The Pervasiveness and Persistence of the Feminine Beauty - Essay Example

 The Pervasiveness and Persistence of the Feminine Beauty My understanding of art and gender has changed during the course. Surprisingly, I did not perceive those terms as something complex. I understood that both gender and art had a great impact on people with their life choices and behavior but I never thought about two-side connection that existed between those two phenomena. Every new lecture helped me discover new dimensions in art, gender and their strong influence on people. Section 1 I used to think that gender was something I got almost naturally by following my instincts and copying other people of the same sex. The first entry of my journal does not contain any definitions and shows that, perhaps, I was not aware of numerous factors of influence and nuances related to those phenomena. Everything changed during the second week when I got a chance to read Judith Butler who offered me a new comprehensive definition of gender. Defined by Judith Butler(1990) as a social construct, gender is just a collection of certain stereotypical social norms, behavioral models and attributes that identify a person as being male or female. Eventually, all people who find themselves standing in between are forced to choose the path they want to follow even if they cannot do this so easily (Fortado, 2002). Many people confuse sex and gender thinking that gender is given to each of them by nature; thus, a person with a body of a woman is expected to behave accordingly. For example, being a woman means wearing feminine clothing, and even though boyfriend jeans and shirts are popular now, they still look better and fit tighter than their analogues created for boyfriends. Being a woman means having certain interests like fashion, kids and cute animals. Women who do not want kids, do not like animals or do not follow fashion trends experience judgmental attitude concerning their choices because they oppose social expectations. Every gender comes together with lots of stereotypes that force people to have somewhat biased perception of each other. Women are expected to be weak and tender while strong and authoritative men will do everything to protect them. Gender is not fixed; it is flexible and, according to Green (2004), it is private. It is not a secret that the thin border between masculinity and femininity becomes blurred. Men are becoming more feminine while women stop treating their ambitions and will as signs of bad temper. The same happens with art because it is not constant. Every decade people rethink what is beauty, love, friendship, virtue etc. They redefine masculinity and femininity and communicate their thought through art. At the same time, people face certain pressure if they communicate their difference through art like in the case of Sadie Lee I mentioned in my 4th week entry. She labeled her works as 'lesbian artist' and people perceived them not objectively. Overall, now I see that things are more complicated that I expected them to be. New knowledge about gender makes me doubt about all ideas about gender that come from the outside world. Also, it adds a critical dimension and protects me from mere confirmation of existing gender stereotypes. Section 2 There were many lectures that made me look at art and gender from a totally new perspective. I was always sure that women were more oppressed by art and media concerning their appearance, behavior and manners. As I mentioned in my journal, “the social standard for woman is to be beautiful” and I still believe that it is true. Unnaturally slim women from Hollywood films persuade females that being slim means to be beautiful. Modern art is very cruel because it creates unrealistic requirements that force women to torture themselves by diets, slimming underwear and exhausting gym exercises to get closer to their beauty ideal they see in every film (Mears, 2006). It was a great surprise that men face the same pressure. I started treating it seriously after the assignment when I compared male characters from films of different epochs during the third week of the cource. Masculinity is presented by handsome appearance, big muscles and extraordinary power. The studies by Curnow (1997) and Cooper (1995) show that there are certain features of masculinity that are promoted in different cultures; athletic body, authority and handsomeness are common in almost all of them. Hollywood films teach people that being a man requires to be tall, strong, smart and courageous. Only a few men on Earth can boast to have it all. Every decade has its image of femininity and masculinity that established a standard for all people. Another turning point of the course was the task to analyze what I wore with a purpose to assess myself as a representative of certain gender. During the 8th week we talked about “Constructing Gender Through Body Customization” and it was strange for me to look at myself as at the object of research. It was useful to look at myself without my subjective concerns and beliefs about beauty. Knowing all requirements to feminine outlook, it turned out that I did not perfectly fit the image that existed in my head as a point of comparison. I do not use heavy makeup and I almost never wear mini skirts but I do associate these attributes with being feminine. Finally, gender stereotypes do not appear out of the blue. Fairy tales are not as innocent as they seem to be because they establish first beauty standards accepted by all children (Baker-Sperry & Grauerholz, 2003). They present females as weak and powerless creatures that cannot survive without male support. Male characters in classical fairy tales are often smarter than women. At the same time, women are more often considered to be sly and deceitful. Cartoons and films for children also trace a number of stereotypes about masculinity and femininity. Modern cartoons are more or less fair in terms of gender equality because they also present female superheroes. Films aimed at different age groups at a time present more conventional settings with female victims and male superheroes. To add