation.

I've come across this article about creating characters for children - basically a do's and don'ts. I hadn't really thought about the impact a character's name could have on children's perception of them. As the article suggests, it might be a fun idea to use a typically masculine name like Curt and have a character that contradicts what this suggests. It reminded me of a book we read in primary school, The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler, and throughout the whole book I imagined Tyke to be a boy - and then right at the end, it was revealed that Tyke was actually a girl! Which goes to show that we assume gender based on how a character behaves because we have learnt that boys and girls behave so differently. 

EDIT: rather than create one character, the story could follow multiple characters which highlight the many issues with gender binaries. E.g. One young boy who wants to wear pink and tries to make his friends see that it isn't a 'girls' colour. Another character could be a young girl who loves being super feminine and dressing up as a princess but also loves to play 'boys games' like football or rugby. 

Existing Activity Books

A few examples of activity books for children from The Works & Waterstones. I want to go and have a look at what they actually contain, but it's good to see that they're all pretty similar prices etc. 

Something else I've noted is that they're all based around a character/story which is clearly something younger audiences tend to engage with. Perhaps I should consider writing/illustrating a short story?

Practical Proposal

Up to this point I have come up with a couple proposals for the practical aspect of this project and I think I really need to nail down what it is exactly I want to do.

• To create a pack/publication aimed at children aged 7 to 11 highlighting the importance of choice within gender & identity.
• The audience (children aged 7 to 11) will most likely engage with this content through a physical activity book or pack however with the increase of technology like tablets, an app version of the content might also be relevant. 
• The pack would include an information book with illustrations (i.e. what is gender, why it is important to acknowledge that gender 'norms' don't suit everybody), perhaps a short story and some activities - maybe a paper doll which doesn't rely on the character's sex to determine the clothes and gives the children the option to mix up gender constructs. 
• Distribution? Potentially this could be something that could be distributed through schools.

Some references I will be looking at:

• HeForShe - "A solidarity movement for equality" - specifically aimed towards men because it is pretty common for them to feel like the equality battle isn't really their fight (but it is!)
• Human Rights Campaign - "Working for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender equal rights" - Dedicated to raising awareness for the LGBT community by sharing people's stories, news and events. 
• GLAD - "LGBT Youth rights" - Aimed towards a younger audience and is specifically concerned with LGBT rights in schools
• Gender Trust - Offers support for those two are transgender or unsure etc. Has a quarterly magazine and encourages members of the trust to get in touch with each other and offer mutual support. 

There are loads of organisations out there that deal with gender issues but I can't really find any that specifically target the audience I want to. In many cases children are aware of their gender issues at a very young age and it is important to have information targeted at that age readily available (and to make the other children understand).

Gender identity is a very current topic and is more frequently being shown/discussed on T.V. For example, I Am Cait which followed the transition of Bruce Jenner to Caitlyn Jenner. Aimed more towards teens, there was Pretty Little Liars, in which the antagonist whom they thought was a male stalker, actually turned out to be a transgender woman. Much more recently, even Eastenders is featuring a story/character with gender identity issues. 

With gender identity being given more attention in the media than ever before, I think it would be great to seize this opportunity to educate the next generation so that they don't grow up around social constructs that they can't relate to.  

We Should All Be Feminists

Once again I find myself coming back to this video. I think Adichie articulates what it means to be a feminist so well.

Adam, Ruth. A Woman's Place: 1910 - 1975. London: Persephone Books Ltd, 1975. Print.

"Mothers of the period prayed to have a son rather than a daughter"
1911 census says that there were 1000 girls born to every 1039 males. However, "the boys were not as strong as their sisters, particularly from birth to 3 years old". By the time the girls grew up and were old enough to marry, there were not enough men to court them. This would partially explain why it was so common for a young girl to be married to a much older man.
"The supply was further reduced by the constant drain of men in their prime, to administer to the colonies".
As there were so many more women than men in 1911, they were "kept in fear of ultimate rejection by the male" and a "woman's failure or success in life depended entirely on whether or not she succeeded at getting a husband".

