~ Petra Collins ~

Petra Collins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeBZ1KYmIew - this video interveiw with Petra Collins gives good insight into the reasons why womens body hair awareness is important. She discusses being teased in school for refusing to shave and the journey of accepting her natural body and the confidence it gave her. Stopping shaving helped her in overcoming an eating disorder, she described it as "why are we shaving off something that naturally just wants to grow". 

Back to the issue of Instagram censoring 'nudity' and sexual images her image of her in underwear with an unshaven bikini line was taken down even though it shows no nudity at all. Whereas many bikini and underwear pics are uploaded to Instagram daily with no issues raised because there's no hair showing.

Body hair isn't the only thing Petras work focuses on she empowers all elements of the natural female body including shape, stretchmarks, periods. Body hair is one part of a big problem women face trying to look like the airbrushed models that are scattered all over popular media. 

~ Practical research and exploration ~

http://www.topgirlstudio.com/the-slut-the-bitch-the-virgin/

I came across this project by Top Girl Studio called 'the slut, the bitch and the virgin'. Her publications are a commentary on the thoughts and journeys of the average modern day woman. They're very inspiring to me as their sheer honesty is something not available within popular culture; if women were exposed more regularly to the honest thoughts of other women possibly this could relieve some of the pressure put on women by the media to look and act a certain way. 

With the consideration of printed media and publication design I came up with the idea of possibly producing my own stock for the project containing women's hair (it would be a shock tactic that would grab attention and really get people talking about the issue).

Many argue that the idea women should be hairless has been integrated more and more through pornography; but mass media adverts like the Veet one above show its a huge issue within popular culture. 

As a women and from speaking to others most only bother to shave in summer and when trying to impress someone they want to find them attractive; and if it was more socially acceptable to embrace your body hair most would do so. 

Much like valentines day, shaving your armpits and lady bits is a very effective marketing campaign designed to make people buy products. But this Photographer (Ben Hopper) has taken and alternate approach to the issue by taking beautiful portraits of women who do choose to embrace their natural body hair by letting it grow.

Some celebrity figures such as Miley Cyrus and Madonna have been photographed embracing their underarm hair. Examples like this could be used within a campaign much like celebrity endorsement; as of course popular culture and mainstream icons always have the most impact on the way people think about body image. 

~ Nipple-gram concept ~

Boycot the nipple ban - for my practical element of this module I want to produce a campaign concept to help de-sexualise womens body and encourage equality.

I want to produce the branding and app design plans for a variation of Instagram that allows the posting of womens nipples as a commentary on the current gender in-equality in such apps that bans womens nipples but allows mens. Part of the promotional elements for the new application could even take place on Instagram; by producing an account that sensors photos with females nipples by covering them with mens nipples.

The apps purpose will not be to take over or replace Instagram in any way; instead it will be a campaign element to try and encourage Instagram to change it's rules on disallowing womens nipples. For this reason i'd like the branding of my application/campaign to be loosely inspired and informed by Instagram's branding itself.

~ subculture research ~

Due to my own personal interests and the previous research done into consumerism, the death of the author and postmodernism I know I want my essay to be related to social construct, subcultures, technology and freedom of thinking and the ways these issues link to graphic design.

Subculture - A cultural group within a larger culture, often having beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture. Often wrongly defined by dress sense and music taste but these elements can be related. Some subcultures also have distinctive aesthetic styles they generally follow.  




Possible subcultures/belief systems to look into...

Free the nipple - feminism
Hippie culture - freeganism
Occupy 99% movement

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/mar/20/youth-subcultures-where-have-they-gone

"Dr Ruth Adams of King's College London thinks it might be linked to the speed at which "the cycle of production and consumption" now moves. "Fashion and music, they're much cheaper and they're much faster today," she says. "I think it's a lot easier to be promiscuous, subculturally speaking. When I was a teenager, you had to make more commitment to music and fashion, because it took more of a financial investment. I had a pair of gothy stiletto boots, which lasted me for years: I had to make a sort of commitment to looking like that, because I wasn't going to get another pair of alternative shoes any time soon, so I had to think about which ones I wanted. Now, it's all a bit more blurry, the semiotic signs are not quite as hard-edged as they used to be."

"there's something oddly self-conscious and non-committal about it: perhaps that's the result of living in a world dominated by social media, where you're under constant surveillance by your peers."

Do subcultures only really exist in the abundance of the internet? Does feminism disprove this? Or is feminism even a subculture? or just a belief system?

seapunk example "They catch people's imagination, get appropriated by mainstream culture then die away"

styles that used to be subcultures before the digital revolution are now re-invented and regurgitated weekly. Relevant to what Barthes talks about originality being impossible. The real subcultures that existed in the 60's such as Punks, Mods and Hippies existed because they were original and their belief systems were strong in going against general opinion and popular culture. 

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/police-vs-british-subcultures-302

SKINHEADS

Before the skinhead look had been co-opted by racists and Dutch fashion designers, authorities targeted the relatively peaceful, apolitical subculture under the banner of public safety – because shaving your head and holding your trousers up with braces is clearly a sign that you want to bottle strangers. However, as Dr Williams noted, much of that initial violence was manufactured by the police themselves. “You had a very working-class police force at the time,” he explained, “and creating problems was one of the things they enjoyed.”

