Saturday, February 15, 2020
Scenarios Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words
Scenarios - Essay Example Given the conditions that we have been focusing on, certain scenarios are distinct possibilities over the next 20 years. Some of these are: Scenario 1: Using Social Media Using social media as a means of interaction with clients, the organisation communicates all manner of information online. Clients get information pertinent to their needs directly in their mail and at their other online presence sites. Potential customers are targeted with information that would be optimally useful to them in making purchase decisions. Irrelevant information is kept to a minimum, and most communication is unobtrusive and relevant. When using the social media to contact customers, it becomes important to ensure that the right information reaches the right person. Over ââ¬â exposure to irrelevant information can cause the customer to form a negative attitude towards the organization; and under exposure to relevant information can cause the organization to be discounted when making a purchase deci sion. If every person receives every piece of information that the organisation publishes, it may become very difficult for the consumer to make a truly informed purchase decision. ... Providing the consumer with search options and unobtrusive advertisements that are relevant to the needs that the consumer is at that moment trying to address. In order to encourage a potential consumer to decide to purchase with the organization, that consumer needs to be given relevant information. Mining information from searches and providing information to such a potential consumer is one way of doing this. Requesting potential consumers to allow access to details stored at social networking and professional sites is another way of deciding what information is to be presented to which client. Wherever possible, the potential and reoccurring consumers are kept free of un-solicitated data, and access to detailed information online is made available to the maximum client base. Sign Posts: The organisation will need to create a database of all the material and post regular updates so that there is always relevant information available in a user friendly manner to the consumers. The organisation needs to tie up with all major social and professional networking organisations in order to reach the largest consumer database. New sites need to be vetted and joined if they can provide a significant volume of sales. Sales representatives need to be trained to direct individuals to the most useful information. Social media experts need to be employed, markets understood, and targeted accordingly. Changes in the social media technology need to be studied and used to advantage. Scenario 2: A Global Presence Markets are growing and merging, so that small organisations also have a global presence. The organisation has at least a skeletal staff in all major locations across the globe to
Sunday, February 2, 2020
Business Environment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words
Business Environment - Assignment Example To meet their objectives and sustain the shareholders, a business may raise the dividend amount so as to offer satisfactory returns to this category of stakeholders. However, shareholders should not always expect huge returns; there is always an extent beyond a company may not go, depending on the economical status and market forces (Daphne, 2015, p.3). The objective of the government as one of the stakeholders is to ensure the operations of a business are ethically carried out and that taxation policies are adhered to. To meet this objective, an organisation must ensure that a business license is obtained before commencing its operations. It must observe regular and timely tax payment. However, higher taxation may lead to a downfall of business (Daphne, 2015, p.5). Government must, therefore, consider market structure and make its taxation as flexible as possible. The objectives of customers are sometimes very challenging to meet due to their compounded nature. Customers have put higher expectations on the product price, quality, quantity, taste, branding, taste and other related aspects of a product. A business owes customers all these duties. Depending on the level of competition and product differentiation, an organisation may not meet the exact needs of customers; one quality will always be missing. The very quality may be found in another product from a different organisation. Market structures are several interconnected factors that bind the seller, the buyers and the products. Normally, the type of market faced by a business firm will determine its decision on pricing and level of output. It should be noted that a business is never free to set the prices of its products; the pricing is always dependant of the preexisting forces in the market. It, thus, implies that the limit of profit is always a subject of the market structures (Ciliberto, 2009, p.180). The flexibility of a
Saturday, January 25, 2020
Impact of Social and Sexual Changes on Art
Impact of Social and Sexual Changes on Art Hair has traditionally been cited as a discernibly female expression of sexuality and beauty, an aesthetic composition that exacerbates a womans ability to attract members of the opposite sex while acting as a visual demarcation line between the male female divides. Conversely, the fact that men often begin to lose their hair during the middle stages of their life adds further mystique to the power of female hair in popular western culture. Like her sexuality, a womans hair is unrelenting burning bright like the female passion that has so unsettled male artists for centuries. Symbolically, the difference between male and female hair has been ephemeral versus eternal; short lived as opposed to everlasting, a fantasy constructed entirely in tandem with a lack of knowledge or even interest in female sexuality within intellectual and artistic circles in the past. The notion of female hair working together with her sexuality as a tool to make a mockery of men was first cemented artistically during the ancient era, where Greek mythologys most famous exponent of the power of seduction of female hair, the Gorgon Medusa, stands as a warning to all men: to beware the hidden power of a beautiful woman. The punishment inflicted upon Medusa by the Goddess Athena because of her famous beauty and charm was to transform her sensual hair into a nest of snakes: for mortal man to even look at her would cast him, quite literally, into stone. With such a powerful, traditional starting point, it is little wonder that the issue of women, hair, art and society would continue along a broadly similar pattern for so many years, where stereotypically beautiful women were seen by men as constituting the front line of the ongoing cultural and sexual war ââ¬â an object to be simultaneously admired and feared. However, according to James Kirwan (1999:73), it is not female sexuality which is destructive but rather male desire for that beauty. ââ¬Å"The passion of the lover is not extinguished by the sight or touch of any body, for what he truly desires and unknowingly suffers is the splendour of God shining through the body. It is a desire like that of Narcissus that can never be satisfied.