What I find interesting is how women's roles in society are percieved, and how this story can be seen as a celebratory thing that women now have a bigger role in the army, but it can also be seen as something which is still an incredibly inequal job as only 9.1% of the British Army are in fact women, and they cannot do every job available.
To be in the army is a brave thing to do because of the high risks involved. The fact that women want to be involved with the army still even though they are not allowed to do all of the jobs shows how much they want to be involved. I want to research further into how talented and brave women are, but how we are still treated unfairly when it comes to equality between men and women.
This is a video showing the exhibition in which Baskerville's photographs were shown. Baskerville says that the project documents the 'daily life' of women and 'looking at their lifes behind what everyone percieves as normal'. I want to explore further what people do percieve as normal, and not just women in the army, but the roles which society think women should do.
This phenomonal infographic indicates the amount of work that women in third world countries have to do, just to provide for their families. Even though it depicts women being maternal, which is what they are all seen to be in our society and media, it also shows them being incredibly hard grafters which is supposed to be the 'man's job'.
On the same website it says 'Surveys from 45 developing countries show that women and children bear the primary responsibility for water collection in the majority of households. This is time not spent working at an income-generating job, caring for family members, or attending school.'
Because women and children have this massive responsibility to their family, they are restricted from having careers and getting an education, which is appalling considering we are now in the 21st century, and women are still denied these privileges.
It says the amount of work that women do in one day, 28 empire state buildings could be made in one day due to the amount of hours that go into both. This is an astonishing fact, and it is not recognised in the media the amount of work that women do.
A prime example of how women are subjected to the media is the Moors Murders. Myra Hindley and Ian Brady were part of a high profile murder case were together they murdered and sexually assaulted five children. Even though it happened between 1963-65 it is still widely well known, and the public's hatred for Myra Hindley is still as strong today as it ever was. Although they both committed the crimes, it is Hindley who is most remembered and talked about:
'it was Hindley's gender that made her so vilified. Brady, who says that he does not want to be released, was rarely mentioned in the news, but Hindley's repeated insistence on her innocence, followed by her attempts to secure her release after confessing her guilt, resulted in her becoming a figure of hate in the national media. Her oft-reprinted photograph, taken shortly after she was arrested, is described by some commentators as similar to the mythical Medusa and, according to author Helen Birch, has become "synonymous with the idea of feminine evil".'
This section from Wikipedia describes how it is her gender which makes her more talked about than her partner Brady. Because every woman is thought to have a maternal instinct, the public found it impossible how a female can commit these crimes to children, which is what makes it so shocking. She committed an unforgiveable crime, but so did Brady, so surely he should have recieved the same abuse that she did?
Artist Marcus Harvey created a portrait of Myra Hindley for the Sensation exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art in 1995. It is made out of childrens handprints, and was an incredibly controversial exhibition piece, which recieved outrage from the public. Harvey has said: "The whole point of the painting is the photograph. That photograph.
The iconic power that has come to it as a result of years of obsessive
media reproduction."The same year that Hindley and Brady started committing the murders together, Betty Friedan published a book in America, The Feminine Mystique. Friedan wrote about women's lives at that time in America, and 'defined 'the problem that has no name.'' It is an incredibly influential book, and sparked the second wave of feminism. Here are a couple of quotes from the book:
“Each suburban wife struggles with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night- she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question-- 'Is this all?”
― Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique
"Here are the complete editorial contents of a typical issue of McCall's (July, 1960):
1. A lead article on "increasing baldness in women," caused by too much brushing and dyeing.
2. A long poem in primer-size type about a child, called 'A Boy Is A Boy'
3. A short story about how a teenager who doesn't go to college gets a man away from a bright college girl.
4. A short story about the minute sensations of a baby throwing his bottle out of the crib.
5. The first of a two-part intimate 'up-to-date' account by the Duke of Windsor on 'How the Duchess and I now live and spend our time. The influence of clothes on me and vice versa.'
6. A short story about a nineteen-year-old girl sent to a charm school to learn how to bat her eyelashes and lose at tennis. ('You're nineteen, and by normal American standards, I now am entitled to have you taken off my hands, legally and financially, by some beardless youth who will spirit you away while he learns the chicanery of selling bonds. And no beardless youth is going to do that as long as you volley to his backhand.')
