Despite how long it took for me to finish this painting; I’m both excited and relieved at the results. This will most likely be one of the last black and white paintings that I’ll be producing in the near future. I’m taking a different approach by shifting my attention to learning more about the female role in fairy tales.
Specifically, how the stories shape and influence women’s behaviour in today’s society. There’s been a vast number of research that concentrates on linking feminism and fairy tale studies, and it’s great because that means there’s a lot to read about at the library. I’m thrilled about the idea of producing art as an irony to fairy tales, how these norms derived from Germany in the late 19th century made its’ way to today’s society despite how our society has changed. Disney’s been a great advocate in allowing the ‘Brother’s’ stories travel through time into magical fairy tales to teach children how to behave. Perhaps it’s a mechanism to maintain the submissive behaviour role of the woman in society. The princess is often “waiting to be saved from the prince charming”. These stories are magical and I do not at all doubt how great these stories are, but when we place these stories in a classroom setting it’s not so much of a good idea anymore since the roles of women have obviously changed in the last 200 years. Women now are expected to be independent, powerful and act as an equal to men, but the problem arises when they’re place in a situation in between the new norms that society tries to implement and the deep roles that are engraved into our minds from the day we were born. We are taught from fairy tales that beauty will be rewarded, and that all evil is “ugly”. The wicked stepmother, who is actually the role that is most powerful in fairy tales and most relevant in today’s society is reflected as the demon in fairy tales, and thus girls aren’t taught to have them as role models. They were taught, and that being said- we were taught that beauty is rewarded, beauty is “dangerous”, and that beauty will produce great things. Girls and women – females also learn a lot about fighting and disputes over beauty. Beauty pageants – the wicked stepsisters in Cinderella; the glass slipper… how beauty is measured. By placing all of this in a test-tube I’m not implying that it’s the sole cause of all matters to do with female roles, but it is an interesting theory to turn to since my work is based on women’s roles and identities.
So there’s still no snow… and I’m officially on my second day of vacation :D YIPPY! My dinner party’s tonight - people should be showing up shortly. This morning on CBC there’s a story about a child who got into a car accident while still in her mother’s womb, and ended up having severe brain damage. The child now needs 24 hour private care, which the parents cannot afford. The parents had to sue on behalf of the child against the mother so that the insurance company would compensate, and on top of all of that they needed a law to pass in the province of Alberta to make all that happen. Here’s the full story:http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2006/12/22/ed-rewega-settlement.html. My question is WHY do we have to go through SO MUCH agony just for ‘big brother’ to give this little girl the care that she deserves? I’m sure the parents have been making their insurance premiums dilligently, and sure enough they have, as quoted by the child’s lawyer, Rosanna Saccomani, “We have insurance to provide for some method of compensation when catastrophic injuries such as this occur. That’s the purpose of insurance, that’s why we all buy insurance [and] that’s why insurance is mandatory,”.
Here’s something else that I wrote… but forgot to add here… I read a short story the other day called “My Body Is My Business” by Naheed Mustafa. I’ve been wanting to write about it for sometime now, perhaps now is a good time to do that… In her story she uses the Muslim women’s ha jib to describe her definition of freedom. For many of us, perhaps wearing the hajib or the thought of wearing it would cause most of us to think that those women do not have freedom, or that they’re deprived of popular culture things that most of us enjoy such as cosmetics and jewelery. I mean, why wear it if nobody will see it anyway? What we don’t know is that a lot of women chose to wear the hijab, and most of them who wear them don’t feel deprived. Naheed Mustafa chose to wear the hijab, and she did that not only for religious purposes, but for the physicality and protection of the hijab. As society transcends into a ridiculous consumption mechanism which praises beauty or the lack of it; the notion of freedom is blurred. Are women who expose themselves physically to the judgment and opinionated society experiencing freedom, or are they simply lost in the definition of freedom? People have choices in what we choose to consume, but most of us do try to conform by trying to meet the standards that the media imposes on us. Here’s what I find fascinating… because by wearing the hijab, Naheed Mustafa finds refuge in her journey to seek freedom. Because everything is hidden… suddenly nobody cares. So in essence - because you can’t see, you don’t care. It’s a pity, really, but if I were to perform an experiment by covering myself in public; not only would people look at me differently, but they would also immediately look away. Simply because there is nothing interesting to see - I would immediately become unimporant. Shows how shallow we’ve all become doesn’t it? Our bodies are supposed to be our own business, but since we’re conditioned to believe in freedom of speech and democracy - it suddenly becomes everyone else’s business. I now understand how freedom is found by concealing myself… I could see how unimportant, and how much freedom I could possibly possess by not allowing others to see me… how my privacy becomes respected. For me, freedom would be not wearing mascara, and not giving a damn about it instead of wearing it just to be judged upon.
Anyway, I’m not trying to play devil’s advocate or preech certain beliefs. Just a little sumthin’ sumthin’ to keep everyone entertained ;) It’s now 3:01am… - looks like I won’t be falling asleep anytime soon. Ah heck. maybe I’ll go make some food.
Apart from that my friend Nadine was nice enough to show me this awesome speech by Joss Whedon the creator of women protagonist characters such as Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly. He’s a firm believer and preacher of gender equality, and his reasons for creating these characters. I’m sure that you’ll find his reason (singular) quite obvious, and he made it too obvious that unfortunately after so many changes in everything that surrounds us… the core notions and beliefs that defines and differentiates the two genders have ceased to change with time and it’s only through creating these characters and feeding them through mass media that perhaps change will gradually begin. So I suppose we haven’t really gotten that far, but it’s nice to see someone else who gives a damn.
Enjoy :)
http://demo.fb.se/e/girlpower/ Here’s another body image campaign called “The ‘Why’ Campaign” made possible by the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs from Stockholm, Sweden. It’s another initiative against media and its effects on body image. In particular they target a younger age group, which emphasizes the urgency of conveyed norms and values in our society. The campaign’s goal is to have the general public question and be critical about mass media, and it tries to do so by allowing viewers to directly email the person in charge with that particular advertisement or media establishment. The concept works on several levels, but has areas of opportunity. It works because by voicing the public’s concerns to that particular person in charge it could possibly have some effects on the next decision he/she will need to make for future campaigns. However, at the same time ad agencies could use those comments against people like me, because it places everyone else in an extremist position with no grey areas to debate upon, or is there? Then of course there are campaigns such as Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/, which directly targets those who are in those extremists positions. It will take more than a realization to transform years of social conditioning into what we define as “real beauty”, and unfortunately standards do exist in our society as they do help maintain social order. Think about how hard it would be for us to get along if we all had different views of what beauty means? Are we then questioning the definition of beauty or the existence of that word?
