Gucci Models

Photography Post # 7

Alysha Reed

The Truth Behind Photoshop

Photography Post #6

Alysha Reed

The media takes an already beautiful woman and preps her for hours making her more “beautiful”.  Not only does the media cake make-up on the young woman’s face, but every aspect of the woman’s appearance is altered in some way-shape-or-form from the initial frame.  In the end you can see that all the alterations were not sufficient enough.  Her neck needs to be elongated, her eye bones tweaked, and her hair thickened in-order for her picture to finally appear on the billboard.  The worlds image of beauty has been so skewed.  Young girls see these photos and the women in them as idols.  In reality these idols on the billboards and in the magazines do not even exist as they appear to exist.  With the technology behind the photography, a picture may speak a thousand words but it is hard to know if those thousand words are all lies.

Sculpture – Post #2

HIV and AIDS Depicted in Zimbabwe Sculptures

In the summer of 2010, a whopping 15% of adults in Zimbabwe were estimated to be HIV positive. And according to AVERT, an International HIV and AIDS charity, African American individuals are disproportionately affected by HIV and AIDS. In 2009, 21,673 adult African Americans in America were diagnosed to be HIV positive and 16,759 individuals were diagnosed with AIDS. That’s nearly twice as many people diagnosed with HIV and AIDS than Hispanics, Asians, American Indians, Pacific Islanders, and mixed-race individuals combined. And with the health care system being overwhelmed by these large numbers of AIDS patients, most people living with this disease are forced to be cared for in their own homes by elderly individuals.

            By delving into a research article by Alexander Rodlach, we will be able to see just how detrimental the AIDS epidemic is in Zimbabwe. However, out of all bad things come good things as well. In this case, Rodlach allows us a peak into how this epidemic has allowed those suffering with AIDS, and those around the disease, to create beautiful wood sculptures capturing the essence of the disease and how it affects Zimbabwe, and its culture, as a whole.



Figure A

             The specific artist that Rodlach interviewed while in Zimbabwe is named Sheunesu Shumba, a man who studied under Zephaniah Tshuma. Tshuma’s sculptures were “caricatures of human life and experiences” (3) and some of his work even focused on the AIDS epidemic and the preconceptions of the disease in the area. Figure A depicts an “intokolotshe” on the left, a sorcerer’s familiar, casting a spell on the man on the right. According to Zimbabwe’s culture, “encountering this familiar and being a victim of ulunyoka (the spell) is believed to result in symptoms similar to those of AIDS” (4).



Figure B

             Another sculpture by Shumba represented “male promiscuous behavior” (6) and showed a man moving away from the two women who have committed to him in order for him to desire another woman. This represents the spread of HIV/AIDS because in Zimbabwe, the majority of people feel that the faithfulness of the man is one of the largest contributing factors to the spread of the HIV virus. Rodlach explores this idea even further, going as far as to say it shows conflicting views in the lives of many Zimbabweans. For one, the man is expected to be faithful and restrain from extramarital sex. But the man is also expected to have many sexual partners or he’s not a “real man” at all (11).



Figure D



Figure C



            Women in Zimbabwe are not exempt from unrealistic expectations and stereotypes. According to Rodlach, a woman’s position in society heavily influences her sexual behavior and in very rural areas women are more “likely to be dependent on their guardians—either male relatives or, after marriage, their husbands—who speak on their behalf” (12). This first sculpture, titled Window Shopping has a woman looking at an item she desires, while also exposing her butt in an attempt to attract men. According to Rodlach, she does this because “she is realistic and knows that her appeal to men (husband, boyfriend, or lover) determines to some degree whether she is able to get what she desires,” therefore saying that women in Zimbabwe feel inferior and dependent on men to have any sort of meaningful life. The second sculpture showing women’s “common position” (12) in society, shows a woman stretching seductively so she can be physically appealing to the men around her. In rural Zimbabwe, women feel like they need to be seductive and visually appealing or they won’t end up with a man that will support them.



Figure E

             The problem with this dependency is that women can’t afford (both economically and politically) to take care of themselves. So when a woman feels her husband is unfaithful, she fears contracting HIV and therefore is hesitant to engage in sex with her husband. According to Rodlach’s interviews, women said “when husbands indicate a desire to have sex they expect their wives to comply.” The sculpture on right, titled Martial Rape, depicts a husband grabbing his wives’ breasts forcefully. The woman looks distressed, and the husband is, symbolically, devouring her, which in Ndebele, is a metaphor for killing her. In this case, how he kills her is by infecting her with HIV.

            HIV and AIDS are a huge problem in not only Zimbabwe, but also the entire world. According to the Guttmacher Institute’s “Sex and HIV Education” survey, 33 states and the District of Columbia mandate both sex education and HIV education classes in schools, and only 13 states require the information to be medically accurate. HIV and AIDS affect so many people, and we’re not taking this nearly seriously enough. HIV is not a “gay only” infection, and neither is AIDS. Shown through the sculptures Rodlach inspected in Zimbabwe, it’s men who are unfaithful with other women that cause the most distress about this disease. These wooden sculptures depict the everyday struggles those living with AIDS face, and the very real fears those without face living in a country where HIV is spreading faster than ever.

