Book micro project - Drawing crime noir for comics and graphic novels

Book Micro project

For this project we had to chose a book from the library, unrelated to the Contextual Practices subject and chose either a paragraph to talk about, or go through the whole book in a general way.

I have chosen Drawing Crime Noir for Comics and Graphic Novels.

I haven't looked into crime noir until now, as I have always considered myself as being a cartoon character artist, and I think I might have limited myself to drawing cute things, when there is such a big world to explore. So, this book was chosen in order to open myself to a new territory, a new way of drawing, and new way of setting the mood. I really like Film Noir movies, and exploring this style of drawing, will hopefully, help me develop as an artist. 

A really interesting thing this book has taught me, is that " Any book about the art of crime noir would be incomplete if it were only about the principles of drawing. Mood. Atmosphere. Style. they're what crime noir is all about...

... This genre focuses on the slick, rainswept streets of the city, shadowy figures, heartless women, men without conscience, reluctant heroes and boulevards of fear."  ( Introduction - Drawing crime noir for comics and graphic novels / Christopher Hart) 

In crime noir, characters have got certain aspect specific only to them.

Rugged cheekbones, deeply set eyes, a tight mouth and a square chin give this character a dramatic look.
(pg 10, Drawing crime noir for comics and graphic novels / Christopher Hart)

As I have already mentioned, in crime noir, the characters need to look strong, tough, serious. There is a big difference between comics characters and crime noir, and simple shading done the right way, the addition of small features, make a great difference and make this particular genre stand out. 

Here's a n example of how the same character from a normal comic book can be imported and transformed to achieve a crime noir one.

It is very obvious how in the first image, with very few additions ( sunglasses and cigarette), the transformation was done through mainly giving the character attitude. The stance was changed, to make her look in control, sunglasses add to the mysterious air surrounding her and by simply adding the dramatic shading, the artist has achieved a new, completely different, much stronger character.

The same simple transformation was done in the last image (bottom right image). The only props added were the sunglasses and the motorcycle helmet, but again, like in the first image, the attitude is entirely different. Instead of the easy going pose the character had, initially, he was given a strong, in control, stance, he was half covered in dark shading, making him this tough, mysterious, can-get-any-job-done kind of guy. 

All in all, I found this book really interesting and I have already used it for reference in one of my drawing projects. I find Christopher Hart, the author, really easy to understand, as the way he explains the different techniques  used, is very clear and he goes into enough detail, to make everyone understand why he has used certain features. 

I would definitely recommend this book to any character artist.

Gender in games and other media

Gender in Games

       Gender in games, as well as gender in any form of media is a very hot and controversial subject. It creates a lot of animosity between people of different opinions and it has been at the centre of many video game industry, as well as, political talks.

Ever since the late 18th century, when feminism was born, there have been many discussions and debates, about what Feminism means, what it should mean, and what can and should be done about it. There have been both men and women involved in this, even though, the name of it, Feminism, might suggest differently.

Feminism is described by the Oxford dictionary as: "the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.

The issue of rights for women, first became prominent during the French and American revolutions in the late 18th century. In Britain it was not until the emergence of the suffragette movement in the late 19th century that there was significant political change. A ‘second wave’ of feminism arose in the 1960s, with an emphasis on unity and sisterhood; seminal figures included Betty Friedan and Germaine Greer"

(http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/feminism?q=feminism)

The subject I have set up to discuss today, is gender issues in games and I feel quite strongly, that if there were no references towards women being under-represented in this form of media, I would have no subject to talk about. So, in order to base my comments on real data, I have set up to find some statistics regarding the number of male vs female video game players.

However, instead of finding demographic data, I have come across a very interesting article about an experiment done at Stanford University School of Medicine By Allan Reiss and his colleagues on the different way a man's brain reacts and creates a pseudo-addiction to the conquering, territorial based videogames, in comparison to women's brains.

