#choose women and the portrayal of women and femininity as the focus of their art

[cyberphuck]

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(tumblr cut off MOST of my tags in this, thanks Tumblr)

[femmingway-blog]

“I Know You” : On visibility and support for LGBTQIA+ youth and children

Today I want to discuss welcoming spaces, supporting LGBTQIA+ children, and the importance of queer visibility.

My partner and I recently had the pleasure of being invited to speak at two churches in the small village in which I grew up. Long Reach United Church, and its sister congregation Westfield United Church, form part of the Two Rivers Pastoral Charge. They invited us to speak as part of their efforts in becoming an “Affirming with a capital A ministry” (as the minister put it when speaking to us about the invitation). As part of the Affirming Ministry application process, they have accepted the challenge to bring in people from various backgrounds and walks of life to discuss what it feels like to not always belong, and ways that they have felt welcome and belonging, so that the congregation may learn to do it more adeptly.

[Image description: A wooden table outside the Sanctuary of Long Reach United Church. On the table is a cream coloured cloth with floral embroidery in earth tones, a vase, guest book, pamphlets, and in the foreground of the photo is a sheet of cream paper with the words “Entering Guilt-Free Zone” in large, bold capital letters.] This was not only an incredibly admirable and humbling goal to consider, but we could not possibly have felt more welcomed, loved, and appreciated while we were there. The focus of our particular talk was on welcoming transgender people, and I touched on the subject matter of LGBTQIA+ children, particularly trans children.  It occurred to me as we spoke that I have a lot to say about finding ways to make sure that young queer people have something positive to look up to or envision for the future.  I think it is so important that no matter what, whenever we are discussing issues to do with LGBTQIA+ people, that we be aware that children hear these conversations happening. While children may not currently have the necessary vocabulary, understanding, and self-knowledge it takes to actually put a label to their identities or experiences, LGBTQIA+ adults will remember and look back on the times they were allowed to feel joyful and safe in their ways of expressing attraction and gender identity, rather than ashamed or abnormal.  Children may not have the language to identify the problem, but they do still know when something doesn’t feel quite right about themselves - and that feeling is a direct result of a world that has been built without them in mind.

These experiences will shape the ways they engage with those identities later in life, and how safe they will be able to feel in any given situation. In a world that is still so full of hostile stances on queer and trans people, it is difficult to feel secure in trusting that silence could mean quiet support; when one is accustomed to being excluded, they will rarely make the assumption that they are invited in.

In terms of consequences for a lack of support and visibility for queer and trans youth: according to the TransPulse research project done in Ontario , strong family and parental support can account for a 93% reduction in suicide attempts for a trans youth, who are already at an astronomically high risk for attempting suicide:

Consideration of suicide was common [among youth participants], and was reported by 35% of youth whose parents were strongly supportive and 60% of those whose parents were not strongly supportive. Particularly alarming is that among this latter 60%, nearly all (57%) had actually attempted suicide in the past year. In contrast, only 4% of those with strongly supportive parents attempted suicide. While 4% is still far too high, the impact of strong parental support can be clearly seen in the 93% reduction in reported suicide attempts for youth who indicated their parents were strongly supportive of their gender identity and expression. 

These numbers show that having a supportive family has an unfathomably deep connection to a desire to continue living for young children facing a scary and unfamiliar existence. They can be compared to the general national average, which shows that over the course of a lifetime, 14.7% of Canadians think about ending their own lives, and 3.5% ever make an attempt. 

Something that I mentioned to the Churches’ minister when we spoke to her last week about what to focus on in our talk was the issue of how to address someone who expresses the somewhat common the fear that their child may become gay or trans themselves. I believe that it is important to have honest discussions with people who express this kind of worry, to help them to identify where it may be coming from, and to question its foundations. We must also question any assumptions we hold that this kind of fear is founded in something inherently negative, unsupportive, or harmful, or that it something impossible to change. We must consider whether, for example, it founded on the fear of a hostile world’s effects on a child who grows up to adopt a non cis-heteronormative identity, or if it is a fear that is based in stereotypes and assumptions about what kind of person holds those kinds of identities. It is not enough to answer that question, because that doesn’t help anyone cope with or confront their fear; after naming it, we must consider what can be done to alleviate it. In the examples above, if it is the former, we have a responsibility to make the world safer for the child in question; if it is the latter, we have a responsibility to learn to engage with people as individuals, rather than walking embodiments of something we dislike or with which we are unfamiliar.