â⬠Within the specifically subjective realms of art and visual art, female hair has a long history of conforming to the accepted image of the compliant, recipient woman due to the pervasive, dominant nature of men in art and society. Until the second half of the twentieth century women had become so accustomed to viewing their world through the eyes of men that they had lost sight of the individuality of women as a separate gender and as singular, autonomous human beings. Yet after the 1960s, visual art and aesthetics became increasingly interested in the views of the first wave of feminism, continuing along more radical, left wing lines with the introduction of the second wave during the 1970s. Women were embraced within the artistic community and encouraged to vent and express their sentiments regarding the suppression of the feminine in popular culture. As feminist critic Lucy Lippard (1980:352) details, the true power of feminist art was, logically, in the polar opposite image that it portrayed of modern societys creative achievements. ââ¬Å"Feminist method and theories have instead offered a socially concerned alternative to the increasingly mechanised evolution of art about art. The 1970s might not have been pluralist at all if women had not emerged during the decade to introduce the multi coloured threads of female experience into the male fabric of modern art.â⬠Moreover, women began to change their appearance for the first time in direct protest at the shackles of uniformity that male society had put upon them and hair was at the centre of the re moulding of the image of femininity in the West. The more radical, younger women changed their clothes, re adapted their attitudes and cut their hair in line with the more liberal males of the period who did likewise and grew their hair as a signal of their refusal to conform. The dissertation aims to examine how traditional social and sexual mores have changed in recent times in order to detail what this means for the visual artistic community, in particular the consequences for female artists in the wake of post modernity. In light of the obvious split in feminist art and culture that has been witnessed since the sixties, the dissertation will necessarily be divided into four main sections. The first chapter will provide an analysis and definition of the broader socio political framework of contemporary female sexuality so as to provide a better understanding of the power of feminine symbolism in a male dominated culture. The second chapter will look at the history of female hair and portrayals of female sexuality over the broader history of art; the third chapter examines modern visual art and culture paying particular attention to the use of hair as a medium for communicating with the spectator. The fourth chapter will analyse outsider arts views of female sexuality and hair, as defined by technology and race respectively. A conclusion will be sought only after taking into account each of the above headings as well as the necessary citations that must be employed to back up theory with example along the way. Contemporary Female Sexuality in Post Modern Society Female subversion in cultural affairs has led to womans alienation in the creative world with the result that her sexuality has only very recently been considered important enough to be the inspiration behind a growing body of academic literature. While feminism in the 1970s saw to it that gay women were represented in culture and art as much as heterosexual women, the movement of lesbians into the avant garde community only served to act as a dividing line between straight and gay women whereby many heterosexual female artists were seen as traitors to their own sex. Recent popular works of art and literature have sought to re introduce complexity into an area where theories about the nature of sexual liberty, manufactured largely by men, had become overtly simplistic. The most extreme exponent of the contemporary debate about female sexuality comes from Paris Curator for Conceptual Art, Catherine Millet and her 2002 memoirs, The Sexual Life of Catherine M. In an interview with The Observer (2002:13) newspaper, the French art critic notes that: ââ¬Å"Sexual mores have evolved recently; nevertheless some sexual practices are only tolerated if they are kept hidden. I look forward to a democratisation of sexuality where anyone can reveal their true nature without suffering socially.â⬠Women in Western society have become more independent, assertive and culturally aggressive during the past twenty five years so that female sexuality, in 2005, although still a topic in transition, is a force to be reckoned with inside of the male corridors of artistic influence. Yet contemporary feminist art is an amalgamation and result of the prejudices and taboos that went before it; it is, therefore a symptom of post modernity the culture that defines itself as the generation after the initial social liberation of the sixties implicitly and intrinsically linked to both gender and sexuality. As Christopher Reed (1997:276) implies, feminism was the catalyst for the widespread disassociation that is at the root of post modern radicals ground breaking view of sexuality. ââ¬Å"From the outset, postmodernism dislodged the wedge that mainstream modernism had driven between art and lifeâ⬠¦ feminists, in particular, questioned the way the anti authoritarian rhetoric of postmodernism seemed to become itself a form of cultural authority.â⬠However, although it is true that women play a far more integral role than they did barley two or three generations beforehand, modernity has not constituted a complete break with the past. Modern art, as a direct relation of post-modern society, remains a sphere still largely controlled by men. What it has done is to ask questions where previously only traditional lines of argument were sought. In this way it can viewed as a series of separate branches that emanated from the same initial tree ââ¬â creating seedlings of avant garde, abstract art, conceptual art, minimalist art and pop art to name but the most famous few. The sum of the legacy of the schism that occurred in society after the residue of the minor cultural revolution of the sixties had settled was a general approval of art as inversion: that what was previously long was short, that what was previously deemed as beautiful was altered until it became ugly ââ¬â until, paradoxically, it was ultimately seen as beautiful once again. According to Donald Kuspit (artnet.com; first viewed 13 September 2005), modern and post modern art is obsessed with perverse images of sexuality as a source of constantly finding ways to push the barriers of societys rigid attitude towards sexuality and the physical form. ââ¬Å"The treatment of (the body) as the be all and end all of existence, and the only thing at stake in a relationship is the source of modern arts perversion. It extends to a preoccupation with the body of the work of the art itself, which also becomes the object of perverse formal acts.