Reiss said this research also suggests that males have neural circuitry that makes them more liable than women to feel rewarded by a computer game with a territorial component and then more motivated to continue game-playing behavior. Based on this, he said, it makes sense that males are more prone to getting hooked on video games than females.

“Most of the computer games that are really popular with males are territory- and aggression-type games,” he pointed out.

(http://med.stanford.edu/news_releases/2008/february/videobrain.html)


Here's a link to the entire article as well, as I found it quite interesting.Stanford University School of Medicine experiment

So, in other words, men's brains respond slightly different to games, compared to women's ones. This is just a matter of fact, it is how the brain works. I am in total agreement with women having equal rights to men, however, I think it is probably time to recognise the fact that men and women are different and should act upon it as well. This is, by no means to suggest, that women are inferior and should not be allocated certain roles in media, and by media, I am referring to videogames, as well as, movies and other forms of related forms of mass communication. These are all very powerful means and extremely capable of influencing and changing mentalities... And this makes me ask a very big question: Why is Gender and issue in videogames???

Along the years, there have been many movies where the protagonist was a female, and not just any females, but truly strong, extremely influencing characters.
I can mention a few:

• The Alien series, who gave us Ellen Ripley - the woman who is a survivor, warrior, saint and mother all in one." Carolyn Petit, editor of GamespotUK, said, in the article titled: Fear of a woman Warrior (Feb 22 2013), that: " Any reasonable understanding and appreciation of what made Aliens a great film acknowledges the important role of women in it." (http://uk.gamespot.com/features/fear-of-a-woman-warrior-6404142/). And this is very true. Ellen Ripley is just the superlative of any team leader, she is, as a "genderless" human being, what anyone can dream of becoming, when aspiring to lead a mission, she is a role model for both male and female audiences.

• The Terminator series, created Sarah Connor - "the legend of Earth's post-apocalyptic future. " (http://www.totalfilm.com/features/the-100-greatest-female-characters/sarah-connor). Sarah Connor is a strong female, perfectly capable of looking after herself and fending off any type of enemy, both humanoid and robotic.

• Another very famous, strong character was Mrs Robinson from the 1967 film The Graduate. She " doesn't so much seduce Benjamin Braddock as bend him to her will."  said Filmsite.org's Tim Dirks. (http://movies.amctv.com/movie-guide/50-greatest-female-movie-characters.php).

• Strong female characters have had a presence even in fairy tales, and I have to mention Belle here, from Beauty and the Beast. She is the one that changes everything, she has taken her life in her own hands, has decided to exchange her freedom for her dad's safety and in the end, she is the one that "makes everything better", as because of her, the Beast manages to break the spell, and thanks to her, everyone in the castle is back to their normal happy selves.

• Closer to nowadays, we have Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, from the movie with the same name, an air stewardess who ends up getting involved in drug trafficking, only to become the ultimate winner/survivor of a big ploy to bring the whole network down.

• And I shouldn't forget to mention, probably the most influential videogame/movie female character: Toby Guard's Lara Croft, from the game Tomb Raider. The game was created in 1995 by UK developer Core Design , and since then, Lara Croft was awarded a Guiness World Record for the "most successful human video game heroine" (Guy Cocker (2006-04-07). "Lara Croft earns Guinness World Record". GameSpot. Retrieved 2007-08-30.)

So, all these mentioned, I don't think there should be such a big issue with female characters in video games. It is clear that there have been some benchmark ones created, that people enjoyed and still do, after even nearly half a century (Mrs Robinson - The Graduate-1967). I know one of the biggest and most debated subject, is, why, in most games, female roles are limited to damsels in distress, or weak secondary characters. I think, that it would be impossible for male and female to have the same level of importance when it comes to the roles they play in games, as it is the case with everyday life.