Support can come in the form of having conversations, and discussing the basic fact that other kinds of people, other kinds of families, other ways of seeing the world, all exist and can all simultaneously be genuine, beautiful, and worthwhile. When I considered what it meant to me to be given the chance to speak to a group of people about our perspective and experiences, I was struck by the idea that there have more likely than not been times when a young child listening to me - or a friend of mine, or another out and outspoken member of the community - has learned something more about themselves, or has potentially been given, for the first time, an opportunity to see a possible future as a queer person that isn’t frightening or lonely. Consider the way trans people  are represented on tv and in the news. As well as bisexual people, and queer people of all kinds. The choices available through the mainstream media are: extremely unstable, tragically lonely, dead, and/or a criminal of some sort. Choose at least one. And it’s usually dead. This ties into some work that my partner did a while back for a queer literary magazine called Vitality - the premise of the magazine was to publish creative content (stories, art, poetry) by and/or about queer people, and the only other criteria was that it had to be happy or positive - no sad endings, no deaths of one partner leaving the other completely alone, no “overcoming harassment” narratives, and no focus on deviance or criminality. The magazine eventually shut down, unfortunately, for lack of funding.

Consider our cultural narratives about LGBTQIA+ people, often the first exposure young LGBTQIA+ children have to a world where these kinds of people exist. Often, they are demonizing, and even when trying to supportive, they often rely on a form of tragedy porn that necessitates the death and sacrifice of a noble queer character who may serve as an example to us of the importance of acceptance. While it may be humbling and inspirational for onlookers, what we teach our children is that queer people can expect to grow up to be freaks or to be dead. We need to expect better for them.

This idea also ties into a number from a musical that is very close to my heart. Based on the illustrated strip-comic-style memoir of prolific lesbian cartoonist Allison Bechdel of the same name, Fun Home the musical is the story of a young girl growing into a woman who is forced to confront the very real effects of queer invisibility in our families and communities.  Alison Bechdel is also known for her famous comic strip Dykes to Watch out For and as the creator of the now-familiar “Bechdel Test” used to gauge a given film’s portrayal of women.

Bechdel’s memoir in Fun Home focuses on the reality she knew as a young girl growing up in Pennsylvania, never really feeling that she fit with the role that she was told to strive for - one of femininity, softness, attraction to men, and a desire to fit in. The book spends a good deal of time focusing on her feelings of confusion and alienation with the ideas that she was taught to value, when she felt that the things she liked were perfectly legitimate as well, especially when she saw young boys being encouraged to do the very things she was barred from. When Bechdel finally came out to her parents after going away to university, she was immediately confronted with the revelation that her father was also gay, and had been secretly (and clumsily) concealing his affairs with men (and sometimes young boys) from his family and peers for decades. Not only was this a complete surprise to Alison, but she was thrown into further chaos and confusion when her father took his own life only a few months later, before ever having the chance to truly speak to her about their unique yet similar experiences of living as an LGBTQIA+ person living in a world that denies their very existence.

The musical contains a scene between Allison at 43 and her younger self at age 7 or 8, which I consider to be one of the more powerful and moving vignettes I have ever seen. This scene stuck with me for a good deal of time after first seeing it, and comes to mind for me often. I had to do a good deal of unpacking in order to process the emotions it brought up to me, and I would like to share it. Here is a video copy of the scene being performed at the Tony awards in 2015.

