hjtfashionfilmandeditorial
fashion film & editorial // HYPER femininity
Through this blog I am going to explore the theme of Hyper Femininity and how insecure women use this as a platform to feel more attractive and gain male attention.
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Evaluation
Throughout this module I have researched extensively into Hyper Femininity and the way in which it can make women feel sexually confident. Through this research I have created a fashion film and magazine to portray this theme. My film and magazine are trying to show how women should embrace their femininity if it makes them feel confident. Women are often told that being feminine makes them weak but Hyper Feminine women use their gender and femininity in order to be confident and feel attractive. As body image and feminism are very strong subjects in todays society I wanted to create a film for women that shows someone embracing their femininity and thus becoming confident with themselves.
My initial research started out by looking at different artists that explore the female gaze and femininity; through this I found the likes of Juno Calypso, Petra Collins, Ashley Armitage, Charlotte Knowles and Maisie Cousins. Each one of these creatives looks at different aspects of femininity and this really inspired my final work.
My film was probably the biggest challenge for me as I didn’t really have a strong narrative and although my film doesn’t tell a story I feel as though women will relate to the theme. The aim of the footage is to go through the stages of a females mind when she is involved in a relationship and doesn’t feel confident. I started the film with my model playing with her hair and laid down to show vulnerability, I then moved it along with footage of her pulling petals off a rose that is symbolic of love, after this she then applies lipstick and changes her outfit and instantly becomes more confident, playful and loving. After looking at a range of different fashion films I decided I loved the style that Petra Collins. Although Petra usually does location work I decided a studio would be better so I could get a pink glow from lighting on my shots. During my editing process I realised that the footage looked very orange so I played around with some effects to get my desired look. With the footage I decided to make some clips reverse and play forward again, I did this to symbolise how women are repetitive and will go over a tiny detail again and again until its perfected be this in life in general or with the way they look.
My editorial images were shot alongside my film because I wanted them to correlate to each other. I do think I should’ve done more than one photoshoot but I think the one makes it consistent through the magazine and film. The shots I got were really good and I was happy with all of them. The styling also worked really well as I used stereotypically girly clothing.
For my magazine I went to for an article on Hyper Femininity to correspond to the film and I then added an interview in there. I planned all my interview questions and went through them thoroughly with Annie to ensure she had a good understanding. I felt it was important to get a female creatives opinions on femininity in the fashion industry in order to inspire young women to feel confident entering into a creative industry that is typically outnumbered by men.
To conclude I have a learnt a lot about expressing fashion through film and I have acquired a lot of different skills that I hope to expand on for future projects; Overall my work does flow and is very consistent throughout with a clear theme, However I think there are some aspects of this module that I need to improve in order to push it to be the best. In the future I will work on the timing of everything alongside planning in advance to ensure everything goes smoothly and I have time to really plan the narrative of my film. I am really happy with how my magazine turned out and the professionalism of both the film as the editing worked really well as well as the magazine.
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Editing
I have started editing all my images together, getting used to premiere pro was quite difficult although we had workshops at uni I still struggled but managed to find youtube tutorials to get my desired effect. My footage was rather orangey rather than having a soft pink glow, In order to change this I added an effect to all my clips called cineon converter and then adjusted the gamma to create a nicer colour.
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Paper Stock
I requested paper samples from Mixam as I was unsure what kind of finish I wanted. I really like how ‘another mag’ has a very premium matte cover and this is something I wanted so I decided to go with a 200gsm cover on matte and I went for 130gsm silk finish paper inside. I really wanted the magazine to have a premium finish and I think these papers will suit my magazine. I also went of the website to have a look at binding and although I wanted my magazine to originally have a perfect binding I had to have it saddle stitched and I didn’t have enough pages and the paper would need to be 200gsm and this would be took thick for my inside pages.
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Article 002
Ashley Armitage is a 21 year old Seattle based photographer who’s pastel pink images take us on a journey of what it’s really like being a girl. Growing up she often felt the presence of the male gaze and sexism around her and that formed the basis of what inspires her work today. She wants to give women and girls an alternative perspective as they take on their own experiences of life.
Through her images she wants to challenge the representation of femininity and the beauty standards placed on women. She does this by incorporating typically unfeminine behaviours into her work. In her photo series titled ‘girls room’ she photographs women of all body shapes, with pubic hair, hairy armpits, stretch marks, fat rolls and scars on show. These images really portray the struggles of everyday women to conform to femininity but she represents the female sex in a way thats natural and embodies diverse beauty. A few of these images also possess a pink glow to juxtapose the main ‘unfeminine’ feature of the image with whats considered a feminine colour in order to attract the female eye to her work.