My intention here, is not to go against the feminists, but to bring a little reality into this subject. Ever since life started, there were men and women and they all had different roles. Both were just as important, as each other, as without either of them, life wouldn't have carried on, societies wouldn't have formed and evolved into what we know them to be today.  Recently, I have noticed quite a few instances, in which men were being objectified, and this, I'm guessing, just to show that this is a possibility. I don't believe this is the way equality between genders should be manifested, and because this is displayed on national television, which is an extremely influential media, large groups of people will think it is ok to behave that way. Why do we not stop all this and start respecting each other and show that women are as strong as men when it comes to character as well.

Many industry articles mention the fact that the main reason for not creating female protagonists in video games is because the majority of players are male and the games wouldn't sell. Chris Perna, art director at Epic Games, told OXM, "If you look at what sells, it's tough to justify [a female Gears of War protagonist]." (http://uk.gamespot.com/features/fear-of-a-woman-warrior-6404142/). So, an economic strategic decision, was taken by this big video game company, one might think. However, Entertainment Software Association has made a study on 1200 American households in 2011 and came up with this result: "Forty-two percent of all players are women and women over 18 years of age are one of the industry's fastest growing demographics." (ESA. "Game Player Data".)

So, the previous two statements are very conflicting, and we could ask ourselves: did Epic Games not do any market research? Do they not take into account market research? ...
The answer lays in my first reference article - the study done at Stanford University: male audience get more addicted to videogames, they are the ones that create repeat custom, they are basically the ones buying the majority of videogames, with or without female protagonists. I haven't yet heard, of any male video gamer who didn't enjoy playing as Lara Croft in Tomb Raider, because she was a female main character...

As a conclusion, I would say that gender issues in video games, are such a controversial subject, only because it is made to be, not because it is a genuine problem. Games are meant to be a way of escaping reality for a short while, a way of fulfilling each individual's idea of Utopia, so if some guys like to play FPS games and shoot everything they encounter, they should be free to do it. Other might want to explore and expand their brains by solving puzzles which life doesn't always throw at them, so they should have the freedom to solve any sort of puzzles in games, as ridiculous or or interesting as the mass audience might think they are. Others on the other hand, might like to explore new worlds, and try new things, things that might be tabu in our society, or things that are unreachable to them in real life. That's why games were invented, as a means for escapism, and they should be able to cater for every single need. I think the most vehement critics might be surprised when talking to video game players, to find out that the biggest feminists play games where they chose an avatar looking as ideal as a woman can look, which I personally find it to be very hypocritical. But then again, there will alway be controversies, and to be honest, without these controversies, the gaming industry would probably not have the place it has today. 

Rhonda Farr once said: "Publicity, darling. Just publicity. Any kind is better than none at all." ([1933 R. Chandler in Black Mask Dec. 26]

Ideology

Ideology

In this session we have discussed a really interesting topic - Ideology.

The presentation started off with a very clever quote:
"You're not the boss of me. I'm the boss of me. I act on my opinions. My opinions are natural. Aren't they?"...

And this is where ideologies start having an impact on everyone, on the way we behave, on the way we think and act, and even, and probably, most importantly, the way we REACT! And I'm saying this, because I believe, that the way a person reacts, as an action he or she takes, in response to something,  has a very short thinking time applied to it in most cases, which means that the decision of how to react, is based most likely, on one's ideology. I am basing this statement on the definition of ideology given by the Oxford Dictionary as " the set of beliefs characteristic of a social group or individuals".
            http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/ideology?q=ideology

From this, we can draw a pretty simple conclusion in relation to ideologies, and we can easily say that they embody the way we have been brought up, they are a set of moral values influenced by the environment.

However, as much as ideologies can be inherited involuntarily, through simple unquestioned upbringing, (nd by this I am referring simply to the fact that most people do not question their family ideologies, but accept them as being the right and only way to behave and think), some ideologies, can be implemented through various systems or methods for imposing a certain way of being/thinking.

My statement might seem a little twisted and difficult to understand, but basically, I believe, that while we are brought up with certain beliefs, we can pretty easily convert to different ones, by simply changing the environment, or changing the rules we have to follow.

The best example for this, is Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon.

