This week's reading had me really thinking about expectations of women. It particularly is interesting to me because I work in fashion.
As my company goes through the never ending process of creating a new line, we scrutinize women. Looking through photography is today I noticed how the women are forced to pose. Often the models are told to twist and move ways that make their bodies appear thin and small. Oppositely a man would be told to stand proud and broad. Even more so the photos are manipulated to make the models appear as perfect as possible. Stretching the photographs make the women appear as thin as possible and sophisticated.
What's even worse is when we have go-sees for models. A go-see is an open call for agencies to send girls who they think will meet our needs. We literally sit there for hours judging women on every single portion of their bodies. Are her hips too big? Bust too small? Is that a pimple or a scar? What is that weird shadow between her nose and lip? Everything sounds so insignificant but really it comes down to one question: How little work am I'm going to have to do to her photographs?
I love to hear the difference between my company (who's market is women) and design houses who cater to men. The men can take on many personas and body types as long as they have confidence. Rugged is often a sought after look by men's designers. However, a woman's design house would never ask for a rugged female model.
It almost makes me wonder if in women's photography in fashion is meant to illicit a thought of women being perfect without solid preparation? Should a woman's non verbal actions in fashion photography show someone who is meek and pliable so that a viewer can insert their ideas and images into that fashion?
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I think the world of fashion is the breeding ground of body ideals for both men and women. True, it is a much more rigid and strict system of regulations for women--as you said, when you go to see these different models from different agencies, you scrutinize every aspect of the woman's physical being. As you also said, the system seems much more lenient for men--most of the time, companies are seeking the "rugged man look." Although, one doesn't commonly come across an overweight male model or one who is very thin. True, some companies, namely a select few urban-style clothing lines, display skinnier men as ideal for their clothing, but for most the ideal is the tall, muscular type. It seems to me as well that companies who promote men's clothing focus more on facial attraction more so than women's clothing companies. For the most part, male models are considered to have handsome faces. Whereas for women, the primary concern seems to be their height and thinness. I'm not saying that most models have unattractive faces, but it seems to me that their facial beauty seems to be secondary to their bodies. Maybe though, this is just a biased opinion on my part because I've never found the brittle, emaciated look to be attractive in any way--honestly, most of the time I've been more concerned with the models' health than anything else--often times they look as though they're about to keel over from starvation and dehydration. Since you are in the business, is the body get more focus than the face, or do they receive equal scrutiny?
ReplyDeleteI think that women are so concerned with how they look that it is almost unhealthy. I feel as though women don't really express their true beauty noadays because of all the make-up, plastic surgeries, clothing that sucks you in to appear thinner, and clothing in general making you appear a certain way. Magazines and TV shows and films have such a way about them trying to make a woman look perfect, but the truth of the matter is that there is no such thing! As you probably know, from the kind of work that you do, even the most beautiful movie star has some type of flaws. But the way that she is portrayed after being photo shopped and made to look tanner and thinner she "appears" perfect. This is the problem with society, we make women feel as though they have to present themselves as though they are perfect. My male friends tell me all the time that they hate when girls wear too much make up and that when they wake up to their girlfriend the next morning she looks like a completely different person until she reapplies her make-up again. I would never want to be seen like that, I want to be seen as how I really look, because truthfully, it's way too much work to have to constantly be perfect haha. I have so much respect for full figured models because they are not ashamed to hide their bodies and want to cater to the "not-so-perfect" crowd. I'm glad that these things even exist, otheriwise we would be forced to look at "perfect" people all day long, which would be a bore.
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