â⬠Postmodernism, therefore, implies rapidly increasing parity between men and women in all spheres of western culture best viewed in the sense of a blurring of the traditional boundaries of sexuality as opposed to a complete merger. At this point it should be noted that, in the same way that it was white males that dominated western art, so the feminists who influenced the first stages of avant garde art were predominantly white, educated and middle to upper class. The issue of race and religion is equally as significant in the discussion of feminism as it is within an analysis of society at large; cliques and hierarchies are a necessary by product of modern civilisation and their presence (and influence) should come as no surprise to basic students of sociology. Hair, every bit as much as skin colour, is a visible dividing line between the races and in the West the image of the Caucasian variety of female hair as a symbol of womens sexuality has resulted in a womans movement that is f ractured and splintered, more so given the brevity of the ideology as a whole. The essential link between culture and art, as well as politics and art means that nothing created during the early years of feminism was out of the reach of politicisation and none of it would have been made were it not for the wider advent of post modern society. Or, as Gombrich (1986:11) puts it: ââ¬Å"not all art is concerned with visual discovery â⬠. With the backdrop to the arrival of feminist sexuality and art in place, an evaluation of how one of the most potent symbols of feminine sexuality was used as a tool of womans subordination in art in the past must now be attempted. Female Hair, Sexuality and Symbolism in the History of Visual Art As already outlined, the question of womens hair and artistic expression is deep rooted in all civilisations. As well as the Greek and Roman equations of hair with dormant female sexuality, the pre Raphaelite artists also promulgated the view of feminine hair as seductive conqueror of weak male spirits. Late nineteenth and early twentieth century paintings continued to expand on the association of the snakes or ringlets of the Gorgons Head with male fear of female genitalia; the reversal of roles whereby the sinuous hairs of Medusa were inverted to symbolise the male phallic icon of power of women and nature. These notions were underlined by Freuds analysis that saw the intricate waves of classical female hair as symbolic of female metamorphosis and change ââ¬â characterised by the uniquely female ability to transcend gender. According to Meghan Edwards (victorianweb.org; first viewed 15 September 2005), the Classical and Romantic image of the female using her hair to devour male libido was a collective and conscious manifestation of fear in Victorian society, one that was transmitted from the ancient period through to the advent of modern visual art. ââ¬Å"The myth of women who carry in their femininity a grotesque vagina with teeth or who have embedded in their being a serpent or snake with the power to castrate took root long before Rossettis Lady Lilith but became increasingly unambiguous, bizarrely personalized, and widespread among the Symbolist poets and painters by the end of the [nineteenth] century. Visual and psychoanalytic connections between hair and serpents become increasingly explicit in Fernand Khnopffs The Blood of the Medusa, Franz von Stucks Fatality, and Edvard Munchs Vampire, wherein we see the complexity and ambiguousness that infused the imagery of earlier artists like the Rossettis, Waterhouse, Tennyson, and many others give way to an unrestrained fear and indulgence in the grotesque.â⬠Rossettis Regina Cordium (Queen of Hearts), which he painted in 1860, began a period of change in artistic perspective on female hair, where it was accented as a means to communicate a womans ultimate fragility and dependence on man: the first realisation of her sexuality as the embodiment of mans annihilation and self destruction. Pollock (1992:132) notes how, ââ¬Å"her hair is loose, a decent and suggestive sign of allowed disorder, conventionally a sign of womans sexuality.â⬠It is of course significant that almost all of the most artistic and visual instances of female hair in painting were created by men. Many male artists, such as Manet, whos Olympia (1863 5) stands as the most obvious popular example, were non apologetic in terms of their bourgeois fascination with lower class women who were able to fulfil the well to do gentlemans most liberal carnal desires. As the prism through which both men and women viewed societys accepted ideal of the female form, these works of art (especially significant in the days before photography and other twentieth century means of visual communication) constituted the only truth that women knew. Artists of the Enlightenment such as Jean Baptiste Greuze, whos Broken Mirror (1773) charts the social struggle of sexually experienced yet single young woman, as well as High Victorian painters like William Holman Hunt, whos The Awakening Conscience (1853) details the plight and unique dilemma of a kept woman, all converged to create the prevailing image of female sexuality that remained the staple diet of western art for much of the twentieth century: a smouldering power that could be easily sedated by the socio political power of man. As Judy Chicago and Edward Lucie Smith (1999:88) testify, the fallen woman was the most popular portrayal of female sexuality for many of the male artists who dominated the pre twentieth century artistic arena with creators highlighting her essential weakness with a minimal visual emotional connection. ââ¬Å"She is the one who has no way out, and the painter contemplates her dilemma with a sort of repressed sadism. With each one of these works one feels a conflict of intention. The artist, will ostensibly sympathising with the plight of his female subjects, in fact enjoys their suffering, and expects the audience to do so as well.