The female gaze frees women from the male-constructed images that often define femininity and this is a strong focal point of her work as mass media is often dominated by males and how they view women as she states “For me, the point of this is to take the hyper-feminine, take the cliché and things that would typically be used against us, and reclaim it and maybe subvert it,”
Another photo series she has recently done represents women and their sexuality, Women often do not speak about sex openly and there is still a lot of stigma surrounding female sexuality, masturbation and sex work. The collaboration with Karley Sciortino who is known for her TV series called ‘Slutever’ consist of Karley Sciortino herself posing provocatively in all pink as well as a satin sheet shaped like a vagina and a woman’s hands making a sexual gesture. These images are playfully portraying hyper femininity and are aimed at breaking the stigma surrounding women being sexual.
Alongside her photography she has also set up a platform called ‘Girlfriends Gallery’ an online collection of images aimed towards body positivity, emerging artists and inclusivity.
She’s breaking the constricting rules of femininity one photo at a time and we love it!
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INTERVIEW
so How did you first get into photography?
My dad has always had a camera with him, whether it’s for family events or walks on the moors. Because of his influence, I began taking a camera out, taking pictures of my friends and the world around me. After doing this for a while, I began to realise that portraits were my photograph of choice, rather than landscapes. I took more of an interest in what the people I photographed were wearing, and how to style them, and applied it to my interest in fashion and came to the conclusion that fashion photography was what I wanted to do. I made contacts with people in Leeds also connected to fashion and worked together and individually to work my way up and created a name for myself in the industry.
What is life like for you as a female creative in 2018?
Being a female creative in 2018 can often have advantages despite what people may think. As a female, a lot of the time people involved in shoots can feel a lot more comfortable around you, especially young, female, aspiring models. Unfortunately for males, it can also mean that scouting for models on social media is much easier than male photographers, as a lot of models wouldn’t want to meet up and take photographs with males that they are not already familiar with. Despite this, I have not yet come across a significant disadvantage to being a female in this industry. In 2018, fluidity and diversity in fashion and photography is explored and definitely encouraged by the industry, therefore there are no prejudices against anyone The only competition is who can take the best photograph.
Who do you usually take photos of?
I often still feel more comfortable taking pictures of people I know already, it’s good as a confidence boost and for how easy it is to persuade your friend into doing a shoot. In the past, my models have been friends, family members, or people I work with mainly, as it’s a comfortable way to learn how the relationship between you, the model, and the camera works as not every model is the same or entirely comfortable with the idea of having their photo taken. you definitely should not settle for taking the same pictures of the same people - exploring your interests and trying new things are the most important thing you can do as an aspiring photographer.
What photographers inspire you?
I have so many inspirations for my work it’s hard to name specific ones. Tim Walker, Emma Tempest, Damon Baker I adore, Tom O’Neill or Alasdair McLellan to name a few. I use my inspiration visually from each picture rather than specific artists. Pinterest is your best friend - use it religiously! Anything you see that inspires you, snap a picture, write the idea down, keep the location in your head. Each different thing will piece together or lead to a full idea when you need it.
The images you take generally feature females why do you photograph more females than males?
Girls from around my hometown tend to be a lot more willing to model rather than boys, and especially when we were younger when it wasn’t considered ‘cool’. It’s hard to find boys that take it seriously, or even want to do it, so it takes a lot of persuasion to find male models that aren’t already models. Despite this, though I struggle sometimes, I do manage to find enough male models when advertising on social media, and have also developed friendships from males that are interested in fashion or photography. A lot of the time, they are actually more interested than you think, they just don’t know enough about it! Friends of mine have become stylists, visual/graphic designers, clothing designers etc. It is also a confidence thing for me personally - girls are often a lot easier to direct, befriend and dress, being a female myself. You can move them into place and joke around while you’re doing it, but I do tend to feel a lot more comfortable around girls, therefore I tend to end up taking more pictures of females.
What are your views on femininity and do these views relay in the photographs you take of women?
There are so many ways to interpret femininity, and not all of them include a pretty girl in a pretty dress. Because of the new acceptance of diversity in fashion, femininity can come in all shapes, sizes, genders, and styles. Femininity to me is something you can act, or dress to appear like, it’s not a born-thing that only skinny pretty girls are feminine nowadays. Girls can be feminine, boys can be feminine, suits can be, anything.. Femininity is considered an ‘association’ of womanliness to something such as a person or object. We are always taught to show a character in the images we take of people, therefore if the model appears or wants to be feminine - they will. If the project or the model demands an element of masculinity or neutrality, that will appear too. My photographs gain character from all aspects of the shoot, such as location, pose, clothing, appearance of the model.. I think a better word to describe my photographs is ‘youthful’, and each of my models can be interpreted however it seems fit. It is 2018 after all.