The Panopticon is the model of a prison designed by Jeremy Bentham during the late eighteenth century. The word "Panopticon" comes from "Pan", which means all, and the Greek "Opticon", which means view.

Oxford dictionary defines the Panopticon as "a circular prison with cells arranged around a central well, from which prisoners could at all times be observed."

The panoptic prison is basically designed with an opaque central tower in its center, around which, are aligned transparent cells. The central tower can see into each individual cell, but nobody can know if there is actually anybody inside the opaque watchtower, therefore the mode of observation is permanent.

The french philosopher Michel Foucault suggested in his book, Discipline and Punish (1995), that the inmates end up to self regulate in the Panopticon.

Panopticon - elevation and section drawn by  Willey Reveley - 1791

http://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2011/06/20/surveillance-from-the-clouds-to-the-fog/

This way, a forced development of the superego is applied, in the sense that, a part of the brain is being kept in check at all times and will develop, for the fear of being seen. So, the prisoners will develop a new sense of morality, a new ideology and a new way of thinking. After a while, the fake "good behavior" becomes normal, and the old ideology is completely forgotten. Human nature is fantastic from this point of view, because people, as thinking mechanisms, are extremely adaptable and in a constant search for acceptance. So, if by changing ideology and ultimately, behavior, they are praised, accepted and included in certain groups (societies), they will continue believing and acting on those ideologies, therefore, becoming their second nature. It is commonly known that behaviour and actions repeated, become habit.

People in general, do tend to behave differently when they are being observed, as conscientiousness is not a human being's forte. So, based on this idea, I guess, the United Kingdom have installed 20% of the the world CCTV cameras, even though the country's population only adds up to 1% of the world population... And the number of CCTV cameras is expected to double by 2018...
But, on the plus side,  "Rates of murder and violent crime have fallen more rapidly in the UK in the past decade than many other countries in Western Europe", according to the BBC News bulletin from the 24th of April 2013 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22275280), so it might all be for the best.

Leaving behind the imposed ideologies discussed in the previous paragraph, we can say that an ideology is a set of social values, beliefs, feelings, representations and institutions by which people, collectively, make sense of the world they live in.
However, all these, are influenced heavily by a few factors, and one of the most important ones, these days, is the media, which plays a vital role in communicating and reinforcing DOMINANT ideologies.
As I have mentioned before, ideologies are often not consciously thought out, they are invisibly imposed to reinforce power relations and social structures.

And all this, is because of the importance of ideologies in anyone's life.
Their role is to:

• give meaning to life
• provide adherents with criteria or standards for evaluating right-wrong and/or good-bad
• provide an identity and orient people with a social and cultural compass
• provide with a program of action ("what is to be done?")

The German philosopher, Karl Marx, suggested in his 1848 work called The Communist Manifesto, that, ideologies arise in class divided societies, for the express purpose of political domination.

He said: "the class that has the means of material production at its disposal, consequently controls the means of the mental production. and this control that he is talking about, can and in most cases will, slowly lead to hegemony, which is "leadership or dominance, especially by one state or social group over others" (Oxford Dictionary). But this is an entirely different subject, and I will probably approach this in a different post.

I will end this post with the famous quote from the human rights activist, Malcolm X. He once said: "Knowledge is power". And this is a very strong statement. Who has the knowledge, will be able to cease power and control in a good or bad way the masses. This is, in my opinion, what ideologies are based on: one person/group convincing and converting others to a certain way of thinking, believing and behaving, by providing them with real (or not) arguments. I had to say "or not" as well, because some ideologies are based on pure invented facts, meant to respond to some peoples utopian dreams.

Mini group project - create a utopian environment in a game

Block 32
A utopia based video game idea - Research and final idea

For this mini project I have been teamed up with Matteo Roberts, Peter Watton and Stuart Smith and we had to come up with a concept for a game based on Utopia.

