Level 4 PDP: Constellation Reflection

I’m very intrigued by the concepts, approaches and theories of Subcultures, and I’ve been considering how they all link, then wondering how I can reflect what I’ve learnt in my own practice. I’ve come to realise that all subcultures (that I’ve looked at, such as goth and hip-hop), uses “Re-Signification” (Whitely, 2001) of objects, which simply means taking an object that already has a function/meaning and give it a different one to differentiate you from the mainstream. Goths did this by using objects, such as corsets, which is supposed to function as underwear, but used them as outerwear. The hip-hop Subculture stole car brand logos and then wore them as medallions. I could consider this through feminism and politics by using stereotypical objects, such as domestic products that are ‘meant’ for women, or positions of power given to women, etc.

What is also apparent in Subcultures is how they use history/heritage and how they recycle old styles/meanings. Goths would use the Victorian styles, but by adding white and black make-up to look dead, while Hip-Hoppers would use sportswear and traditional African patterns together to create a new and very different look that clearly showed where they originated from. I could use this guideline by using my Welsh heritage, by considering historical things that has happened here that links to women and feminism, for example, Plaid Cymru’s leader, Leanne Wood, who often speaks about feminism. The juxtaposition also used by the Subcultures fits into this well because of how they mix up the old and the new, which is also something I’ve been thinking about doing by looking at vintage adverts of how women were portrayed, especially during the 40s-60s.

Zoot suits

During the Second World War, a lot of outcast youths who were protesting society’s norms and traditions were expressing themselves through their outfits such as the zoot suits. Zoot suits “consisted of a broad-rimmed, flat hat; a long, draped coat; and high-waisted, baggy-legged trousers with tight-fitting pegged cuffs” (Meier & Rivera, p145). The outfit had excessive fabric and during war it was not seen as respectful or patriotic, as there was a ration on the fabric, which they went against. The zoot suits were mainly worn by African Americans and Mexican Americans, which lead to many of them having to face a lot of abuse. Police harassed and arrested many because of their race and constantly monitored predominantly Mexican and African areas, and the zoot suit offered a poor excuse for them to do so, as using excessive fabric was considered a crime. There are many examples of the abuse they received from the police, one of which was when an officer searched a young man, “they found ninety-eight dollars in his pocket [they] refused to believe that he had earned it” (Obregon Pagan, p121). The sociologist Emory Borgardos stated that only about 3% of Mexican Americans were actually involved in gangs in relation to the zoot suit, but Mexican Americans and African Americans were all portrayed as gang related in the media for wearing the suit. There weren’t a significant number of gangs derived from the suit but there were some, like the famous 38th Street gang, who wore zoot suits (Obregon Pagan, p61). White youths thus started wearing the zoot suit in the name of fashion, but because of the bad reputation they had been given, anyone who wore them were vilified. White youths who wore them was deemed inappropriate to the African and Mexican Americans because the suits existed to signify how these young men wanted an identity and became a symbol for their heritage and ethnicity.

The young men “re-signified” the suits by still using the basic connections of a suit but exaggerated them by using bright colours and making them over-sized. They still held traditional aspects such as the Dutch type shoes and flat hats, but added a walk and particular language to go with the look, making it a racial political statement. This was also a political statement because they were stealing a dress that don’t belong to them, thus re-claiming and making a statement about class in order to “counteract a dominant ideology” (Tullock, 2006, p304).

The idea of re-claiming and “re-signifying” a particular look or dress code happens again and again in history to either mock the upper class by dressing like they did and giving the dress negative connotations or by proving that they are worth more than they were seen as. I’ll be using these ideas in my work by “re-signifying” career paths into simple drawings of male genitalia that covered all of my school’s desks and text books. For example, I’d “re-signify” ‘male’ jobs, such as engineer, and making it equally as female by perhaps the use of prints and photography.

The Teds

 

It originated from the Edwardian suit and was modified by The Teds. The modifications were all similar to why the lower-class youth in 1940s America made the Zoot suit. The style hair was different cut to the jacket in class standards and was taken up by working class youths, as they were “To contract a dominant ideology’ (Tulloch, 2006:304), which was the British class system. They were made with bright colours, and paired with blue suede shoes, like Elvis Presley’s look. This aristocracy wear adopted by working class men in the 1950s in the East End as a statement about class systems (they didn’t want to conform) and criminal behaviour with the Ted suit gave different name to aristocracy look. Late 50’s saw the development of Ted look: Americana influence. The Ted look came back in the 70’s.
Most subcultures opposed the establishment/ were anti-establishment.

Punk

This week, we looked at between 1977-1980, when the gender wars began by fighting over territory on stage, streets, and the workplace. Femininity was then challenged as punk offered a place for women to express things, such as their anger and rage. If this was done before this, women were often seen as misfits. (O’Brien, 19918: 186-7)

Mainstream femininity was challenged in subcultures, which is what I’ll be looking at in my final essay for constellation and in my pieces in Fine Art by looking into what empowers women. The punk rebellion shaped their gender identity. However, punk’s meaning for women turned to being against them, yet redefining 60s feminism at the same time. This resurfaced in the 90s with grunge and continued to shape women through music and even generally in culture. (O’Brien, 1998:191)

The ideological stance on gender that punk promoted was that you didn’t have to conform to mainstream ideologies, since they went totally against the mainstream establishment. This meant that gender could be questioned and women were allowed to express themselves through their look without being called misfits for doing so.

This rebellion came from the clear guidelines on how to ‘be a woman’ in society. You can’t rebel unless there are clear guidelines on how to behave. Women had to be thin, conventionally attractive, and almost like Barbie dolls. Women who didn’t fit in were the vilified. Punk grew in a sexist climate with a patriarchal society that heavily privileged the male. Punk questioned this and showed that women weren’t second classed citizens. There has always been a female rebellion, but this was now a very visible rebellion; they expressed difference to how women were supposed to look.

