I'm not acting as a feminist; however, I still believe that Women are still influenced and seeking Male approval for liberation. In my work I want to look at how this gender, go to extreme lengths for acceptance in society and what we are told 'what men want'
I'm not trying to generalise or offend, but I am focusing on a stereotype and trying to exaggerate this within my work.
I feel that in England (possibly it's just a North West thing) Women are obsessed with this idea that Fake tan, false lashes, and hair extensions look good. Some, also have a miss-conception of how to apply these things correctly, or some are purposely doing it incorrectly in order to seek for an individual and unique representation of themselves.
Women are continuously trying so hard to be different from one another, or even better than each other, by using certain products, but are in turn, all becoming identical. They have taken away all of their natural elements and have developed fake versions of themselves - deteriorating any natural personality to shine through in their image.
I believe though, that women are only doing this in order to meet the expectations given to us by the media to buy certain products and appeal to the Male audience. After all, you only have to pick up a 'Nuts' magazine and see that many of the women look extremely similar, some even identical, whether they're, black, white, Asian or any other race.
I want to question why women are so afraid to embrace who they are.
I'm not saying that I disagree with people using products, or trying to enhance their beauty or themselves, and I'm also not saying that I don't go to extremes to create an identity for myself.
I'm simply just exploring why we do it.
To explore this theory; I came up with the idea of doing a Cindy Sherman style photo shoot, using Make-Up Art, Identity and Modelling to create a new identity for myself, taking certain elements of my body, and the use of products to the extreme.
I chose to wear: fake - tan and hair extensions to look at the female identity crisis.
I also chose to pose in somewhat erotic positions and to wear nipple tassels to make these images relate to male magazines.
I also chose to wear an eye mask in these photographs to hide my identity, and to also make it obvious that a female’s real identity is no longer necessary in the perception of women in modern society.
These photographs can be seen as sexual and also attractive, but I have distorted my image to produce an ambiguous appearance and to make people aware of these extremes. I want people to be put off by this image.
My good friend Rosie Harland-Smy- an extremely talented photographer (who I have previously told you about in my blog) was keen to help me get this idea across in my work.
I asked her to help me by photographing my pictures in her studio because I could not produce this work alone.
here is the link to Rosie's photography business Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100002029338931
I have chosen three of the photographs to present as my artwork. I do not have a title for them yet but here they are: