It is said that in reference to semiotics, everything about us represents something. Throughout history the photograph has influenced how women are portrayed, it can show us how gender is represented. An example of this is Annie Sprinkle, an American performance artist and a post porn modernist who is confident in herself who quite freely shows off her body. The images of her may not be what we today see as the womanly form because of the stick thin women surrounding the media but once the curvy figure was how women used to look and it shows to just look at any paintings from the past. Sprinkle states that glamour shoots are extremely hard work, standing in ridiculous heels, being strapped in or laced up in your outfit which pinches or sucks everything in so you look ‘beautiful’ for the camera.
The female form has been used in advertising for years, the media consistently saying to us as consumers this is sexy, this is how you should look. I saw a Coke can with a woman from the 50’s on the side of it enjoying Coke possibly for its ‘classic taste’. Men and women have been constantly divided throughout history because of stereotyping like not being able to vote or apply for certain jobs but then the Suffragettes stood up for women’s rights to make it equal. This does not just apply to reality but in film, women’s roles have changed so much from the typical damsel in distress to the femme fatale and women in many modern films taking charge. Actresses such as Marilyn Munroe and Laura Mulvey show that behind the perfectly coiffed hair, the dazzling smile and beautiful appearance that not everything is as it seems.
The Guerrilla Girls do exactly what Hollywood doesn’t. They create art to educate on the way women’s bodies are portrayed. On their website it states, ‘The Guerrilla Girls, reinventing the F word – feminism’. They began campaigning because they went to an art gallery and realised that hardly any of the exhibitors were women and then later did some more research and found that most of the influential art galleries hardly had work from any female artists. They decided to put a stop to this and campaigned creating imagery keeping anonymous but just using masks to hide their identities. Their work is done with humour and tries to provoke a response by showing discrimination. On their website they state that they are feminist masked avengers and expose sexism, racism, corruption in politics, art, film and pop culture. I think the work they are doing is good and is obviously successful as they go all over the world campaigning for women’s rights. I love the loud colours they use and the sarcastic language to really draw attention. I think it is also interesting how they use names of old female artists instead of their own to keep their anonymity. Hopefully their continuous hard work will make a difference in the future.
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