Dr Wilson added that skinheads were singled out from very early on, and were made to remove their shoelaces at football games so they couldn’t run away or kick out at people. “One element of the skinhead fashion was a piece of material in your top pocket,” he said. “At clubs and bars, if you had this they’d not let you in. At one point, a lot of them were wearing red ties, and this was a warning signal. This policing based on your clothing was relentless.”

Are drugs a big part of subcultures or is it general media that produces this idea? do people wanting to then be a part of the subculture because of the belief system feel more inclined to take drugs to fit in?

1985 Stonehenge Free Festival, in an attack that would later be dubbed the “Battle of the Beanfield”. is this why subcultures dont exist? fear?

GRIME AND GARAGE

According to Dr Williams, grime and garage are the first two subcultures that the police have found unsettling in a long time. While cops can’t force a venue to shut down a grime show, “they can threaten to revoke licenses”, said Williams. “They can also make it very difficult for a venue to hold an artist they see as problematic.” A recent example was Just Jam at London’s Barbican, set to feature artists like JME and Big Narstie. The night was cancelled the day before on the grounds of “public safety”, AKA venue owners bowing to police pressure.

All of this control revolves around Form 696, a risk assessment sheet that judges the supposed danger of violent crime at an event (Noisey released a great documentary about it earlier this year). There used to be a section asking whether there would be any ethnic minorities in attendance, but despite that blatant red flag of racism now being removed, the question is still implied. It’s a worryingly effective way of policing an entire musical subculture.

http://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/noisey-specials/form-696-the-police-vs-grime-music

http://www.academia.edu/7515713/Northern_Soul_music_drugs_and_subcultural_identity_introduction_and_Chapter_1_

~ gender equality research ~

http://www.maudfernhout.com/#!what-real-men-cry-like/lx6y2

This project is a perfect example of something visual that calls out gender in-equalitys from both a male and female perspective. 

It addresses and challenges the medias vision that men shouldn't cry and that women should laugh 'ugly'. 

Desire lecture notes

Jacques lacan - unconscious is structured like a language and allows for semiotics. A distinction between needs and desires. Needs can be satisfied, desire can never be satisfied.

Sigmund Freud - wanted to cure hysteria, manifested from psychic trauma

Repression and the unconscious - post traumatic stress disorder, find a way into consciousness via symptoms, they can be solved through confronting these memories though therapy.

Primative drives, Eros (libido), Thanatos (death instinct) instinct that balences the libido

Post war people craving milk effected the way ice cream was marketed (sexually and geotescally)

Vance packar- Marlboro

Rosiline Gill - feminist writer - talking about how sexual gender constructs of women not only effect the way men see women but women begin to conform and become the sexualised objects society expects them to be, a very problematic paradox created by advertising. This related back to laucans theory of unattainable satisfaction of desire when it's in fact an insatiable feeling. Zizek-how to read laucan & the perverts guide to cinema/ideology

Return to infantile comfort- can explain certain fetishes, to loose all control and become dependent on others

Process of metonymy

Desire is to be desired

~ Practical proposal ~

The main points raised within my essay are that the sexual revolution is on-going and the areas still changing in contemporary society are the equality and acceptance of women, transgender people etc.

I've decided due to my personal interest in the subject i'd like to produce something that encourages the sexual equality of men and women. Women's bodies are treated completely differently especially when it comes to creative, digital and visual media. 

My first case study exploration of a piece of creative design/illustration that answers my essay question and portrays the things I wish to achieve with this brief is 'The cunt colouring book' by Tee Corinne. 

I did research into the book and artist starting with this link http://nakidmagazine.com/2015/02/19/legacy-of-a-feminist-lesbian-artist-tee-corinne-feature/ 

She was one of the most influential lesbian, feminist artists of the early 90's. “one of the most visible and accessible lesbian artists in the world“, according to the Completely Queer : The Gay and Lesbian Encyclopedia. The purpose of the publication was to express the female genitalia honestly without any 'photoshop' or distortion of what women should look like. The overall idea was to stop women being seen as sexual objects and all the same; diversity and equality were her main objectives when producing work and she was successful in doing so.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/free-the-nipple-what-types-of-nipples-are-allowed-on-instagram-a6683271.html

One contemporary in-equality issue thats still currently being discussed in the media is the censorship of female nipples on Instagram. Male nipples are completely allowed but women's are considered pornographic and not allowed on the app. This clear in-equality raises similar issues to those tackled by the Guerilla Girlz when it comes to the laws on public nudity.

A possible practical outcome I could produce for this would be a similar app to Instagram that allows women's nipples to be equal to mens and not be classed as nudity. This would act as a protest against Instagram's way of conducting their unfair censorship; it would hopefully shine public light on the issue leading them and others similar to this to re-consider their rules.

http://www.hexjam.com/uk/style/vajanuary-grow-your-pubic-hair-for-charity

Movember has become a hugely successful marketing campaign to raise money and awareness for testicular cancer. As body hair on women has become such a social taboo and often thought of as dirty and un-attractive this is something that needs to be tackled. 

The possibility of creating an equality awareness month where women proudly grow their bodily hair is something that has been thought of before. But if I could create an effective and bold visual identity for the campaign it could help in its success. 

The article I read as listed above toys with names such as...

- Vajanuary 

- Mayhawk

- & Junefro

All of which could serve as effective starting points for the brief/idea