Pecha Kucha Presentation and Feedback

I presented my Pecha Kucha today. It went... okay. I became quite uncomfortable when I began and felt the pressure of the time constraint. Normally I don't think I would have a problem giving a presentation but the time limit crippled my confidence. I didn't look at my audience too often and rushed my presentation. I agree entirely with my feedback sheet.

I am happy with the feedback I received from my peers however. I had the idea of creating a zine for my final outcome which seems to have gone down well with the others. However I did receive different responses to what the story of my zine should be about. Whatever it is, I want to be careful; appearance is a delicate thing and I don't want to make a piece that will offend anyone.

Barbie and Ken Dolls

Heres an article in which Valeria Lukyanova (barbie woman) meets the real life Ken doll. They don't hit it off but he does detail how from a young age people are raised to believe that there is a body that should be adhered to.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2506990/Rift-real-life-Ken-Barbie-Justin-Jedlica-Valeria-Lukyanova-grows-deeper.html

It raises an interesting point. Men and women are indoctrinated from an early age that there is an A-type  appearance that should be adhered to. If you don't meet these qualities then you are lesser being.

Further Sketchbook Work

I've continued to look at how women (and men) are affected by advertisements and such that we see all around us. By cutting out advertisements from Shortlist and Stylist magazines I've altered/examined the images to better understand/mock them.

Sketchbook Continued...

Today I've been looking at what makes a woman 'attractive'. What extents do women go to to further their desirability? And what is the publics fascination with Kylie Minogue?

Pecha Kucha Preperation

I've been giving some thought to my Pecha Kucha lately. I originally planned to discuss how women are still being subjectified in todays society via the extreme attitudes towards physical appearance. But I'm beginning to notice that men too are falling victim to these same attitudes, albeit to a lesser extent.

What does this mean then? Is it a case of degradation any more? I believe that the answer is still yes to a certain degree however I do feel that men are falling victim to objectification more frequently these days. Men are desired to look like their comic book counterparts just as much as women are, unfortunately. 

Vice Magazine: Rise of the Douchbag

This morning whilst putting the final touches on my Pecha Kucha I learnt of these articles from Vice Magazine which discuss the current trend of men who work (out) hard and party hard. They raise a few interesting points about the direction of men these days. This is potentially a theme that I can use for my practical illustration, but how can I transfer my thoughts about these issues onto page?

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/anatomy-of-a-new-modern-douchebag
http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/this-american-bro-an-eth…

The Degradation of Women... Map of Understanding

Over the past few days I've been putting together a map of understanding. From this I hope to extend the area of research around the degradation of women from just comic books. I plan to investigate further how women are still manipulated and degraded in todays society albeit in different manners.

Sketchbook Work

Today I was working in my sketchbook. I've been looking at specific alterations to the body that women go through from lip injections to facelifts. I find it fascinating when you see older women trying desperately to reclaim their youth and attractiveness by altering their body in such a way.

But why does this happen? Does society dictate that only the young can be beautiful? Why is body image so important?

Objectification, Sexualisation and Photoshop

Following on from my essay in which I critically examined the degradation of women within the comic book industry I began looking at the effects of body surgery and how women manipulate their bodies to resemble what is deemed 'the idol woman' I began to think about why women think they should look a certain way. Its very clear how this happens; there is a bombardment of physically altered, highly sexualised women being thrown at men and women continually every day.

Over the past week I've continued my research by finding imagery from magazines of women heavily made up and edited by Photoshop. With this kind of imagery all around us is it surprising that most women continually question their appearance to an extreme degree?

What would the women in these images look like without makeup or Photoshop? I've attempted to answer this by drawing several celebrities without their makeup/physical alterations.