Do you think it is important for female creatives to support each other in the fashion industry?
Absolutely. However, I do believe fashion is an industry in which you hold each other up to hold yourself up. It’s an incredibly difficult industry to get into, and to keep yourself in, so relationships with your colleagues or connections with ‘that friend of a friend who knows someone’ are important regardless. It doesn’t matter who it is - you’ll probably either work with them or need a favour off them some day, so be their friend! Nothing has helped me more in fashion photography than becoming friends with everyone fashion-orientated I have ever met. This includes makeup artists, stylists, visual graphics, clothing designers, models, etc.. You’ll get further together.
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Article 001
Femininity is of course the quality of being female, and a lot of women choose to embrace their femininity but with feminism on the rise a lot of women are rejecting these feminine ideals as they are often seen as constricting. As women we are told that we are delicate, soft, dainty, and an array of other adjectives but do all these words really define femininity? And is it really wrong if we conform to them and take on a hyper feminine self?
Murnen and Byrne (1991) defined hyper femininity as “an exaggerated adherence to a feminine gender role as it relates to heterosexual relationships. It is said that Hyper feminine women believe their success is determined by maintaining a romantic relationship with a man, and that their sexuality can be used to maintain this relationship.” But why can’t girls just enjoy being feminine without the stigma that they’re
conforming to the male gaze. Everything that we do, from the way we act to the way we dress is apparently done with men in mind, I mean, because that’s our main aim, right? to make them stare. In some ways you could perceive that to be true because a part of us will always want to feel attractive, but shouldn’t we start empowering femininity and challenge what it really means to be feminine. A lot of photographers, artists and film makers have already started a quest to challenge the preconceptions of femininity by portraying how oppressing femininity can be for a woman.
While some women absolutely love stripping themselves of all their body hair and wearing makeup and feminine clothes other women couldn’t think of anything worse. But that doesn’t mean women who do embrace their femininity are simply just grasping at male attention. Femininity can be used as a means of expression that differs between every woman and what makes them feel good. It could be said that the beauty standards in modern society fit hand in hand with femininity as we are constantly told that being clean shaven, having flawless skin, being slender and having long hair is feminine and it’s these specific things that are portrayed through magazines and social media every single day that often make women feel as though they’re not good enough and not attractive.
Femininity is unique to each individual and as females we need to stand together, reclaim the meaning of femininity and show that embracing our own idea of femininity be that over the top or none at all, if it makes you feel good, worthy and confident then that’s all that matters.
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Magazine
For my magazine I want my target demographic to be women between the ages of 18-25. I am going to do my main article about Hyper femininity and use my editorial images as the main feature. I am then going to interview a Fashion photographer called Aneka Raistrick who has agreed to do an interview and let me use her images. I am also going to do a feature article on another photographer called Ashley Armitage from America who’s photos show femininity in a different light. I then want to talk about a Gurls Talk which is an online platform for girls to talk about anything from body image to mental health as I think this is really important. The pink theme will run throughout and I want quite a minimal style. I have ordered paper swatches from MIXAM so I can decide on the paper thickness and finishing but I want it to look premium. I will use A4 for the size and will use a 5mm bleed.
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Film Narrative
Throughout my film I want to embody the theme of Hyper Femininity. In order to do this I have created a narrative combining different actions that are seen as ‘supposedly’ feminine as the narrative evolves it shows how hyper femininity can make a woman feel confident and in touch with her sexuality. A lot of the time films/images of women are often seen as conforming to the male gaze but through this film I wanted to portray femininity as a positive thing. The film will start with the model wearing pink pjs laid down twiddling her hair and swinging her legs back and forth it will then flip to her twiddling her hair even more. The idea behind the model playing with her hair is that it is said girls play with their hair when they’re attracted to someone. I then want the film to progress by showing how hyper femininity can make women feel sexually confident. The next scene will be a bit longer than the rest and will feature the model pulling petals off a rose. this is to portray ‘he loves me, he loves me not’ and is seen as a very stereotypical action of women. After this scene the model is seen applying lipstick, from then on the model will become more confident and happy within herself eventually through the final scenes she will be dancing around. In the film I want to add clips that reverse in order to portray how women often repeat things when they don’t feel confident and go over things over and over again. I feel as though the film doesn’t have a specific story but is more of a portrayal of hyper femininity and the female gaze that women can relate to.
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