â⬠Where hair was employed as a tool to reference female sexuality, it was used to derisory and derogatory effect, as witnessed in the 1934 sculpture by Renà © Magritte entitled, Le Viol (The Rape), which transforms a mould of a womans torso into a distorted image of her face; her breasts are made into eyes, the hair covering her genitals becomes the mouth, while locks of coarse wavy hair protrude from the neck, conforming to the male stereotype of female hair as an instantly recognisable feature of her fertile sexuality. Clearly, female artists, although very much in the minority were by no means obsolete and painters such as Louise Marie Elizabeth Vigà ©e Lebrun, Rosalba Carriera and Angela Kauffman are but three of a long history of richly talented women artists who showed the intellectual and artistic communities the muted side of female sexuality, beyond the narrow conceptual borders imposed by man. However, in relation to the issue of hair as a vehicle through which to transport female sexuality to the viewer, few of these artists, male or female, made substantial in roads into a deeper philosophical exploration. It is important to note the significant socio economic shift that beset Europe and the United States after the end of the Great War in 1918. Because of their contribution to the labour force, in addition to the nascent political bodies such as the Womens Institute (founded in 1915) and the Suffragette Movement, females in the West were for the first time able to exist, albeit nominally at first, outside of the control of a patriarch. Gradually at first, more completely after the end of the Second World War in 1945, women were able to embrace independency, which necessarily brought with it tremendous consequences for the artistic community. Whereas women artists previously had to pander to male taste in order to sell as well as fund their work, women artists of the second half of the twentieth century were more able to create for the sake of creation as opposed to as a means to fit into male structured society. As Anne Sheppard (1987:97) details, the significance of the release of the socio economic weights of expectation inherently means that essence of the artistic endeavour must change. ââ¬Å"Among an audiences expectations of a work of art are expectations concerned with artistic forms and conventions. The Greeks of the fifth century BC would expect a chorus in a tragedy. Shakespeares contemporaries would expect a Fool in a comedy. Mozarts contemporaries would expect harpsichord music to be played with trills and grace notes. Giottos contemporaries would expect saints to be painted with haloes.â⬠As a broad rule of all artistic behaviour, artists had traditionally been bound by the expectations of the paying audience. Thus, the revolution concerning female sexuality and the way in which she has been visually portrayed came via economic emancipation first. Attention must now be turned to instances of female hair as a means of expression of sexuality in modern visual culture after the creative liberation of women. Female Hair as a Medium in Modern Visual Culture The above background to the advent of the age of modernity, and of the arrival and acceptance of women within the upper echelons of the artistic community in the West, highlights the male dominated nature of notions of female sexuality. Hair was expressed as one of the most seductive of all of womans charms ââ¬â an intricate part of the parcel that was created by God solely for mans destruction. Even when woman is portrayed as life giver in art, the act is more often than not displayed as ugly and confrontational, as Jonathan Wallers Mother No. 27 (1996) testifies. Indeed, the ongoing negative reaction of museums to child birth and maternity reveals more about the still dominant attitudes of females as sex objects as opposed to life enablers ââ¬â as destructive rather than constructive, which is to the detriment of the art community as a whole. It naturally follows that while the majority of the (male) art community continued to associate flowing female hair with her ubiquitous sexuality, women artists tied to the first and second waves of the international feminists movement would wish to convey a hidden, alternative image. One of the most universally celebrated of twentieth century female artists was without doubt Frida Kahlo. She is famous not only for the wealth of talent and technique that was at her disposal but also for her independent, analytical and honest view of women, given added significance due to her prominent position in Mexican society. Her self portrait with cropped hair (1940), which is housed in New Yorks Museum of Modern Art constituted the first mainstream attempt to castrate the pervasive female sexuality as characterised by the iconography of ubiquitous long hair. It should be recalled that this painting was created at a time when uniformity of sexuality was the cultural norm: women were meant to hav e long hair, which meant that the subtle question Kahlo posed to women who viewed it was magnified all the more. Two decades later, at the dawn of the watershed decade of the 1960s, the impact of the famous Beatles haircut, first styled and professionally photographed by Astrid Kircherr (who exhibits the cropped blonde look in a self photograph in 1961) was universal within western culture and was noteworthy for its inversion of traditional sexual roles. As, during the sixties, young men grew their hair longer so young women were more inclined to cut their own, highlighting a deliberate cultural means of rebelling against the tired sexual mores of the time. Gay women, in particular, began to associate short hair with sexual freedom. Although contemporary Western society views the stereotypical butch woman with short hair as symptomatic of the lesbian underworld, it was indeed a bold move in the sixties and seventies for a woman to cut her hair in such a symbolic gesture. In this way, women such as the avant garde artist Harmony Hammond (who famously came out via cutting her previously long, feminine hair in New York in 1974) were using their own hair and body image as their art, to make a statement that, visually and aesthetically, woman was no longer the lens through which man peered at his own vision of beauty. As per all cultural de constructions of popular mythology, the actual look of a womans hair was the only the first building block of conformity to be removed in the first phase of feminist expression. Harmony Hammond, furthermore, was one of the most prominent users of hair as an artistic material. Whereby hair was previously used to express female sexuality via depicting or painting the length, texture and contours, Hammond and the burgeoning abstract sect of North American artists sought to incorporate hair into their work to bring attention to the social and sexual constraints by which we all live. She used her own hair in the construction of a hair blanket as well as utilising animal hair to make hair bags. Hammond used materials such as hemp, straw, thread and braids to reference the equation of feminine hair with sexuality throughout her body of work. As Paul Eli Ivey (queerculturalcenter.org; first viewed 21 September 2005) explains, Harmony Hammond exhibited the greatest abil ity to manoeuvre female hair away from its association with beautiful heterosexual objects of male desire, combining ideology and aesthetics in a discernibly feminist manner. ââ¬Å"In the 1990s, Hammond combined latex rubber with her own hair and the hair of her daughter or friends, to suggest landscapes of gendered and sexualised bodies. The braid and the pony tail also took on a life of their own as personified characters: the braid relating to an integration of mind, body, and spirit; the stylised ponytail becoming a flirtatious, sexualised persona.