Magazines & Sexism

Today I finished cutting (or tearing) up my second book! I think the result was very nice and will be even better when it can be displayed with a fan blowing around the torn pages. Here are two pictures of the finished product (although it could be said that this product is still in progress, since I haven't yet decided how I will use the scraps).

Here, the pages can be seen fanning out, revealing their rips and tears. I like the way they flutter when the book is opened and closed and the pages are fanned. That's why I think the fan effect will be very interesting!

This is a side view of the book. You can see the tears in the pages, and how these consistent tears create a disheveled and used effect. I also like how, in this photo, the yellowing of the pages is visible. This yellowing creates a similarly used-looking, broken-in effect.

Today I also started a new project: cutting up a magazine. I chose to use a women's magazine that I bought a few months ago and that I have already read. While I was on the bus today, I had an idea for using this magazine and its scraps: I could create a collage that shows how women are portrayed in the media, even in magazines that cater to women. I believe that women are treated very badly by the media, often being sexualized and encouraged to get married, have boyfriends, and depend on men. Furthermore, these magazines emphasize marriage and children over careers.

Not only do these magazines (and many other forms of media) portray women in a sexist and disappointing light, they also completely ignore certain segments of the population. For example, although there were tons of articles in this magazine about women's relationships and sex lives, there was only one mention of lesbian relationships (and that was when they were gossiping about celebrities!). In addition, most of the women featured in this magazine were white, "traditionally" beautiful, and extremely skinny. Several articles even encouraged women to lose weight and eat less!

Even though the magazine was made for women, many of the photos and advertisements still portrayed women as sexual objects. See this picture, below, for an example.

This photo was part of an article from the magazine. In the upper left hand corner, the text reads "Lust." This picture only shows the woman's breasts - it doesn't even show her face! It's as if this photo is trying to communicate to women that all they are - or the only "good" parts of them - are their bodies, especially the frequently sexualized parts of their bodies.

On Tuesday, I will continue to create my collage. I am hoping to find some positive portrayals of women in the magazine, too. I hope that I can!