 

 

In my essay, I’ll be analysing this through looking at how women have changed post twentieth century subcultures by looking at model photography. I’ll choose three main pictures for this by very well-known and influential brands and photographers and see what has come from the subcultures, what is still changing and what still needs to change in the way we view women. I’ve also been using this in my practice by considering how history still influences the present time by taking ‘vintage’ looking pinhole photographs by using a homemade pinhole camera and pairing the images against comments made on social media, contrasting the both of them. I’ve been taking pictures of a woman’s body (influenced by the Sex Museum in Amsterdam) and putting negative comments by people online about the female body next to them, showing how we still have a way to go before women’s bodies aren’t seen as obscene and come with a metaphorical ‘handbook’.

 

Constellation – The Body in Art, Design and Society

For my first constellation term, I’ll be looking into The Body in Art, Design and Society. We looked into how the first ever recorded plastic surgery was in 600 BC, which was a nose reconstruction; a technology we think of as a modern invention. We also looked into the 4 Humorial System, which linked someone’s illness as something given to them from God for  an immoral action, and other different ways people have seen the body in history and how that impacted medicine and technological advances.

We’ve been asked to look up pictures that show a relationship between the body and Fine Art, so I chose a painting by Picasso called Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, showing how abstract an artist could transform a human body, by creating them into sharp shapes, which seems unnatural but they still look human. The second image I chose is the portrait of Anne of Cleaves, which is a great example of how paintings were altered to not look identical to those who were painted, but to make them look better; similar to what we have today, from photoshop to instagram filters. Henry V111 agreed to marrying her from looking at a painting of her but later described her as looking like a “horse” when they met and ended the marriage.

The image below is a ‘selfie’ of myself, which I have uploaded onto my Instagram account and used ‘filter’ on it, a form of changing the lighting to make you appear better looking.

By putting up a ‘selfie’, or any other picture of yourself, it’s on the internet permanently and that picture has now made you an object; you are owned by social media. Therefore, as an object, it can never be an owner, can’t be free or communicate, merely making us still property. We willfully allow this to happen because, otherwise, we’re ‘missing out’ or ‘out of the loop’, thus feel compelled to contribute to this cycle. This means that the audience, who can see the image (practically anyone with access to the internet) are able to say anything about the image and perhaps use if for something, leaving us vulnerable. I also edited this photo of myself by using the social media app called ‘Instagram’, which objectifies me even more by making me more ‘acceptable’ to society as a product to be consumed by spectators behind their screens.

The opposite of this, which could perhaps be social media/the audience who view your image, is a ‘subject’. They are powerful through the freedom of not being owned and can communicate freely.

Hegemony- Leadership or dominance, especially by one state or social group over others. An example of this is Hegenomic Masculinity; A developing debate within the growing theoretical literature on men and masculinity concerns the relationship of gender systems to the social formation. Crucially at issue is the question of the autonomy of the gender order. Some, in particular Waters, are of the opinion that change in masculine gender systems historically has been caused exogenously and that, without those external factors, the systems would stably reproduce.For Hochschild, the “motor” of this social change is the economy, particularly and currently, the decline in the purchasing power of the male wage, the decline in the number and proportion of “male” skilled and unskilled jobs, and the rise in “female” jobs in the growing services sector.  On the other side of the argument, others have been trying to establish “the laws of motion” of gender systems. Connell, for instance, has insisted on the independence of their structures, patterns of movement. and determinations, most notably in his devastating critiques of sexrole theory. “Change is always something that happens to sex roles, that impinges on them. It comes from outside, as in discussions of how technological and economic changes demand a shift to a ‘modern’ male role for men. Or it comes from inside the person, from the ‘real self’ that protests against the artificial restrictions of constraining roles. Sex role theory has no way of grasping change as a dialectic arising within gender relations themselves.”

Binary-The gender binary is a term used to describe the practice of only recognizing two distinct genders. You deviate from the heteronormative standard by being non-binary, or even simply performing gender in a way that doesn’t subscribe to a strict separation of “man” or “woman” (and the assumption that “masculinity” should only be performed by the former and “femininity” by the latter).

Heteronormativity- (Warner,1991) Strict norms of different genders (male and female) and that heterosexuality is the ‘norm’. Heteronormativity, then, is a system that works to normalize behaviors and societal expectations that are tied to the presumption of heterosexuality and an adherence to a strict gender binary.

http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/07/what-is-heteronormativity/

http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1149&context=artspapers

For my essay on The Body, my main focus will be on the female body and how it’s controlled by the government, cultures, religion, etc. I’ll be looking into the control over women’s bodies throughout history up until the present day. I’ve ordered a book through Cardiff Metropolitan’s library called ‘Theorizing the Young Woman in the Body, Body and Society, Vol II’ by Dr L Frost, which is exactly what I need for my essay because I’ll be thoroughly researching how society sees and treats women from all cultures, especially looking into how we treat women seeking abortions or escaping child marriages and FGM. I will need to gather as much information as possible to create a convincing argument on such a controversial and sensitive subject.

Affordance, Conventions and Design by Donald A. Norman 

We live in a world which has objects in it which all contain affordance. We learn to communicate with them and to not deliberately bump into them by encountering objects with possibilities for action, i.e. handles for pushing, pulling, picking, etc. Therefore, when something is afforded, it is given a possibility for action. The design of something conveys information (visual clues) to us to know how to use it. When we pull a handle down, it’s a part of perception affordance. The difference between actual affordance and perception affordance is how an object contains actual affordance but perception affordance is playing around with the object to understand it and its actual affordance. We understand what to do with objects by using our bodies and knowledge of what we can see.