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feminists now because society has changed and it isn't seen as a bad thing to be a female who doesn't conform to old, outdated expectations.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.

The Women's Timeline

http://www.mmu.ac.uk/equality-and-diversity/doc/gender-equality-timeline.pdf

Reference for essay and practical work

Research

Around 52% of the world's population are female yet most of the positions of power are occupied by men.

 "The higher you go, the fewer women there are"

"We have evolved, but it seems to me that our ideas of gender have not evolved"

"We must raise our daughters differently, we must also raise our sons differently"

"We teach girls to shrink themselves, make themselves smaller. We say to girls, you can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too sucessful - otherwise you would threaten the man."

"Why should a woman's success be a threat to a man?"

"Because I am female, I am expected to aspire to marriage"

"The problem with gender is that is prescribes how we should be, rather than how we are"

"We raise girls to see each other as competitors - not for jobs or accomplishments, which I think would be a good think - but for the attention of men"

"We priase girls for virginity, but we don't praise boys for virginity"

Adichie, C. (2013). We Should All Be Feminists. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg3umXU_qWc [Accessed 26 Jan. 2015].

Research

"Feminism is a collection of movements and ideologies that share a common stated aim: to define, establish, and defend equal political, economic, cultural, and social rights for women. This includes seeking to establish equal opportunities for women in education and employment. A feminist generally self-defines as advocating for or supporting the rights and equality of women. Feminist theory, which emerged from feminist movements, aims to understand the nature of gender inequality by examining women's social roles and lived experience; it has developed theories in a variety of disciplines in order to respond to issues such as the social construction of sex and gender. Some forms of feminism have been criticized for taking into account only white, middle-class, educated perspectives. This led to the creation of ethnically specific or multiculturalist forms of feminism.<sup>"

From the WIki 'Feminism' definition</sup>

I think it is important to realise that a lot of people only take into account white women and their roles in society. There are a lot of white women who may not identify as a feminist because they are protected by their white privilege  I think it distorts people's views on the female role because it doesn't show the whole picture and how men and women of colour are affected by this.





Bibliography: Kendall, F. (2002). Understanding White Privilege. [online] Available at: http://www.cpt.org/files/Undoing%20Racism%20-%20Understanding%20White%20Privilege%20-%20Kendall.pdf [Accessed 26 Jan. 2015].

Re-evaluated Essay Proposal

Since writing my previous essay proposal, I've struggled with staying interested in the topic. I decided to let it go and find something I would actually enjoy researching and writing about. Whilst searching for topics, I remembered my PPP project from level 4 about the appearance of female characters in video games. The female role in society and the media has undeniably changed over time, however it could still be argued that society's view on the female role still has a long way to go.

I will be concentrating on the period of time between 1920 to present day to analyse the change in the female role within society. I will be looking at the media, popular culture and key political events that have influenced how the roles of women have changed. I have chosen to start at 1920 because it is after the first world war, there was an economic boom in America during the 20's and the Suffragists and Suffragettes had been working hard to get women the right to vote.

Without a doubt, I will probably approach this essay from a feminist point of view and although I want to focus on the female role, I think I must touch upon the male role in society and how gender roles as a whole are beginning to shift. I think it is also important to look at how religion may have influenced peoples perception of particular gender roles and whether or not it still has the same influence.

Research:

1. Boundless. “Gender Roles and Differences.” Boundless Psychology. Boundless, 14 Nov. 2014. Retrieved 12 Jan. 2015 from https://www.boundless.com/psychology/textbooks/boundless-psychology-textbook/gender-and-sexuality-15/introduction-to-gender-and-sexuality-75/gender-roles-and-differences-296-12831/
2. Shapiro, E. (2010). Gender circuits. New York: Routledge.
3. Reeser, T. (2010). Masculinities in theory. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell
4. Gough-Yates, A. (2003). Understanding women's magazines. London: Routledge.
5. Weissman, K. (1999). Barbie. United States: Universal Publishers.
6. Hughes, K. (2015). Gender roles in the 19th century. [online] The British Library. Available at: http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/gender-roles-in-the-19th-century [Accessed 12 Jan. 2015].