This scene in particular is made up of so many subtle and important details, not the least of which is the strong sense of recognition and joy expressed by Young Al when she sees an adult exhibit a way of existing she hadn’t even known was viable until that moment. This scene is so important to me personally because it perfectly embodies the ideas behind why queer people know that visibility is important. We all know at this point that Allison does not know she is gay yet - she will not know this about herself for more than a decade to come. But she knows that there is something about her that she isn’t able to name, but with which she is familiar enough to recognize when she does see it in another person.

[Image description: two panels from the Fun Home book. The first panel shows a large, butch woman with short curly hair, a plaid button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up and tucked into jeans with a belt and a large ring of keys hanging from the belt. She is speaking with a server at a cafe who takes her order with tired, uninterested eyes. The woman stands with her back straight and her hands on her hips. In the background of the first panel, Young Al can be seen in a booth, looking right at the woman with her hands between her knees and a fixed, interested expression. She has a bob that goes to her chin, held out of her face with a barette. She wears a striped long-sleeved cotton shirt and blue jeans. Across from Al, her father looks back over his shoulders at the woman as well. The caption at the top of the panel reads: “I didn’t know there were women who wore men’s clothes and had men’s haircuts.” at the bottom of the panel, the caption reads: “But like a traveler in a foreign country who runs into someone from home -- someone they’ve never spoken to, but know by sight -- i recognized her with a surge of joy.” In the second panel, young Al and her father are facing each other in profile. they are sitting in the booth of the cafe but are shown from the neck up (Young Al) and shoulders up (her father). The Caption at the top reads “Dad recognized her too.” and there is a speech bubble in which her father says “Is THAT what you want to look like?” in a strong suggestion that she should not, in fact, want to look like that. ] Not only is this a charming demonstration of the intangible internal struggle that comes with having experiences that aren’t reflected in the stories and examples given to us in narratives our society tends to produce, but it is also one of a very few LGBT coming-of-age narratives that are not heavily reliant on sex and sexuality. In fact, it is the only one I can personally remember encountering that is not. This small scene, meant to represent just a few seconds’ worth of real time, is able to express a very intangible concept about identity, representation, and innate self-knowledge combined with a profound sense of alienation, all the while not relying on the imagery or act of sex - or even romantic attraction - just because the subject of the story is gay.

Ring of Keys is an excellent reminder to us that children pay attention to the world of adults; they do not live in a world that is separate from our own, nor are they sheltered from the values and prejudices we hold as adults. I think Young Al is an excellent reminder to all of us that we don’t need to have the “right” vocabulary, or any of the answers, in order to make children feel safe and values regardless of how they like to dress or what excites and pleases them. Making an effort to acknowledge and celebrate difference, including exposing children to different ways of being an adult, different ways of shaping a loving family, and different ways of structuring one’s life, can do and incredible amount of good to that child’s own self-esteem. At the end of the day, kids may not know exactly who they will grow up to be, but if they know that the possibilities are only limited by their creativity, and if they know that their families and communities will celebrate them as long as they keep a caring heart and are honest to themselves, they will inevitably be more equipped to handle the world they will travel through.

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[Image Description: The sanctuary at Long Reach United Church. The pews are a warm golden brown colour and sunlight streams through tall windows to the far right. The Church is empty and service has not yet started.]

On Sunday March 26th, a young child walked to the front of Westfield United Church’s sanctuary and helped an adult light a white pillar candle brightly banded by the seven colours of the rainbow. The first point of order in the church bulletin was to acknowledge that the church stands on unceded Wabanaki territory, and the microphone system and electronic display of readings and song selections demonstrated an active effort to include people with disabilities or impairments. From the moment we walked in the door, we were warmly welcomed with smiles, handshakes, and hugs from strangers and family friends alike. We heard from many adults who expressed a desire to find ways to show LGBTQIA+ people that they are welcomed and loved in their community. They spoke of wishing to find ways to show that support, to make it real and tangible to those who otherwise may not even be fully open about their identities.  The longer we spent there the clearer it became that this was an example that, while communities may not have as much access to information and resources they can clearly understand about LGBTQIA+ people, the first and most important step is seeking it out in the first place.