â⬠Her sculpture, Speaking Braids, plays on the difficulty in forming a singular feminine voice in such a diverse culture, where lesbian and bisexual women still feel cut off from the socially acceptable heterosexual females of the twenty first century. The head is disconnected from the body, mirroring societys view of woman as an object of passive desire. The most shocking element is the vomit of light brown braids that extend from the remorseless face of the head of the woman, designed to engage the audience in contemporary thought about the disembodied cries of women to whom marriage and conformity are not available. Hair was therefore used to point out essential moral and ideological divisions within female sexuality and, according to Joan Smith (1997:165), the failure of society to recognise the fundamental differences amongst the various sectors of the broader female sex has been to the detriment of feminism and, ultimately, western culture as a whole. ââ¬Å"Women are expected to be different from men but the same as each other. While there is general agreement that women are unlike men in numerous ill defined ways, there is enormous reluctance to accept the idea that women might not be broadly similar to each other. The issue that exposes this distinction most sharply is motherhood, so that a woman who chooses not to give birth is characterised not just as unnatural but as a traitor to her sex.â⬠Mille Wilson is another feminist artist who has used the symbolism of hair to state a valid view on female sexuality by employing it as the central theme of persuasion. In her ambitious visual art project, The Museum of Lesbian Dreams (1990 2), Wilson speaks to her audience through the fetish surrogates of the typical view of the female body in this instance using female hair in the form of a series of womens wigs to underline the essential similarity of heterosexual and homosexual womans dreams and deepest aesthetic desires, relying on the long, luxurious manes of the artificial hair to symbolise the traditional notion of hair as standard bearer of vivacious feminine sexuality. As Whitney Chadwick (2002:396) notes in her expansive study of women, art and society; ââ¬Å"her work articulates the historical inaccuracy, often absurdity, of social constructions of lesbianism within dominant heterosexual discourses. Such discursive formations often to work to fix identity within, and o utside, normative paradigms.â⬠It should be apparent that much of the artistic arguments pertaining to female hair and sexuality emanate from the perspective of the historical outsiders, namely gay and bisexual women. All great art is created from passion and in terms of damaging sexual stereotyping relating to female icons of beauty the avant garde art community has felt the greatest reason to voice concerns over the prevailing attitude of society towards womens sexuality. However, the real outsiders within the broader feminine artistic debate need to be analysed in order to underscore how hair is culturally understood as one of the most important foundations of mainstream notions of female sexuality. Female Hair and Visual Expressions of Sexuality from the Perspective of Outsider Art Beyond the set boundaries inherent within sculpture and painting, photography and performance art have been the most likely to make a physical statement pertaining to female sexuality. Whereas most other forms of modern visual art minimalism, conceptual art and pop art concentrate on extracting the content rather than moving towards a lifelike representation of the female body, photography recreates the human form as an artistic facsimile. It must be noted that photography and visual performance art highlight the issue of female sexuality via concentrating on the entirety of the hair on her body as opposed to detailing only the stereotypical view of female hair emanating from her head. Indeed, no examination of the subject of sexuality and hair can be complete without an analysis of the art worlds view of female body hair per se, which is culturally speaking ââ¬â hidden, shaved and moulded in a far more stringent and severe way than any style of hair upon the head, a fact that Germaine Greer (1999:20) expands upon. ââ¬Å"Women with too much (i.e. any) body hair are expected to struggle daily with depilatories of all kinds in order to appear hairless. Bleaching moustaches, waxing legs and plucking eyebrows absorb hundreds of woman hours.â⬠Feminist adherents in the art world have inevitably challenged the claustrophobic views of society towards female body hair with pictures created to shock and induce academic debate about a needlessly taboo topic. Sally Mann made a series of explicit photographs of herself and her daughters during the 1990s, including Untitled (1997), a photograph that focuses the viewer upon the dense vaginal hair of the artist, whose legs are spread open in a bathtub with the subtext of highlighting how women enjoy exactly the same bodily functions as men, however much society shuts itself off to biological reality. Moreover, by making the camera concentrate on the nexus of pubic hair the spectator is likewise advised to consider the cultural reasons as to why women must shave every other part of their body where hair grows naturally. The most shocking and moving of all photographic imagery involving female hair tied to the notion of sexuality is Hannah Wilkes self image taken during her demise from cancer, the disease having robbed her of her hair though not of her female organs, as the naked photo in a wheelchair, selected from the Intra Venus collection (1992 3), graphically illustrates. The power of the visual focus is centred upon the artists wish to show how hair does not make a woman feminine ââ¬â and that the human spirit is more powerful than any facet of the physical body. Visual art enactment reserves the greatest power of persuasion and audience manipulation. Post Porn Modernism, a performance art show that was exhibited in New York in the late 1980s, is the most obvious example of a visual exposition of contemporary female sexuality devised to shock the audience, concentrating in this instance, on the artists pubic hair and genitalia. Playing on the historical artistic obsession with the female whore, Rebecca Schneider (1996:161) declares that Post Porn Modernism was merely another way to de mystify the myth of female sexuality, in particular highlighting the fragile nature of consumer capitalism where the prostitute is both buyer and seller merged into one. ââ¬Å"In theory, the real live Prostitute Annie Sprinkle lay at the threshold of the impasse between true and false, visible and invisible, nature and culture as if in the eye of a storm. As any whore is given to be in this culture she is a mistake, an aberration, a hoax: a show and a sham made of lipstick, mascara, fake beauty marks, hair and black lace.