to the point, in my 5th week entry in the journal, I provided interesting stats that show how women are portrayed in films; they wear revealing dresses, appear topless, and speak far less than male characters. It is very dangerous because people are vulnerable when they perceive entertaining content. While they watch TV or movies in a relaxed more, their brain collects all possible stereotypes and deeply roots them somewhere in subconsciousness. This term gave me a valuable lesson to stay tuned and perceive everything critically. Section 3. Relationship between art, gender and culture is complicated; they are inseparable and each of them has certain trends in its development. Of course, all starts with culture because it produces, social norms, expectations and traditions. I touched upon this theme in 7th week entry where I discussed art partnership between Frida Kahlo and Diego Riverais. The author of the original resource I used for that entry, Herrera (1993), examines how gender stereotypes impact fine arts in Mexico, but the same connection can be noticed in every world country. Conservative and collectivist cultures are more likely to show traditional understanding of gender in general and gender roles. Such cultures cultivate typical image of a family where father is a bread winner and mother is a happy housewife who devotes her life to her family and does all the work around the house alone. At the same time, these cultures are very unlikely to treat trans-sexuality or homosexuality as something normal (Fortado, 2002). All readings mentioned in my 2nd week entry point out at the fact that people are not willing to accept difference when it comes to violation of social norms. Progressive and individualist cultures are more likely to accept deviations from the norm but it does not mean that such deviations are welcome. Gender is such an issue that roots in old-fashioned beliefs and ancient myths. Society changes and gender performance changes accordingly but understanding and acceptance of these changes lags behind. In art-culture-gender triangle, art is a mirror of two other sides. Art always reflects culture by which it is created. It embraces time, space, beliefs and ideas on canvas or paper. At the same time, art tells people what is beautiful and what is not. It shows beautiful people and gives a contemporary definition to beauty which is always linked with the definition of gender. It is commonly believed that art is a mere source of aesthetic pleasure but people forget that they live in visual era and everything they see impacts their judgments about things around them. I have mentioned many examples of of how people learn about gender and culture through art. During the 5th week of the course I had a closer look at what I read and watch and found out that all those films had a great influence on me. I got used to images of men and women I see in advertising and films; it explains my critical attitude to my appearance I mentioned in the 8th week discussion. Art is created by people so any changes in culture or gender will be immediately reflect in art. It is an indicator of social and cultural changes and even an insight into tendencies that wait for people in the nearest future. Relationship between art, culture and gender is obvious but it is very deep and unbreakable. It is fueled by history with its twists and turns, global changes and local revolutions. It is underpinned by cultural micro climate and perception of the world as a big melting pot. For instance, fashion trends from one society can be transferred to the other one like it is described in the article by Manzano (2009). This example proves that globalization also impacts this relationship because it makes different cultures merge in something general and understandable for people from different corners of the world. This relationship is not simple because changing one of elements people trigger changes in all of them at a time. Conclusion Summing up, this term has greatly impacted my understanding of art, culture and gender. Moreover, it gave me better understanding of myself regarding my gender and culture. Spotting connections between different phenomena like cinematography, fashion and fine arts, I discovered the truth I used to ignore before. I noticed how many gender stereotypes were deeply rooted in my daily life and my thinking. At the same time, I realized that I was not the only one to feel this way. There end of the term is not the end of my interest in this topic; I would like to dive deeper into research of gender and art with a purpose to spot changes in my community and see how they impact art and culture. Rapidly changing world requires people to be more flexible in their thinking; this course definitely gives each person ability to look at everything from a different perspective and do not judge others if they are different from the rest. References Baker-Sperry, L., & Grauerholz, L. (2003). The pervasiveness and persistence of the feminine beauty ideal in children's fairy tales. Art and gender: An intersexual reader, pp. 99-116. Butler, J. (1990). From Interiority to Gender Performances . Art and gender: An intersexual reader, pp. 23-31. Cooper, E. (1995). Fully exposed: The male nude in photography. Routledge Curnow, K. (1997). Prestige and the gentleman: Benin's ideal man. Art Journal,56(2), 75-81. Green. J. (2004). The Art and Nature of Gender. Art and gender: An intersexual reader, pp. 11-22. Gurley, G. ed. (2013). Art and gender: An intersexual reader. Cognella. Fortado, J. (2002). The contemporary transgender movement: When identities resist collective framing. In Art and gender: An intersexual reader, pp.31-44. Manzano, V. (2009). The blue jean generation: Youth, gender, and sexuality in Buenos Aires, 1958–1975. Art and gender: An intersexual reader. pp.297-318. Herrera, H. (1993). Beauty to his beast: Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Art and gender: An intersexual reader. pp.207-220. Mears, A. (2006). Relations of the catwalk: Gender, power, and economics in the fashion modeling market. Art and gender: An intersexual reader. pp.319-333. Read More