[charlenelouise-gdc]

3.3.1 — RIPOSTE: Maximum Joy

Introduction + Brand Research

This project is the live brief by Riposte. We are tasked to deliver a piece of work that channels “Maximum Joy”, which is the theme of the upcoming issue. We also get the chance to have our work published in the magazine.

The theme “Maximum Joy” was chosen as a contrast against the depressing, gloomy state of the world (as seen in our global news and newsfeed). The magazine aims to put out joyful content as a nice, positive break from it all; since it seems like we can’t escape this particular raincloud over our heads.

As advised by the team from Riposte, we are encouraged to be experimental as “safe won’t win this pitch”. They also would like for us to capture the zeitgeist in our work.

Magazine’s official website: http://www.ripostemagazine.com/

Before approaching the brief, it’s important to understand the brand. After all, the work we submit with the intention of going live and should be fitting to their aesthetic and ethos. We can only do so through research.

“A Smart magazine for women”

This is what they describe Riposte as. From looking at both their online and printed content, the magazine is culturally in touch, especially with the wider issues. More so, they aim to champion minorities and their stories, in a way that feels genuine and honest; they are consistent about this too. This is a very positive thing to pick up on. Overall, it feels very mindful and offer quite an intelligent critique of culture. I also appreciate the way their candid portrayal of women; it feels like their flaws and failures are communicated in a way that is valid and important, as much the better or shiny parts of themselves. This is important in to have, especially since women are still being held to a perfect, high standard - which is not only dangerous and unkind. Above all, the stories they cover feel quite true and

The scope of content they cover offers a wide range, this includes: art, design, music, business, innovation, politics, food and travel. With this in mind, I feel like I can approach the theme of Maximum Joy in multitude ways; the theme can easily be found or channeled in each of those topics, but they will be manifested in different ways. I find this quite exciting.

Aesthetics

In terms of visuals Riposte also have quite a clean aesthetic over all. It has a strong use of typography too. They’re aren’t afraid of letting text or phrase becoming the image itself. For the images they pick, the tend to be bold in colour and feels solid - but not over-styled or loud. Moreover, they use a lot of portraiture; they definitely like to focus on the people behind their stories. This is important to keep in mind when I move forward with the project. I need to ensure that whatever I make will sit nicely with their pre-existing look seamlessly. It should feel collective.

Audience

Riposte is sold in major cities including London, Paris and New York. This means that their audience is quite metropolitan and culturally aware (both in the mainstream and the counter-culture against it). Therefore, when considering topics under “Maximum Joy”, I need to keep this mind. I need to ask: what have they already seen? what is something they haven’t seen before? what is next for them? In these culturally diverse and dense cities, they have so much access to different kinds of culture within the touch of their fingertips and there’s so much interesting things going on around them. How can I make my work memorable or offer something new.

Their readers are 85% women and 15% male. Interestingly, although their narratives are often female-centric, they don’t just make for women and only women to enjoy. The stories they tell can easily be understood and appreciated by men too. However, its important to recognise this when I progress with he project; there is no pressure to make it “feminine” just because its a magazine “for women”.

I look forward to having a bit of creative freedom since the theme is quite broad and it’s a nice topic to deal with - especially regarding the world’s current state and things can be quite bleak. This project is a nice break from all of this. However, it’s important to look into the brand itself so I can narrow down the broadness and to ensure that whatever I choose to make still fits. The biggest challenge to this project is finding the right way to execute what I have in my mind while also aligning it with the brand’s aesthetic and ethos.

[cass-trynapass-blog]

essay 2

Protest Within “Legally Blonde”

A common archetype in art, from television to the written word to film, is that of the female heroine. From Taraji P Henson and Octavia Spencer’s portrayals of former NASA employees in ​Hidden Figures​, to female action heroes like Wonder Woman, Black Widow and Black Panther​’s Dora Milaje, this archetype is ever present in contemporary Hollywood. However, few female protagonists deliberately protest fixed societal norms by fully embracing their femininity. Plastered in pink designer clothes and often accompanied by a Chihuahua sidekick, ​Legally Blonde​’s iconic female protagonist Elle Woods serves as a caricature of the stereotypical ‘dumb blonde’ who proceeds to continuously promote the theme of protest as her character arc progresses.