There have been quite a few ideas thrown about when trying to come up with the idea of a world similar to the movie Wall-e, where all humans still live on Earth, but are all plugged into machines that provide them with ideal scenarios for their lives. So, each individual can choose what life he or she would like to live, program the machine and live that exact life. There is no interaction between individuals, and there is no physical activity either, they are all static, living an artificial life.

There are robots who maintain the systems, making sure that they are all in working order at any point in time, and if anything breaks, they are capable of entering each individual dream (artificial life), to be able to come up with the right solution to repair it.

Our game will concentrate on this little robot, who is looking after Block 32, a block of flats inhabited by about 40 people, each having their own individual dreams.

In order to recharge its batteries, the robot will enter any of the individual worlds ( the choice is his) and he will have to survice in that environment for 5 minutes without being "wiped out" by the owner of the world. The screen will display Robo's battery life, so it will be very clear when he needs recharging.

Each individual controls his dream / world and is able to "evacuate"any intruder if not happy with him/her. Evacuation can be done by ignoring and hence eliminating from life, or killing.

The story follows Robo, our robot, while he is entering the world of a young girl and falls in love with her. As this develops, he is tempted to enter her world all the time, even when his battery doesn't need charging, and this way he is basically ignoring all other individuals, and maintenance is slacking.
The story gets strange as Robo shouldn't be able to fall in love, him being a robot, however, as this story goes on, through cut scenes, the player finds out that all robots are actually individuals who have not adapted to this way of living (through self induced dreams), so they all have anatomical parts as well as artificial components.

The Utopia created is each individual world. The player will find out that, in fact, Utopia depends on each individual's personality and dreams. Hence, this Utopia can be a pretty world, with sunsets, waterfalls and forests, peaceful and calm environments, while at the same time, Utopia can also mean a nuclear explosion, burning buildings, shooting and dead people.

So, we have decided for each one of us  in the group to come up with a character concept and a world that character would live in.

Here are a few drawings I have done when trying to build my "world". I have come up with 2 character concept designs and 2 worlds, and in he end I have decided upon one of each. The character I have decided to pursue, I have drawn in more detail, and the environment chosen is the calm serene one, where my girl would live in.

This was my first character concept, as we were discussing the world to be  inhabited by humans  and/or robots initially, so drew a girls robot, connecting to a pod. I wasn't too keen to this idea, however, so I then drew the next one.

This is Chloe, my character, who, connected to her pod. is loving in this beautiful world, with waterfalls, rivers, sun and forests. However, as the Q-pid the robot falls in love with her, I have decided to make slightly older, as I thought it to be immoral to have her involved in a love story at such a young age.

This is my idea of a dystopia. I wanted to explore this avenue a little bit. So, a nuclear explosion, buildings burning, and ...weird flat people( I have added the dead person long after I have finished the environment and the proportion is extremely wrong, but the idea is still there:-)) lying dead on the floor, is just my worst nightmare.

This is my initial pencil drawing of a Utopia. This is where I would like to live :-)

I have taken the previous drawing in Photoshop to give it a bit more detail, and I have come up with this, my idea of Utopia, and of course, for this project, Chloe's world.

When researching for this project, I have found a few images for Utopias and Dystopias that, I thought, describe these two concepts perfectly.

This chaotic image symbolises Dystopia, from my point of view, as I don't like chaos at all. Even though I lobe bright colours, and normally, they define bright, happy feelings, in this case, I found them quite disturbing.

Another idea for Dystopia, for me, is this image, which, again, is very chaotic. You don't know where to look, it seems like everything is broken, and somehow, for a strange reason,  it gives me the idea of a very loud noise as well...

You cannot describe these two concepts ( Utopia/Dystopia) better than this. 

And finally, my part in this project was put in a couple of slides in a powerpoint presentation, shown below.

The final product for this mini project, was assembled in a Powerpoint presentation shown below:

Utopia and Dystopia

Utopia and Dystopia

I have missed the first lecture of this term, and because the subject discussed was utopias and Dystopias, I have done some personal research into this subject. 