The way the author writes about how it would be a "failure" if a woman could not find a husband, only reinforces the idea that women were raised to aspire to marriage and suggests that their lives were essentially worthless if they did not 'achieve' this.

Around 1877, birth control was starting to be developed. It was not widely accepted initially, but the 1911 census showed "that the people making the most use of it were doctors and their wives". Contraception was initially only available to the well-off and the educated but it eventually found its way to artisans and small tradesman. This reduced general family sizes, spaced out pregnancies so that babies had a better chance and drastically lowered the infant mortality rate.

"The release from continual child-bearing and child-rearing was the starting point of women's emancipation"
- Women had more time, energy and fewer "dead children to mourn than any women before them". This lead to young couples having a higher standard of living. Pre 1914, the bicycle meant that a woman could "roam about on her own" without her husband and at a low cost.

The Suffragettes

• The first women's suffrage was actually set up in 1866.
• Before the Pankhursts came into the picture, Millicent Fawcett was the president of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (there were 16 in total)
• Fawcett's approach was described as "quiet and unintersting" and mostly consisted of piblic meetings and petitions - all of which were widely ignored.
• The Pankhurtsts were the "widow and daughters of a Manchester barrister who had stood as Parliamentary candidate for the Independent Labour Party" - his idealism about equality is what started their campaign and his friends who helped them.
• "The history of women's emancipation is peppered with men of his kind. The suffragette movement had more than it's quota of them, unappreciated, unthanked and their help barely remembered". - This is similar to what Turner said - I was skeptical initially because it was from a mans perspective.
• The Pankhursts started the Women's Social and Political Union in 1903 and agreed/accepted "nuisance value" and "martyrdom" as a natural consequence of what they had been inspired to do.
• In 1905, Christobel and a factory girl, Annie Kenney, were thrown out of the free trade hall in Manchester for asking about women's suffrage at a liberal meeting.As a consequence of their protest meeting outside, they were arrested for causing a "disturbance". Rather than pay a fine, they chose to go to prison, which resulted in the media paying attention to the movement and it soon became "an angry talking point all over the country".
• The Pankhursts used violent demonstrations, hunger strikes and spent time in prison - arguably as a reaction to Mr Asquith (who was known to be anti-suffragist) becoming Prime Minister.
• "Mr Asquith went through the motions of getting a suffrage bill passed, which quietened the women down for a time; until it dawned on them, all over again, that he had no intention of actually letting it get passed.."
• "female suffrage was an embarrassingly unwanted baby on any party's doorstep" - Once again, similar to what Turner said about the issue when discussing the events in the mid 1800s, no-one felt it was ultimately their place to make a decision on women's suffrage. 

Thoughts on Essay Structure..

Since the group tutorial, I've been questioning what it is I'm asking with this research project and what my ultimate goal is. The essay question I am currently proposing is "How has Western Feminism changed in the last 150 years?" - although I think this will change slightly..

After more recent research I know I definitely want to look at gender roles; their importance in society and how they have changed; what we can do to make positive change surrounding gender roles and finally, the impact social media has had on feminism/changing perspective on gender roles.

Although I will try to remain as objective as possible when writing the essay, I will still be approaching the topic from a feminist perspective. So far I have tried to be critical of my sources and it has proven to be quite helpful because it made me consider which angle the author is coming from - whether they are writing from a position of privilege or opposition etc.

1. Introduction [500 words] - what is this essay investigating? why is this relevant to society today?
2. 1st Chapter [2000 words] - what is feminism? what has it achieved? outline the main differences between each wave
3. 2nd Chapter [2000 words] - What are gender roles and how have they changed? 
4. 3rd Chapter [2000 words -  How has social media had an effect on feminism and changing perspectives?
5. 4th Chapter [2000 words] - Why is 'choice' so important?
6. Conclusion [500 words] - how are feminism, gender identity & choice interrelated? why is it important they they keep progressing?

Outlining an essay structure has made me realise there are some areas I still need to find texts on.. At the moment I'm pretty confident about the first two chapters so from now, I think my main point of research will be on how social media has affected feminism and the importance of choice in society.