Prior to undergoing any character development, Elle’s primary motivation is to win back her former boyfriend, Warner, who deems her too superficial and dim-witted to spend the rest of his life with. When she learns of his decision to go off to Harvard Law, she decides to apply and eventually attend out of spite, hoping only to prove to him that she is worthy of resuming their relationship. The audience’s introduction to Elle makes the entirety of her character almost laughable as she makes a typically serious decision simply to protest her ex’s choice to end their relationship. This shallow form of protest continues once she arrives at Harvard and learns that Warner has gotten engaged to a fellow law student, Vivian, who serves as a striking foil to Elle’s girlish attributes. Beginning with romance as the primary motivation and placing emphasis on Elle’s physical appearance creates even more of a deviation from the typical female hero, protesting the heroine archetype in and of itself.

As the film progresses, however, the main character’s choices begin to embody the theme of protest in more of a typical sense. Elle’s protest of Warner’s treatment of her gains a deeper meaning as she begins to study law more seriously, despite his and other classmates complete lack of faith in her abilities as a law student. With several key characters earning internship spots alongside a revered professor, including Elle, Vivian, and Warner, the plotline begins to revolve around the murder trial of famed fitness instructor Brooke Windham. Here, Elle’s leadership skills as a former sorority president allow her to rise to this newfound challenge; the client’s faith in Elle’s legal abilities and relatable personality encourages her to divulge her alibi, which Elle promises not to share with the rest of the legal team. Despite their insistence, she protests sharing the alibi and refuses to violate client confidentiality, going on to find holes in the prosecution’s case regardless of this decision. Her personal protest earns her the respect, and eventual friendship, of Warner’s new fiancee.

This respect is soon lost, however, when another form of the protest theme comes into play. At the film’s climax, the students’ internship supervisor, Professor Callahan, makes unwanted sexual advances towards Elle, which she immediately rebuffs despite his role as an authority figure. Vivian witnesses Callahan’s behavior and completely misinterprets the situation, belittling Elle to the dumb blonde stereotype she was limited to at the beginning of the film. After quitting the prestigious internship opportunity to protest her harassment, and briefly and dramatically considering leaving Harvard Law altogether, Brooke Windham is informed of Elle’s situation and makes the shocking decision to have Elle represent her in court rather than her seasoned professor. Despite her nervousness and inexperience, namely her unique and girlish personality traits, Elle is able to protest societal expectations of what a successful lawyer looks like while simultaneously spurning her sexual harasser, proving Brooke’s innocence and winning the high-profile case. The film ends on a happy note by depicting the main characters’ graduation from law school, leaving the audience with a satisfyingly relatable interpretation of what a female hero looks like.

Supporters of the film emphasize this unique interpretation of a female protagonist, with author Sophia Cowley citing the importance of Elle’s awareness of her own sex appeal and her deliberate choice to use it to her own advantage, particularly in her Harvard admissions video. The committee, made up of “aging white men,” chooses to admit her “almost immediately” because of her decision to film herself in a “sparkly bikini”. The author also compares her to similar female protagonist Erin Brockovich, a real life heroine portrayed by Julia Roberts in the film of the same name, due to “charisma and sex appeal” meeting legitimate “skill and drive”. It is also important for audiences to consider that feminism was not a popular theme in the early 2000s when Legally Blonde was released, with sappy romantic comedies and ambitious film series the primary focus of Hollywood filmmakers. Despite this precedent, Legally Blonde obtained #22 on the list of top grossing films in the US the year it was released, with female audiences genuinely excited to see a female protagonist deliberately protesting societal norms.

The pink-clad, bleach blonde heroine of Elle Woods has continued to inspire women as they carry out their own personal protests, whether it be applying to a prestigious institution such as Harvard, pursuing a meaningful relationship, or proving successful despite being treated like an outsider or being sexually harassed. While Elle is most definitely a caricature of several feminine stereotypes, the unique portrayal of a female protagonist develops into someone truly inspirational to audiences past and present.