â⬠However, the art most likely to capture the absurdity of the persistent link between granted notions of female hair personifying womans innate sexuality is that which is created by African women: artists who have to cross strict racial as well as gender and sexuality lines in order to portray women from their culture in an aesthetically acceptable light. These women are the true outsiders of Western artistic expression. Leslie Rabine (1998:127), for example, declares that: ââ¬Å"western slave culture and economics invested the arena of skin, hair and make up with political struggle,â⬠with the result that African women born in the West have had their body image dictated by colour and gender, which creates a kind of schizophrenic effect on the black women to the extent that the naturally curly, short African hair has been usurped in fashion by wigs, extensions and artificially straight hair. Typically, it has been left to the avant garde community to ignite the backlash against the marginalisation of black female sexuality. Alison Saar, daughter of African American feminist artist Betye Saar accented the widely accepted view of natural black female hair as the cultural antithesis to feminine sexuality in her sculpture entitled, Chaos in the Kitchen (1998). Saar used coarse iron wiring to mimic indigenous African hair, on top of a female face that has been deliberately denied eyes to highlight the cultural blind spot that black women have towards their own vision of female beauty. She means to state that, in attempting to copy white mans image of feminine beauty via hair, black women have only succeeded in hollowing out their historical selves. African American artist and photographer Renà ©e Cox made an even more challenging alternative to the prevailing paradigms pertaining to female sexuality and race when she made, Yo Mama (1993). The photograph places the artist standing up naked except for Western high heels the stereotypical twin symbol of hair as the autograph of heterosexual female sexuality. The hair on he
Friday, January 17, 2020
Migration and the Gender Roles Essay
In this paper I will analyze the research and data devoted to the issue of migration and changing gender roles; I will investigate the dynamics of the gender roles within the families on the move. Undoubtedly, migration has a significant influence on gender roles and the construction of gender identities. The first important trend is connected with the new role of women. Migration breaks the traditional way of life, so women become more independent and self-responsible. Within the family migrant women also imposes their new gender roles. Parvati Raghuram states that migration leads to ââ¬Å"critique of patriarchyâ⬠(Raghuram 2004) on the larger scale. Bertil Egero in the preface to Lisa Eklundââ¬â¢s study of the migration inside China refers to migrating women as to the,ââ¬Å" pioneers also in terms of the gender role models they represent, a sharp break with the traditional subordinated roles of rural women. â⬠(Eklund 1999) This trend gradually evolves into the second phenomenon associated with the balance of power within families on the move. Smits, Mulder and Hooimeijer state that joint decision-making requires equal power balance within couples. Their data from the mid-nineties Netherlands shows that men are becoming tied stayers, while women are tied movers in the modern society. This view is supported by Keith Halfacree, who states that tied migration, ââ¬Å"has been shown to have a clear gender dimension; it is usually the female migrant who is ââ¬Ëtiedââ¬â¢Ã¢â¬ ¦[but] labour migration will become ââ¬Ëde-genderedââ¬â¢. â⬠(Halfacree 2004) More equality and higher responsibility of both partners is noted within the families on the move. I consider that my outlook and personal position couldnââ¬â¢t bias my interpretation significantly. I analyses the data and research papers attentively and objectively. Still, I believe women becoming more independent to be a positive trend and consequence of migration. But I must admit that gender roles are the cornerstone of every cultural tradition, so Westernization of migrant families can jeopardize cultural diversity. References Eklund, L. 1999. Gender roles and female labour migration ââ¬â a qualitative field study of female migrant workers in Beijing.PROP Report No 29 www. soc. lu. se/prop/LisaEklund. PDF Smits J. , Mulder C. H. , Hooimeijer P. Changing Gender Roles, Shifting Power Balance and Long-distance Migration of Couples. Urban Studies, March 2003 Halfacree, K. Untying migration completely: de-gendering or radical transformation? Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Jan 2004 Raghuram, P. The difference that skills make: gender, family migration strategies and regulated labour markets. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Jan 2004.
Thursday, January 9, 2020
Men And Women s Sexual Desire - 1431 Words
Are men and womenââ¬â¢s sexual desire the same as we get older or is it just a myth that a womenââ¬â¢s desire decreases as we get older? It has been my experience that conversations with other women tend to always lead into when we ââ¬Å"hadâ⬠to have sex last. Most of the women I talk to about this topic do not enjoy sex as much as they once used to. The significant other seems to want to have sex much more than the female does. I understand this does not include everyone. One of my goals for this class was to find out why this decline happens more significantly to woman, and if there is anything that can be done to fix that decline. How our body is influenced and responds sexually is based off many factors. Our brain, senses, hormones, level of intimacy and age are a few of the main factors. ââ¬Å"The limbic system is a structure located in the subcortical area of our brain.â⬠(Our Sexuality, pg 148). Structures among that area, hypothalamus, amygdala an d hippocampus affect our emotion and sexual motivation. (Our Sexuality, pg 148). They hypothalamus is the structure that is responsible for production of hormones. The area that controls our emotions is the amygdala. This area also receives the input from our senses. Particular senses may heighten or hinder our sexual arousal. Also in the limbic system are certain neurotransmitters that affect our sexual arousal. ââ¬Å"Dopamine promotes sexual arousal whereas, serotonin can hinder sexual arousal.â⬠(Our Sexuality, pg 148).Show MoreRelatedSexual Nature And Sexual Differences1560 Words à |à 7 Pagesof the fundamental shifts in the ideas about the sexual nature and sexual differences occurred in the eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries. During this period the new scientific knowledge is increasingly accepted concerning biological sex, gender, and sexuality, under which the belief that men and women are biologically different emerges. As the acceptance of this discovery grew it creates a new cultural system of proper behavior for men and women, and new constructions of gender. Through the changeRead MoreMedia s Portrayal Of Women1588 Words à |à 7 Pages Media represents males and females by gendering them in different categories. According to a presentation, the author states, ââ¬Å"Media perceives women in a very sexual manner whereas men are symbolized as powerful (Khan). Over and over again, the one thing that the media reveals is that women are very sexual beings. They show that they are only good for taking care of the home and the man is very powerful. For example, the author on the presentation shows a ad that a man is in a life guard outfitRead MoreIs It Possible For Men And Women1589 Words à |à 7 Pages 20 October 2015 