7. The story of a honeymoon couple commuting between separate bedrooms after an argument over gambling at Las Vegas.
8. An article on 'how to overcome an inferiority complex'.
9. A story called 'Wedding Day'.
10. The story of a teenager's mother who learns how to dance rock-n-roll.
11. Six pags of glamorous pictures of models in maternity clothes.
12. Four glamorous pages on 'reduce the way models do'.
13. An article on airline delays.
14. Patterns for home sewing.
15. Patterns with which to make 'Folding Screens - Bewitching Magic.'
16. An article called 'An Encyclpedic Approach to Finding a Second Husband.'
17. A 'barbecue bonanza', dedicated 'to the Great American Mister who stands, chef's cap on head, fork in hand, on terrace or back porch, in patio or backyard anywhere in the land, watching his roast turning on the spit. And to his wife, without whom (sometimes) the barbecue could never be the smashing summer success it undoubtedly is...''
― Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique
The fact that the whole contents on that particular McCall's magazine was entirely focused on home-keeping, marriage and children suggests that that is all women were allowed to be interested in, and nobody thought to create a magazine which allowed women to have any hobbies other than sewing, any goal other than getting a husband, or any other reading material about women living the life that should be aspiring to.
The first image from McCall's magazine shows women looking glamorous in aprons, supporting the idea that women should be in the kitchen, and enforcing the stereotype of women rather than fighting it.
The second image shows a mother with her two children, showing the ideal american family. Having this image gives out the message to women that if you have this, you will be happy, and that is all you need. However, that is what Friedan's book is about - women who have a family and husband, but still aren't satisfied. Because even though they are told this is all they can achieve, they started to realise that wasn't just what life is about.
That was fifty years ago, and inequality between men and women still exists today. I found a tumblr called http://whoneedsfeminism.tumblr.com and it shows women's reasons why they need feminism and equality. Here is the aim of the tumblr site:
About
Identify yourself as a feminist today and many people will immediately assume you are man-hating, bra-burning, whiny liberal. Perhaps a certain charming radio talk show host will label you as a “Feminazi” or “slut.” Even among more moderate crowds, feminism is still seen as too radical, too uncomfortable, or simply unnecessary. Feminism is both misunderstood and denigrated regularly right here on Duke’s campus. We, the 16 women of Professor Rachel Seidman’s course on Women in the Public Sphere, have decided to fight back against these popular misconceptions surrounding the feminist movement. Our class was disturbed by what we perceive to be an overwhelmingly widespread belief among students that today’s society no longer needs feminism. In order to change this perception on campus, we have launched a PR campaign for feminism. We aim to challenge existing stereotypes surrounding feminists and assert the importance of feminism today.
I've highlighted certain parts in bold which I feel are the most important to me, and I decided to look at some of the posts people contributed to the site.
The fact this woman felt that she had to remove her post shows that men making objectifying comments is actually intereferring with women's lives.
I have experienced so many times when males have said to me, my friends and work colleagues that we must be on our period because we are stressed.
This problem still exists fifty years after Friedan published The Feminine Mystique.
I wanted to look at some more advertisements where women are stereotypically subjected, and I wanted to look at how adverts have changed from then and now.
This is a genuine tv advert from the 1960s, and it shows a woman, very happy, cleaning her kitchen with a flash product. There is no man helping her, and her kitchen is spotless - suggesting that it is a womans job, and that they enjoy doing it.
This advert from the 1950s is selling a skin product, and they are doing that by saying if you use it, men will be attracted to you. This is objectifying women, and the voiceover uses words such as 'young, fresh, flawless' and 'this is the look he will notice', persuading women to buy this product.
This advert is called 'best beer ad ever'. It is a more recent one, and, like most beer adverts, uses women to advertise the beer which are targeted at men. At the end of the advert she actually rubs her breasts into his face, all the while seductive music is playing. So although it is a lot different from the previous advert, they still use lust and objectify women to sell their products.
I have made a lot of opinons on why I think all of these examples are a reason why we need feminism, but now I want to look at some proper facts and figures to show that the problem does exist. I found a really good PDF on some facts about women, and if you click here you can see them all.
The statistic that only 19.1% of women have a seat in parliament shows just how much men and women are still not equal, as it isn't doesn't match a fifth of men in the room. This means women's opinions aren't heard as much because there aren't as many.
Only 16% of stories in the news and media are entirely focused on women, meaning all the problems that women face are certainly not documented as much as they should be, which could possibly suggest why feminism isn't taken seriously.
This section on violence against women is crucial because it says that 71% of women have been physically or sexually assaulted by their husband and partner, which just shows mens attitudes to women, and how they think it is acceptable to treat them this way.
This shows how gender inequality is significant in the business sector globally, and is a document by Oxfam which you can find if you click here.
Now I have done this research, I am moving on to my next task which involves creating three posters which can be found here on my design practise blog.
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