Oxford dictionary defines Utopia as : an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect. The word was first used in the book Utopia (1516) by Sir Thomas More. The opposite of dystopia.

So, basically, Utopia is an imaginary IDEAL world. A lot has been discussed on the subject, and of course, everyone seems to have their own opinion in relation to the possibility of even imagining what an ideal world would be like. 

Utopia-dystopia by Dylan Glyn - http://dylanglynn.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/utopia-dystopia.html

My opinion is that it is practically impossible to create a Utopian world for more than 1 person, as people, by definition, are different, they all have their own visions, ideas and ideals, so the moment anyone will try to create a Utopian society or place, is the moment they will instantly fail.

Of course, I might be contradicted by many, as history proves that there have been many who attempted creating utopias through books. The very first example of a Utopia was created by Plato in his work of literature called Republic, where he tried to "envisage an ideal state, and to lay down concrete parameters as to the activities of each and every class within society."
                            (guardian.co.uk, Thursday 29 April 2004 00.00 BST - Toby Green's top 10 utopias and dystopias)

However, every single idea (ideal) suggested in the book by Plato can be taken individually, analysed, through today's society's eyes, mind, but nevertheless can be broken into pieces and proven wrong. The fact that he suggests the society should be tieredin order to create happiness all around, is not something that can be accepted nowadays, even though, the society we live in, IS tiered, everyone HAS its place and fulfils a certain role. however, if we were to do a social study, I am pretty sure, more that half the population would like to do something else rather than what they are doing, and this is all down to human nature. I believe that no matter what anyone will offer an individual, there will always be something missing, there will always be something that he would rather not have or do. I mentioned during the lecture that Utopia is most probably possible only for a very short period of time, probably seconds, or we are being very optimistic, minutes, and this is exactly down to my previous idea: human nature, does not allow one person to stay happy for too long, they will always desire or long for something else.

During our lecture, the idea of Utopia being associated with an orderly society was brought up, only to be immediately rejected, and for good reason, through the example of George Orwell's book Nineteen Eighty-Four, where the society is completely controlled by a Big Brother style system, everything is in complete order, however, the reader will not aspire to live in such a society, on the contrary, everyone would probably avoid it, if given the choice. 

Unfortunately (or fortunately - depending how you look at it), I grew up in communist Romania before the 1989 revolution, so all through my primary and junior high school, we were fed all sorts of idealisms. The main one, which I still remember quite vividly, was that if, as a country, we would reach the state of socialism, that will be the ideal world, where everyone would be equal. That is what we were "aiming" for, and to think that this is what were taught in the early stages in school, that was brainwashing worked out to absolute perfection. A Utopia was being presented to children in their most innocent and mentally absorbing times of their lives. That's possible the only you could attempt a Utopian society, I guess: brain wash children, separate them from adults from an early age, not to be fed any other ideas, keep them in an enclosed parameter with no access to the outside world(in order not to have their ideals tempered with), and so on, and create basically a new breed of humans. 

And this has now made me think of animals in Zoos... Do they live in a Utopia, for the simple reason that they don't know ay different? Most of them were born there, grew up in the same enclosed space, have not experienced any other klife, so cannot compare their way of living with anything else, so probably, in their mind, they are leaving in an ideal world?!?!?

anonymous image

And this is what brings me back to what Doris Lessing said in her book The golden Notebook that brought her the Nobel prize for literature in 2007.
"What seemed to me important was that it could be read as parody, irony or seriously. It seems to me this fact is another expression of the fragmentation of everything, the painful disintegration of something that is linked with what I feel to be true about language, the thinning of language against the density of our experience." 
Indeed, everything can be fragmented and analysed, and given a lot of different meanings, including the idea of a Utopia, or Dystopia for that matter.