Works Cited

Cowley, Sophia. “Why LEGALLY BLONDE Was An Impressive Feminist Film for 2001.” ​Film Inquiry, 1​ 2 Sept. 2016, www.filminquiry.com/legally-blonde-feminist-film-2001/.

[abbiexartjournal]

RESEARCH

Agnes Cecile

https://agnescecile.bigcartel.com/

Pallida

Filipino Girl

‘Through her work and experimentation she has developed a particularly whispy yet moody watercolor style.  Her subjects seem to emerge out of subtle stains and promptly fade back into the paper as if viewed through a thick fog.  Pelissero also captures a certain subtlety of emotion.  Strong but restrained feeling appears to lurk just behind many of her portrait’s eyes, a certain understatedness that pairs well with her medium’

https://hifructose.com/2013/11/19/emotionally-evocative-watercolor-paintings-by-agnes-cecile/

‘Looking at her work might remind you of those strange aura-pictures you can get made at a fun-fair: a photograph of yourself with a colored spectrum around you to show your emotional state. In a way this is what Agnes does as well. She paints beautiful, realistic portraits of women and adds an expressive layer of emotion with color. The resulting paintings are often highly colorful, yet always breathe a sense of mystery due to the visibility of the portrayed’s visible emotions.’

https://beautifulbizarre.net/2015/03/28/the-sensual-watercolors-of-agnes-cecile/

‘Her watercolor paintings are wild constructs of paint and lines that form an emotionally expressive portrait of the subject. Each portrait painting is unique, and yet they each express the signature style of the artist. The heads of her subjects explode into color, a relationship couple are surrounded by dramatic colors and a tragic girl stares fearfully at the viewer in a scene devoid of color or excitement. Agnes Cecile may be a young artist but she has already mastered the art of eliciting an emotional response from the viewer.

Some of Agnes Cecile’s works reveal symbolic subjects such as butterflies and birds. These symbols of flight, freedom and femininity add an extra emotional element to Cecile’s designs, giving the subject of the portrait another dimension of character to be pondered by the viewer.’

https://mayhemandmuse.com/agnes-ceciles-world-of-watercolor/

·       Watercolour

·       Emotional

·       Moody

·       Fog

·       Expressive

·       Mystery

·       Visibility

In every review of Cecile’s work, the word emotion/emotional seems a recurring trait. I suppose this is due to a number of things, the gaze on the model’s face, the colours used, the faint colours combined with a bleeding value  of richer colours exuding a sense of unstable much like emotional response. Her paintings are both detailed and loose, choosing to focus most of the detail in the eyes and then the facial features, flowing into a looser representation of the hair and body. The technique used in Cecile’s portraits is something I would love to include in my own work as it combines the controlled with the uncontrollable – the wet page and watercolour effect of bleeding and spreading – the control element being where the colour should end and the uncontrolled how the colour spreads and forms patterns within the space. This technique is what makes the work look misty, because the uncontrolled elements combine to create something recognisable, providing the viewer with some mystique of the abject, this is not how clothes or hair would be portrayed in a photograph for example, but we recognise what it should be seeing other elements inside what it is we think we see.

The composition of these two pieces especially intrigue me, the hair willowing over the face, hiding some elements of characteristics but showing just enough for the viewer to engage with the facial expression – or are we? I think this is where the mystery element also comes into play, we think we can tell the emotive response be it moody, but we aren’t certain due to hair covering the face and also because of the loose watercolour surrounding it, forming an undetermined case for the identity to sit.

When comparing these to my previous watercolour paintings I can see some similarities in colour, but mine is much more controlled and detailed. I would like to find a medium that I feel comfortable enough to express the image in a much looser way. I would like to enhance Cecile’s use of wet on wet when it comes to blending the medium as I feel it creates something much more interesting than being so refined in the process. As this is what I believe makes her work so moody and emotional, I want to adapt that to my own style in order to create my portrayal of fashion imagery into a much more emotive and dramatic response.