Today's seminar was all about gender in animation. Now, when it comes to debates on "sexism" I'm usually on the fence. I think it's wrong that women throughout history were considered inferior to men, resulting in many not being as successful as men in their artist careers and other situations along these lines, but when it comes to how women are portrayed in animations I couldn't really care less.
Let me explain what I mean.
I think people at the moment are going overboard when it comes to criticizing how women are being portrayed. Take Barbie for example. There's an uproar about how skinny she is and how there isn't a range of sizes for the doll, depicting all body shapes. Granted, there isn't a range, but should there have to be? The way I see it is that it's just the design of one female character. This doesn't mean that this is the "perfect" body form for a woman which we have to adapt. It's just a toy. It doesn't mean this is how we as women should look. It maybe hard to believe this because of how much thin people are idolized in the media, but we don't have to look like that, but really that should be a given.
I think it's crazy that people are saying that Barbie should be a "normal" weight or even plus size. Isn't that just "Skinny-bashing"? What about the people who ARE that thin, (maybe not to that extent, because the proportions of barbie means that if she was a real human being, she would cave in due to the weight of her head and she would have other problems along these lines)? Aren't we just "bashing" skinny people for saying that Barbie should be a "normal" weight? What annoys me about this is that if a plus sided Barbie was produced people would probably still moan about it because the doll would give others the impression that it's okay to be unhealthily over-weight. We would request smaller dolls to eliminate this, but if they'd just made a "normal" doll to begin with, it's likely we would have complained about there not being dolls to accommodate those who are skinner/larger. The company can't win really.
I don't see why we can't just accept Barbie for what she is, and move on. Some people are as skinny as this, others aren't and we should just leave it at that. Maybe I stand alone with this opinion; I know I'm definitely in the minority if not.
So to conclude I think people just need to calm down and take things with a pinch of salt. Yes it's bad that women are seen as inferior to men in most departments, but I don't think we need to get critical about how women characters are depicted in animations. Obviously not all women act or look like they do, and the artists aren't generalizing this image to ALL women.
Friday, 5 December 2014
Wednesday, 3 December 2014
Lecture 7: Advertising
I actually wasn't here for this lecture as I was at BAF, and to be honest I am quite disappointed because looking back at the slides it looked like it was going to be very interesting.
The lecture was all about Advertising, and whether we could class it as prostitution. As I've already said, I wasn't there so I'm unsure what was said on this subject and why this is may be a valid view point, but what I do know is that advertising is often considered to be a tool that changes values within a society as well as possibly change our perception of what we may need. I believe it to be successful of doing this because of how big advertising actually is. It's literally everywhere; billboards, posters, TV, the internet. Because of this and the fact that it is persistent, it's very hard to escape from it, which is why I deem it to be successful. Not just that, but there are also many different types and styles of adverts that can reach out to numerous audiences depending on what it is they're trying to sell or say.
Due to there being a variety of different styles and content, audiences generally have mixed opinions. A good example of what I mean is that some advertisements are often accused of being sexist, as they treat people as cultural stereotypes of their sex...
...Where as some people may not be effected by this (I know personally it doesn't bother me as I can see the humour in the advertisement), others maybe offended by it. So I can't understand why a company would want to use themes like this. Yes, people are going to be talking about the product or message because it has caused an uproar due to it's advertisement being offensive, but surely this will make people think negatively about the product. I guess it all just depends on the values and view points at the time of the advert. It is likely that this advertisement was made at a time when a vast majority of women were "typical housewives", so it was less likely to offend, but even so. It baffles me.
Even though advertising can change the values of an audience and it can sometimes be considered to be sexist and offensive, it isn't all negative. Advertising can be used as a powerful art form, and it can be entertaining and enlightening.
So yeah, advertising.
The lecture was all about Advertising, and whether we could class it as prostitution. As I've already said, I wasn't there so I'm unsure what was said on this subject and why this is may be a valid view point, but what I do know is that advertising is often considered to be a tool that changes values within a society as well as possibly change our perception of what we may need. I believe it to be successful of doing this because of how big advertising actually is. It's literally everywhere; billboards, posters, TV, the internet. Because of this and the fact that it is persistent, it's very hard to escape from it, which is why I deem it to be successful. Not just that, but there are also many different types and styles of adverts that can reach out to numerous audiences depending on what it is they're trying to sell or say.
Due to there being a variety of different styles and content, audiences generally have mixed opinions. A good example of what I mean is that some advertisements are often accused of being sexist, as they treat people as cultural stereotypes of their sex...
This being a good example
...Where as some people may not be effected by this (I know personally it doesn't bother me as I can see the humour in the advertisement), others maybe offended by it. So I can't understand why a company would want to use themes like this. Yes, people are going to be talking about the product or message because it has caused an uproar due to it's advertisement being offensive, but surely this will make people think negatively about the product. I guess it all just depends on the values and view points at the time of the advert. It is likely that this advertisement was made at a time when a vast majority of women were "typical housewives", so it was less likely to offend, but even so. It baffles me.
Even though advertising can change the values of an audience and it can sometimes be considered to be sexist and offensive, it isn't all negative. Advertising can be used as a powerful art form, and it can be entertaining and enlightening.
So yeah, advertising.
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