I would like to make this following quote from Robert Musil -  a nominee for a Nobel Prize for literature for his work: the Man without Qualities. In this book, he says:
"Nowadays we call good whatever gives us the illusion that it will get us somewhere" 

And this should be, probably the definition of any Utopia, short or long lived: "if anyone has the illusion that by doing something, they will get somewhere (where they want to get), they are basically living their own individual Utopia." (Robert Musil - The man without qualities)

Gender and the Gaze

 Gender and the Gaze

Who's looking at who?

The very first point to be made, is, that there is a clear distinction between sex and gender.

Sex refers to the biological identity a person has as a male or a female.

Gender, on the other hand, in contemporary thought, it refers to socially determined identity construct. Characterisation of gender changes from culture to culture, as we are being expected to behave in a certain way and be as male or female. 

Gender also refers to how society stereotypes males and females and for this reason, gender tends to be as fixed as sex, and seemed to be confused for a long time with sex.

Gender also refers to the cultural expectation for a certain sex, the cultural representation, for example, in most of the old paintings, films or books, which were the most common form of culture, the most common way of instilling beliefs, the female characters acted very feminine, while the male characters acted very masculine.

Gender stereotypes (The nature / culture question)

There seems to have been a NAture - culture binary that inflicted all this difference in which men and women were being perceived in history. And because of this, there appeared quite a few stereotypes. In most cases, stereotypes refer to the cultural differences, they are based on ideologies, on the cultural way of perceiving things.

Mythologies were built around gender: Gods were always men, there was alway the connection between: God - Man - Myth.

Masculinity and femininity lead to opposing moral values in mythology.

Gender roles were propagated through religious text, paintings and this way it managed to maintain the status quo of the male - strong, in control.

Discobolus  of Myron (the Disc thrower)

Men were always depicted in any forms of art, as very active, fighting, in control (wether these representations were films, sculptures, paintings, etc), while women have always been shown as shy, modest, passive, sensual, or is quite a few cases, as mother figures( Jean Fouquet - The Virgin Mother, or Botticelli's oil painting shown below - fig1)

fig1( The birth of Venus - Sandro Botticelli)

Even though, there were many historical strong female characters ( Judith - fig2 - see "Book of Judith", who single handedly - according to the religious writings - decapitated Holofernes - the general of the enemy army, and brought victory for the jews that way, or Cleopatra, who again,  single handedly ruled the Egyptians for a few years until she committed suicide). 

fig2 ( Judith with the Head of Holofernes - Cristofano Allori)

However, even though Cleopatra was one of the most powerful women of her time(fig3, fig4), in death, she is depicted as a typical female: weak, powerless, helpless.(fig5, fig6).

fig3 (Cleopatra - Adam Lenckhardt)

fig4 (Cleopatra and Caesar - Jean Leon Gerome)

fig5 (The death of Cleopatra - Guido Cagnacci)

fig6(The death of Cleopatra - Reginald Arthur)

However, all this has changed in the last 30-40 years. Women are being perceived differently, they are being given a fair place in society, their qualities are being accepted, and recognised, and their role as independent thinkers, artists, even leaders is set on the same level as their male counterparts'.

Oxford dictionary describes feminism as:

• the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.

• The issue of rights for women first became prominent during the French and American revolutions in the late 18th century. In Britain it was not until the emergence of the suffragette movement in the late 19th century that there was significant political change. A ‘second wave’ of feminism arose in the 1960s, with an emphasis on unity and sisterhood; seminal figures included Betty Friedan and Germaine Greer

So, based on this, we can say that feminism, questions what theoretically can be described as Patriarchal Binary thought, which is in fact a very simplistic way of seeing the world

It has always been believed that "Feminine" was led by nature and "Masculine" was led by culture and that's where feminism comes in to challenge the ingrained views.

One interesting thing to be mentioned, is that feminists are not always females.

The feminist move started in Britain through the Suffragettes in the late 19th and early 20th century, when women of middle and upper class, frustrated by their social and economic situation, demanded a change within society.

A really interesting fact brought up in class, was the fact the a branch of the Suffragette movement argued that women's place was at home, as wives and Mum, and the right to vote was the only thing they actually wanted to gain through protests.

