Informal Presentation

So I've passed the first few hurdles: handing in the paper and doing the informal presentation.

The paper I ended up feeling really proud of. It was 18 pages I think, and the bibliography was also about 18 pages (gosh), annotated of course. Although McGrath didn't really get around to commenting on everything, there were some comments I strove to incorporate and there were some I decided to do differently than suggested. I don't know when I shall get it back, but I am very excited and know that I researched so much and really know what I'm talking about. I hope it showed!

The informal presentation was... interesting. We were in LT because MCAS sophomores were taking over the Film Lecture Hall (ugh!) and LT is meant for black box theatre productions. Not academic presentations. We were supposedly given 6 minutes to present (whether that included Q&A or not, we shall never know), but most went about 8-10 minutes. Some might have gone over. Ivan said he was fairly certain that my informal presentation, with Q&A ran about 12 minutes. That is both scary and very encouraging. Bad in that I really need to know what I'm saying and cut out all the "uhms" and "yeahs" but really good in that I really know what I'm talking about and know what to say for a longer period of time. Some people barely got to 6 minutes, that does not bode well.

For my formal presentation, I shall have an official slide show. Probably a Power Point presentation. I don't necessarily trust Prezi. I probably should have had a slide show for my informal, but I have to admit, I got lazy and decided I was good enough to wing it. I guess it held true for the informal, but I'm not stupid enough to believe that for the informal. Not at all. I'll have a slide show and an outline/focus points for me to talk about.

I was talking to my friend Owen last night online and he wanted to know how my informal went. We just ended up talking about my project, and it was so interesting! I talked a lot about people's reactions to my self portraits and how a lot of them are very... attention grabbing and/or unusual. There are a couple portraits where it is not clear if I am wearing anything out of the frame, and there are photos where I am nude. I have to admit it was very nerve wracking to show off and discuss my self portraits to a room full of peers and teachers. On some levels, I felt it wasn't appropriate, but I know it is now, after talking to Owen and really getting out what I meant by it.

Owen made an interesting comment-- about how it was more powerful (the nude portraits) because they were of someone he knew, that they weren't anonymous as most models in advertisements are. And that's a huge point! Sometimes we turn a blind eye to how potentially unhealthy advertising can be, but if it's someone you know, it's a lot more direct. Imagine that the models in some very objectifying or dehumanizing advertisements are your mothers, aunts, nieces, daughters, sisters, friends..... That's the point I want to make. Personalize it. And in the same way, what messages to we want to send to nieces, daughters, sisters and friends??

America the Beautiful: Documentary by Daryl Roberts

A couple days ago I watched Daryl Roberts' documentary America the Beautiful. It was the edited version and though I'd love to know what's in the unedited version, I'm just going to go with this one for now. There was a ton of valuable information in there. Here are my notes:

America is 5% of the world's population yet is exposed to 40% of the world's advertising.

Go back and watch the employees that deal with advertising again, @ 15minutes.

"We're selling dreams, man."
-Fashion photographer Mark Baptiste referring to the industry's photographs and how they are edited.
At 17:30 roughly. Might be more I want to nab for my paper.

Fiji study 22:30. Internet research this?

Book: Drop Dead Gorgeous by Kim Erickson

So what I have to do is research the introduction of television (and television advertising) in Fiji, look up Kim Erickson's book (sounds like a great resource) and go back to watch the advertising employees bit and transcribe that.

Break!

Over Spring Break

Hey! April Vacation is over and if I'm being totally honest, I'm behind on the paper section of my SYP. Other than that (though I am working on it right now as well...) I've been pretty productive. I've borrowed my dad's pretty sweet D70 and last Thursday, I dressed up (haha... irony) and went down to good ole' Newton North and stood in front of the biggest brick wall I could find. Right in front of the bus lane, right there. And I had a home written sign that read "I am not an object" and then on my stomach I wrote (with great difficulty, trust me,) I am a woman. 

I will be going to Morris's photolab tomorrow (if he's there, I hope so!) and uploading them to Photoshop. My computers at home don't have Photoshop and the software we have now is pretty lame when it comes to pictures. Best not to chance it. Come to think of it, I don't even think we have an appropriate card reader.. you get the picture. Ha!! That was totally unintentional... at first... Either way, I have to crop out the very bottom corner of my jeans and potentially fiddle with the exposure to make my sign more readable (white in the sun, a tad overexposed, but just a tad).

Anyways, my first real jaunt for SYP photo was awesome. It was pretty weird "standing there in a bandeau taking selfies" I will admit, but I also got to talk to a lot of curious passersby about my project. I'm thinking I should get little business cards with my blog and googlesites urls on them. I think that'd get the word out there, or at least provide a resource for strangers who are interested.

Other than the photography, I hung out with a friend on Friday. Her name is Cora and I have such a profound level of respect for her it's actually nuts. Anyways, she consented to being interviewed for my project (she is an enormous wealth of opinion and information!!) and I am so incredible happy she said yes! She is a very active member of a social justice program called Sub/Urban Justice which works in the Boston area on all kinds of issues (race, sexual orientation, jobs for teens, occupy Boston, you name it), so she has a very interesting spin on things when it comes to advertising and America's current image of beauty. My impromptu interview ended up lasting about 18 minutes so I am working on transcribing that as well.

Tomorrow I shall also go see Ms. Carpino (spelling?) about "interviewing" the little Plowshares kids. It seems that every single time I go, she is busy. Maybe I just really have a knack for going at bad times =P It's totally possible. But that's in the next post.