Is it possible for men and women to be friends in the real world? I think not as I will demonstrate here. Iââ¬â¢ll show some possible techniques to escape the friend zone and potentially turn from friend to boyfriend or girlfriend. Also, Iââ¬â¢ll discuss this problem a bit more, sharing tips on how to avoid the friend zone in the first place. Research on Inter-Sexual Friendship Apparently this friend zone question has been on the table for about a decade. Bleske and Buss (2000) surveyedRead MoreMasturbation And Sexual Pleasure During The 19th Century870 Words à |à 4 Pagesabout masturbation and sexual pleasure in the 19th century. She covered the history behind the women-led reformation of sexual pleasure and desire in women, and spoke about the anti-masturbation movement, which was surprisingly lead by women in the same era. I found these talks to be very interesting in that they covered a discrepancy between the wonder of sex, and the female reintroduction to knowledge about their body, and anti-masturbation, which was an ideology enforced by women of that time. AnRead MoreWhy Women Control Men1298 Words à |à 6 PagesWhy women control men. Men have been trained and conditioned by women, not unlike the way Pavlov conditioned his dogs, into becoming their slaves. As compensation for their labors men are given periodic use of a woman s vagina. Young boys are encouraged to be sexually uninhibited and associate their masculinity with their ability to be sexually intimate with a woman. Young girls however are raised to be sexually inhibited, and trained to believe that their self-image is negatively affectedRead MoreEssay on Use of Sex in Advertising1512 Words à |à 7 Pagesunrealistic ideals for men regarding women, however, it is a powerful tool for selling products. Through the years advertisers have shown through their advertisements that sex does sell products. Especially when selling to the male viewers. Sex is the second strongest of the psychological appeals, right behind self-preservation, and its strength is biological and instinctive, the genetic imperative of reproduction (Taflinger). Sexual desire is an instinctive reaction in animals, and a person?s perception ofRead MoreThe Gender Roles Of Men And Women1243 Words à |à 5 Pagesgender roles of men and women were quite different in pre-20th-century drama. In his play Lysistrata, Aristophanes creates a world to bring about his thoughts on the Peloponnesian war with the comedic relief of gender role reversal. The women in his play are not necessarily the way women of his time were, but more of what men thought they were as well as what men feared or fantasized women could be like. Through action and dialogue, the play shows examples of several different types of women. LysistrataRead MoreThe Portrayal of Women and Their Position in Society in Millerââ¬Å¡Ãâà ´s the Crucible1044 Words à |à 5 Pagesthe very beginning, society has seen women as inheriting the character flaw of Eve s original sin. Most people see women as lustful beings because of how Eve tempted Adam in the garden of Eden, meaning they were more susceptible to the Devil. Men target the females because of their views and the roles they play in a male dominated society. Men have a more opinionated view of a woman s duties. The Crucible portrays women as the very defi nition of sexual desire, open to demonic command and beneathRead MoreThe Contradictions Of Women s Sexual Freedoms1646 Words à |à 7 PagesContradictions of Womenââ¬â¢s Sexual Freedoms Psychotherapist Leslie Bellââ¬â¢s Hard to Get: Twenty-Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom argues that young women in their twenties engage in ââ¬Å"splittingâ⬠, a defensive process in which people dissociate their ideas into separate parts that are unequally valued (28-29). This predicament leads them to choose between two different ââ¬Å"strategies of desire:â⬠the ââ¬Å"Sexual Womanâ⬠and the ââ¬Å"Relational Womanâ⬠(29). While the Sexual Woman enjoys being promiscuousRead MoreWhere Are You Going, Where Have You Been?1528 Words à |à 7 PagesThe Cultural Revolution and Sexual Desires in Oatesââ¬â¢s ââ¬Å"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Beenâ⬠The late 1950s was a time of cultural revolution which had a large influence on the American youth. ââ¬Å"As the next decade drew near, issues such as civil rights, war, women s rights, and the sexual revolution would deeply affect many American teenagers. The conservative family values and morals that predominated in the 1950s were just beginning to be challenged as the decade came to a closeâ⬠(Moss and
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Movie Analysis Film Analysis Of The Movie The Help
ââ¬Å"The Helpâ⬠Analysis Paper During the 1960ââ¬â¢s , americans underwent an era of critical issues in the United States. Throughout this time, the United States was in a stage of racial issues where racism was still openly accepted of society. The struggle by African-Americans to achieve rights equal to those that white people received was also known as the Civil Rights Movement. That included having an opportunity in employment, voting rights, having access to public facilities, education and housing and the right to be free from racial discrimination. In the film ââ¬Å"The Helpâ⬠, it gives us a better view of race, class, and gender inequality in the South where these issues were extensive and deep seated. Segregation of blacksâ⬠¦show more contentâ⬠¦For example, many African Americans woman had few options but to work as domestic maids and caregivers for wealthy white families. In the clip, there is a scene where Aibileen is asked by Skeeter ââ¬Å"What d oes it feel to watch a white child while your own child is at home being looked at by someone else?â⬠(Suzanne W. Jones 2011). Where she then goes on and discusses how looking after white babies is what she does and how she knows how to take full care of them. Another main scene in the film was when the maid is asking the white couple she works for if she can borrow money to allow her boys to go on to college. Her request is denied by the couple and she carries on with her day. Opportunities to obtain employment in a highly educated profession was not available to most African Americans for the fact that blacks were not permitted to attend white universities or graduate schools at the time. Blacks were limited to all education through the Jim Crow Laws that violated all types of appeals that include, ethical, logical, and emotional. These laws limit the influence of social class of colored people. Life in southern Mississippi for blacks was difficult. The issue of gender inequality is similar in numerous ways and relates to the problems of racial and class inequality. A perfect scene from the movie that defines gender inequality is when Skeeter is on a date. Throughout this date, the man asks what she does for a living and he responds with ââ¬Å"oh you meanShow MoreRelatedWilliam Shakespeare s Romeo And Juliet1287 Words à |à 6 PagesResearch Paper The movie Romeo and Juliet is a modern classic film that took place in 1996. Overall this is a timeless