Feminism in arts in 70's and 80's


In the 70's and 80's, art was the least censored form of expression, so feminists used their art to challenge the stereotypes and gender roles.

Hannah Wilke is a very good example of this.

She has written on the photo: What does this represent   What do you represent, and through this she has taken a position of renegotiating the representation of one's body, as the body in the image, even though it is a naked female, doesn't seem to want to be looked at and admired.

There is a massive difference between this image of a female and the ones portrayed till now, where women were being shown as shy or vain, but in any way, looking for approval and admiration from the viewer.

Another example of the feminist move in the 70's is Valie Export in her "Action Pants: Genital Panic"

 Action Pants: Genital Panic is a set of six identical posters from a larger group that the artist produced to commemorate an action she performed in Munich in 1968. The posters show EXPORT sitting on a bench against a wall out of doors wearing crotchless trousers and a leather shirt and holding a machine-gun. Her feet are bare and vulnerable, as are her genitals, and she holds the gun at chest level, apparently in readiness to turn it on the viewer towards whom her gaze is directed. Her hair stands up in a wild mop above her head, emphasising the strangeness of the image.

The action that gave rise to the photograph Action Pants: Genital Panic has become the subject of apocryphal art historical legend. EXPORT performed Genital Panic in Munich in an art cinema where experimental film-makers were showing their work. Wearing trousers from which a triangle had been removed at the crotch, the artist walked between the rows of seated viewers, her exposed genitalia at face-level. This confrontation challenged the perceived cliché of women’s historical representation in the cinema as passive objects denied agency.

                 (http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/export-action-pants-genital-panic-p79233/text-summary)

Another example is Barbara Kruger with "Your body is a battleground" designed for the 1989 March on Washington in support of women's rights and the abortion-rights movement.

"Untitled (Your Body is a Battleground)" exemplifies Kruger's interest in addressing and interpreting heated political issues of the moment. Using as a central image a silk-screened frontal photograph of a model's face, she gives the image additional meaning by dividing the large canvas it occupies into sections: right and left the image reverses from positive to negative, and from top to bottom the face is divided into thirds emblazoned with the slogan "Your body is a battleground." Kruger critiques the objectified standard of symmetry applied in modern times to feminine beauty, and perpetuated at fever pitch by media and advertising.
The composition originally included more text and was designed as a poster for the massive pro-choice march that took place on April 9, 1989 in Washington, D.C. Additionally, Kruger has allowed the image to be displayed on postcards with the text "Support Abortion, Birth Control, and Women's Rights". Reproduced here is the large scale original painting in the Foundation's collection. The Foundation's collection includes six works by Kruger.

          (http://faculty.txwes.edu/csmeller/human-prospect/ProData09/03WW2CulMatrix/WW2PICs/Kruger1945/Kru1989Body400.htm)

During the 70's, which was a very masculine dominated decade, Grayson Perry believed that in order to be heard when challenging the norm, you had to be very loud, you had to go to the extreme and shout loud enough. that's how his alter ego came to life, which he named Claire.

Another interesting subject brought in class by one of my colleagues was that apparently, through studies, was discovered that, one side of the brain deals with ideologies, cultural information and when that is being challenged, it releases the same chemicals it does when you fear for your life, causing aggression. (This is a subject I would like to study a bit more, as I don't have any proof of the study, but apparently it was confirmed by my tutor as well).

Gender, Sex and Sexuality

Difference and play in post modernity

Post modernity is when binary system started to be broken down.

While the feminists in the 70's used their bodies to challenge the stereotypes, the post modernists started to remove the bodies in order to do the same thing.

A good representative of this era is Sarah Lucas - a post modernist feminist

Two fried eggs and a kebab - Sarah Lucas.

This image leaves everything to your imagination and she probably wants to depict the female image as is seen by the male viewer. There is no nude model, no nudity whatsoever, however, it is more sexual than normal, exactly because it is all left open.