Bibliography

Rodlach, Alexander. "Popular Images of the AIDS Epidemic: Contemporary Wood Sculptures from Southern Zimbabwe." African Arts (2010): 54-67. Galegroup.com. Web. 18 Mar. 2012. <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?retrieveFormat=PDF_FROM_CALLISTO&inPS=true&prodId=AONE&userGroupName=lom_emichu&workId=PI-0438-2010-SUM00-IDSI-50.JPG%7CPI-0438-2010-SUM00-IDSI-51.JPG%7CPI-0438-2010-SUM00-IDSI-52.JPG%7CPI-0438-2010-SUM00-IDSI-53.JPG%7CPI-0438-2010-SUM00-IDSI-54.JPG%7CPI-0438-2010-SUM00-IDSI-55.JPG%7CPI-0438-2010-SUM00-IDSI-56.JPG%7CPI-0438-2010-SUM00-IDSI-57.JPG%7CPI-0438-2010-SUM00-IDSI-58.JPG%7CPI-0438-2010-SUM00-IDSI-59.JPG%7CPI-0438-2010-SUM00-IDSI-60.JPG%7CPI-0438-2010-SUM00-IDSI-61.JPG%7CPI-0438-2010-SUM00-IDSI-62.JPG%7CPI-0438-2010-SUM00-IDSI-63.JPG&docId=GALE%7CA241277804&callistoContentSet=PER&isAcrobatAvailable=true>.

"Sex and HIV Education." State Policies Brief. Guttmacher Institute, 1 Mar. 2012. Web. 18 Mar. 2012. <http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/spibs/spib_SE.pdf>.

"United States Statistics by Age and Race." AVERTing HIV & AIDS. AVERT: International HIV and AIDS Charity. Web. 18 Mar. 2012. <United States Statistics by Age and Race>.

Films from class

Today I am going to take a look at two of the films that have been mentioned in class this semester and give a short summary of them as well as discuss how they relate to gender and sexuality and the topics we discussed in class.

                The first film I will discuss today is Pariah. It is an independent American film that deals with a young girl named Alike and how she is growing up and struggling to come to terms with her sexuality. She is quietly a lesbian and tries to deal with this. Alike talks to her openly lesbian best friend Laura to help her cope with her newly discovered sexuality. During the course of the film her parents find out about her sexuality and introduce her to a girl named Bina and she and Alike become friends. This film deals greatly with sexuality and coming to terms with ones sexual preferences.

                The next film I will discuss is the film Cabaret. This film focuses on an American  singer Sally Bowles who performs at a night club in Berlin and Brian Roberts an Englishman who is visiting the town.  In the beginning of the film Sally hits on Brian and assumes he is gay when he resists. Sally and Brian become friends and eventually make love and Brian says that maybe he was unable to make love before because the other women he had been with were not the right women. Later Sally and Brian meet and  befriend Max von Heune and he invites the two to his estate for the weekend and makes love to each of them separately. Sally and Brian get in a fight over this but Max ends up leaving them money. Sally later finds out she is pregnant and is unsure if it is Brian’s or Max’s child and even though Brian promises to take care of Sally and the baby Sally ends up aborting the baby and Brian returns home while Sally stays in Berlin.

-Jason

“Migrant Mother"

Photography Post #5

Alysha Reed

Women In Photography

Photography Post # 4
Alysha Reed

Dorothea Lange is the most prominent, well-known woman in the history of photography. Lange received an education for photography at Colombia University and took her career to San Francisco where she ran a successful studio. The start of The Great Depression opened a door for Lange’s career to take a huge turn. She began to turn her focus to the streets as opposed to her studio. One of her most powerful pieces, “Migrant Mother", was captured during the Great Depression. Her photo, “Migrant Mother”, is evidence that photos can get powerful messages across to the audience. By simply looking at the photo, the viewer can feel the disparity and pain of the woman and children depicted. There is no need for a caption explaining what the middle-aged woman and her children had been experiencing at the time. Without the details explained, Lange’s photograph taps into the audience’s ethos and sends a powerful message.


Despite being a woman, Dorothea Lange was able to take her talents and make a name for herself not only within her era, but enough to become a historical figure.

Works Cited

Vaughn, Stephen L. Encyclopedia of American Journalism. 254. 2008. 17 Feb. 2012.

Jersey, Bill, Nancy Hale, Elizabeth Partridge, and Meg Partridge. “Dorothea Lange: A Visual Life.” The Journal of American History. 82 (1995). http://www.jstor.org/stable/2945291. 17 Feb. 2012.

Graphic Design Post #2

Graphic Design 

Post #2

          This is a very interesting article about retouching images and pop culture. It shows how retouching has become such an overused tool lately in our society. It makes images of "famous" people appear to be perfect and it makes their audiences want to be as "sexually attractive" as they are, which is an impossible feat. Retouching displays "fake" images of people and unrealistic desires for people who do not look like them.

http://www.davidairey.com/sex-lies-and-photoshop/

-- Sammy McCracken