story that everyone should go and watch. This movie has an intriguing plot line that tells the story of two feuding families, The Montagues and The Capulets, and how the children of these two different families fall in love. The two children overcome various obstacles such as hiding their chemistry from their parents because it is forbidden. In the 1996 classical movie, Romeo and JulietRead MoreArundel Partners Case Analysis Essay1441 Words à |à 6 Pages----------------------------------- spootyhead Apr 17, 2007 Arundel Partners Case Analysis ----------------------------------- Arundel Partners Case Analysis Executive Summary: A group of investors (Arundel group) is looking into the idea of purchasing the sequel rights associated with films produced by one or more major movie studios. Movie rights are to be purchased prior to films being made. Arundel wants to come up with a decision to either purchase all the sequel rights forRead MoreMovie Marketing Plan1393 Words à |à 6 PagesMovie Marketing Plan Ideas and Images Private Limited Executive Summary Situation Analysis Ideas and Images Private Limited was founded in 2010 by students of film making with a vision to develop new trend, and improve film making in Nepal. The main objective is to align innovation and quality in Nepali movie making to help the industry grow and go international. Apabad is their first venture, with which they want to establish themselves as the institution with uncompromising creativityRead MoreAnalysis Of A Trailer Of A Movie Or Advertisement From A Systemic Functional Analysis1344 Words à |à 6 PagesAn analysis of a trailer of a movie or advertisement from a systemic functional analysis can be used to identify the semiotic techniques or resources that are the aspects for gender stereotypes. Semiotic resources such as perspective angle, gaze, and the plane of composition are used to investigate the stereotype implications of masculine and feminist. These same resources are applicable to advertisements (Terence).This paper discusses the gender semiotic facts in filming based on a review of FastRead MoreArundel Partners Case Analysis Essay1499 Words à |à 6 PagesArundel Partners Case Analysis Executive Summary: A group of investors (Arundel group) is looking into the idea of purchasing the sequel rights associated with films produced by one or more major movie studios. Movie rights are to be purchased prior to films being made. Arundel wants to come up with a decision to either purchase all the sequel rights for a studios entire production during a specified period of time or purchase a specified number of major films. Arundels profitabilityRead MoreAnalysis Of Divergent The Movie 1197 Words à |à 5 PagesAnalysis of Divergent The movie Divergent can be interpreted and looked into deeply to discover the missing and hidden features within the film. Throughout the movie, there are many twists and turns. It takes the viewers on a journey. The movie is easy to understand with what is going on, but at times the plot is about mystery. When viewers go to the theater to watch the film, they tend to miss the hidden features of the movie. They only tend to focus on certain points, and by paying greater attentionRead MoreSolutions to Arundel Partners Case1450 Words à |à 6 Pageswith films produced by one or more major movie studios. Movie rights are to be purchased prior to films being made. Arundel wants to come up with a decision to either purchase all the sequel rights for a studios entire production during a specified period of time or purchase a specified number of major films. Arundels profitability is dependent upon the price it pays for a portfolio of sequel rights. Our analysis of Arundels proposal inclu des a net present value calculation of each movie productionRead MoreCrash1243 Words à |à 5 PagesCrash Movie Analysis Anjelica McCartney HUM/150 January 18, 2016 Victor Armenta Crash Movie Analysis Discrimination, racism, classism, prejudice and more plague todayââ¬â¢s society. These horrible issues do not affect one race, sexes, class, ethnicity, or age group; these issues affect all races, both genders, all ethnicities, and all age groups. For this film analysis, I have chosen to discuss the racism portrayed throughout a three-time Oscar award winning movie called Crash. Summary PaulRead MoreImax Corporation : An Overview1066 Words à |à 5 Pagesfirst IMAX film premiered in 1970 in Japan at the Fuji Pavilion. IMAX has grown significantly since its foundation and in 2008, was located in 295 theaters in 40 different counties. About 50 perfect of IMAXââ¬â¢s theaters are located in educational institutions such as museums, zoos and aquariums. In 2007 movie theater attendance was 1,400 million with the average ticket price at about $6.88. The film industry is highly competitive however, there are only a limited number of large format film companiesRead MoreScarface Analysis Essay1065 Words à |à 5 PagesSingh Mrs. Mccormick Film Class 12 February 2012 Scarface Analysis Essay The gangster movie genre is one of the most popular among the modern movies and some of the best film directors have produced some very excellent gangster movies. For my first film analysis, I decided to analyze my favorite gangster movie of all time. The movie that I analyzed is called ââ¬Å"Scarfaceâ⬠and is directed by Brian De Palma. It was released in 1983 and is still a super hit movie today. Let me go through
Monday, December 23, 2019
Nazi Propagand How The Nazi Party Used Propaganda Images...
This analysis of Nazi propaganda will examine how the Nazi Party used propaganda images and rhetorical strategies during the ââ¬Å"Third Reichâ⬠. I will examine the propaganda cartoons titled, ââ¬Å"The Rhine and the Ruhrâ⬠, ââ¬Å"The Vampire in the Ruhr Areaâ⬠and ââ¬Å"Jewish Conspiracy Against Europeâ⬠. I will use two quotations from Burkes essays, the first being, ââ¬Å"[â⬠¦] whereby the ââ¬Å"Aryanâ⬠is elevated above all others by the innate endowment of his blood, while other ââ¬Å"racesâ⬠in particular Jews and Negroes, are innately inferior,â⬠(Burke, 156). The second quotation I will use from Burkeââ¬â¢s essay states that, ââ¬Å"[â⬠¦] a number of essentially different enemies must always be regarded as one in such a way that in the opinion of the mass of oneââ¬â¢s own adherents the war is being waged against one enemy alone. This strengthens the belief in oneââ¬â¢s own cause and increase oneââ¬â¢s bitterness aga inst the attacker,â⬠(Burke, 151). I will use a quote from Mein Kampf which states that, ââ¬Å"it was and it is Jews who bring Negroes into the Rhineland, always with the same secret thought and clear aim of ruining the hated white race by the unnecessarily resulting bastardization, throwing it down from its cultural and political height [â⬠¦] He weaves a net of enemies,â⬠(Hitler, 325). The last quote I will use is from Goebbelsââ¬â¢ ââ¬Å"The tasks of the Ministry for Propagandaâ⬠which states that, ââ¬Å"the age of extreme Jewish intellectualism is over [â⬠¦] the past is lying in flames [â⬠¦] the future will rise from the flames within our hearts
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