Concept Development

Initially for this project I had proposed to produce 8 to 10 illustrations summarising the female role in each decade over the last 100 years. However, with the 8 images task I realised I had partly answered that proposal so I was starting off where I thought I was going to end. To explore that concept a little further I thought about how I could expand it by illustrating a modern females reactions to the outdated roles. For example, what they might say or do if they were told that they were now expected to wear corsets and be modest in every aspect of their life or that they weren't allowed to have their own career. I would do this by handing out questions to peers and asking them to write down or draw their response. 

However, since I would really like to make some kind of educational and interactive publication creating something like a paper doll might be a better place to start. I would design outfits, props and perhaps scenes using key motifs from each era/decade. For example, the Victorian clothing and props would include bloomers, bonnets and corsets - a stark contrast to the outfits that could be made for an 80s collection. If each collection comes with little cards explaining the outfits and props then it allows the user to make decisions about what they want their paper doll to represent or to even create some juxtapositions. 

Contextual References

In my previous post, I realised that I didn't really know how I could approach the more recent role of women in society. I started looking at feminist illustrations and one thing that stuck out to me is that there is a kind of 'call to arms' for feminists. There seems to be a huge focus on trying to get women to embrace who they are - in regards to their size/weight, race, religion, personality or interests. I think most modern women are unapologetically themselves and it has taken a long time to get to this point. I think more women will openly call themselves feminists now because society has changed and it isn't seen as a bad thing to be a female who doesn't conform to old, outdated expectations. Women are taking the idea of femininity and questioning what it means more than ever and I believe this is in response to years of oppression and having more accessible means of freedom of speech - such as the internet. 

8 Image Task

For the 8 image task I chose to refine some of the sketches I did as an initial response to my essay and research (here). With these 8 images I tried to summarise the main roles of women in the last century. For the roles before 1980, I found it much easier to summarise because of the amount of studies regarding women of those eras that already exist. For the 1990s to almost present day, I couldn't really grasp what the female role was in society. I suspect this is because I grew up in this era as a white, privileged female so I struggle to see the role of women objectively. Of course I realise that inequality still exists but it is on a much smaller scale to how it was 50 years ago. I think without a comparison to a more equal and improved society, it is hard to to summarise.  

Visual exploration of theme

As I explored the role of women in the last 100 years through my essay, I thought that would be a good place to start with the visual exploration. I began looking at what kind of clothes women were wearing in specific decades because it was influenced by the social and political events of the times. To push this further I tried to visualise what each decade could look like as a single image in regards to the woman's movement.  So far I've thumbnailed possible ideas for 1900's to the 1980's and I think this is an idea I want to continue to develop. I think the purpose of my work will be to remind (or educate) people of the struggle that women are going through around the world and went through to reach the point we are at today.