"A Ha ha. No. I'm totally messing with you."

“But I think the first real change in women’s body image came when JLo turned it butt-style. That was the first time that having a large-scale situation in the back was part of mainstream American beauty. Girls wanted butts now. Men were free to admit that they had always enjoyed them. And then, what felt like moments later, boom—Beyoncé brought the leg meat. A back porch and thick muscular legs were now widely admired. And from that day forward, women embraced their diversity and realized that all shapes and sizes are beautiful. Ah ha ha. No. I’m totally messing with you. All Beyonce and JLo have done is add to the laundry list of attributes women must have to qualify as beautiful. Now every girl is expected to have Caucasian blue eyes, full Spanish lips, a classic button nose, hairless Asian skin with a California tan, a Jamaican dance hall ass, long Swedish legs, small Japanese feet, the abs of a lesbian gym owner, the hips of a nine-year-old boy, the arms of Michelle Obama, and doll tits. The person closest to actually achieving this look is Kim Kardashian, who, as we know, was made by Russian scientists to sabotage our athletes.”
― Tina Fey, Bossypants

I find this absolutely fascinating. And of course it's made infinitely more poignant because it comes from Tina Fey. It's hysterical... But also the cold truth. While I am incredible happy that women who aren't stick-figures are winding their way into the media on a grander scale, there is no denying that there is a reciprocation-- because it's novel and hot, everyone else is expected to have those attributes as well as everything else! You want sexy boobs, a teeny tiny waist, narrow hips, long legs, slender arms, not too big feet... Hardly any of those proportions show up at the same time on any given body. Ever. What I found really had an impact was how Tina Fey used the nationalities and regions associated with particular physical attributes. It emphasizes how impossible looking that perfect would be. And that definition of perfect is just an opinion anyways... It's not real naturally for the masses. If that body type is possible (which I'm not saying it's not), statistically it is shared by about 5% of the female population. Does that mean that the other 95% is worthless? Or automatically ugly? I'm not sure. But it does, to some extent (in America at least) contribute to a sense of emptiness that you want to fill... And what can you fill it with? Adverts say-- products! And we're back to my project.

I remain amped to the max.

Summer weather please??

Summer, that flighty temptress was here last week. As a tease! Now the weather is back to the balmy 40s and some are still kidding themselves trying to wear shorts, hoping for the 70s and 80s. Not gonna happen this week, unfortunately. But last week was great. I got to take some really impressive (for an iPhone camera anyways) pictures of the new spring (flowers and such) as well as myself chilling by the pond in the afternoon. It was heavenly.

This brings me back to thinking though, some definitions define (redundant much?) a self portrait as any shot that captures the essence of the photographer. This is usually accomplished by photographing some aspect of the photographer, and sometimes not. That's where it gets fuzzy. I feel like when it comes to art you can sometimes BS it because there aren't really any written rules. You can claim profundity even when you don't understand. And when you don't understand, it can be profound (for that reason?? Hmmm...). Bogus.

My point? That this picture of my feet in the pond could count as a self portrait. Do I feel like this truly captures the essence of myself? I'm not sure. It certainly captures parts of my personality. Free-feeling, spring, playful, clear, but also mysterious and solemn. See what I mean? You can get really into figurative stuff about art. But it's just a part of my attributes. And just a part of my body. The feet could belong to anyone, right? Any girl, perhaps even a boy. Also it's reminiscent of dismemberment, as it features only one part of my body.

Does that make it a less beautiful picture? Even if it's not beautiful in your opinion? Hmmm...

And interesting quandary, I do profess.

Plowshares #1

Okay, so I was thinking about how most people would say that they are not influenced by the media and remembered that even though they might be unaware of that, they can be brought to light and analyze it. But what about those who are unaware and are not in a position to analyze it? Plowshares. Plowshares is the little (technically separate) kindergarten and childcare place within Newton North. I've been thinking about child-psychology lately. How much do THEY pick up on? Wouldn't it be fascinating to find out?!?!?

What I want to do is go down to Plowshares (and if that doesn't work, Chinosi has said that at BC they have a Child Lab where there is a preschool but they do child development studies too) and ask the kids questions. Really easy questions!
For example: What makes you you? What makes you different from the person sitting next to you or from your teachers and parents? What makes someone beautiful? What makes girls and women beautiful? What kind of women and girls do you see in movies and on television (programs and commercials)? And draw a picture (do your best) of what the most beautiful woman in the world would look like. Same for the most beautiful man. (We can use crayons or something).

I really want to have a sample group of at least 10. I really want to "interview" girls but I am really interested in hearing boy's opinions as well.

I went to Ms. Mole (per Chinosi's recommendation) and she referred me to Ms. Menswell (?) in Plowshares. Then SHE referred me to a Ms. Carpino (?) who is the director (who was on the phone and I am to go back at a later time, Ms. Menswell will also talk to her about it first). But everyone I talked to seemed really interested in my project! Child psychology. Fascinating. Hmmm...

So I will also spend some time looking over my research on identity and self and start thinking/ making up my presentation and questions for the kids. Whoa!

Roughly Draft??

I'm still not really complete with any 3-5 page section of my roughly draft. I'm definitely taking the later date (I think). I will use this weekend and next week to continue to research and write and then I will use my Lit Review and my newfound knowledge to write my roughly section.