From: Brandon
The title of this photograph is Calendar Girl and the theme is how gender roles are forced upon adolescent girls by society and the media. This picture depicts a girl in her late teens standing in front of a white wall where upon hangs a swimsuit calendar. The calendar depicts a picture of a tan blonde cheerleader, representative of the over sexualized roles women are encouraged to take on by the media. The calendar is placed high up on the wall representative of the out of reach and unrealistic expectations placed upon young women to look a certain way. The calendar is small in contrast to the girl and exemplifies the fact that this role is a one size fits all model, which in turn makes many young girls feel small and insignificant. The calender also represents how dated this role is and how for too long it has been an accepted part of society. The negative wall space the calendar hangs upon represents the lack of options or alternative roles for women in the media. The white wall is also representative of the girl’s innocence with the calender being a smirch upon it. The girl herself has short brown hair, light skin and no makeup which is very different from the woman depicted on the calendar. The young woman is facing away from the calendar, turning her back on this “ideal” role perpetrated by the media and society at large. However, she knows that this image is behind her and it is always in the back of her mind. The photograph is taken slightly off center but at eye level with the girl in the photo to represent her as a peer to the viewer but also as someone who feels off center with how the media or society as large may want her to be. She stares defiantly towards the viewer seemingly making a statement “I am more than a calendar girl.”
2 comments:
The way this picture is set up with the most important part of the picture (the young girl) is the largest part of the picture and in front of the insignificant part of the photo (the swimsuit calendar). The significance of the positions is very clear in my eyes; I feel that the unrealistic, picture perfect Barbie body, swimsuit calendar is so far behind what is important in my world and many other normal females. But to have the perfect body and look to the world does always sit in the back of my mind with the other things on the list of what ifs. When the negative wall space is described as the lack of options for women in the eyes of media and our culture.
This picture does a great job explaining how young girls are expected to live up to the beauty standards. They are expected to have the perfect hair, perfect make-up, and perfect body. The young girl being the main focus shows that being yourself is more important than being the picture perfect model girls are expected to be. The swimsuit calendar in the back signifies that girls are more comfortable in their own skin now than they used to be, it shows that girls are taking a stand against the unreasonable and unattainable beauty standards, and they're just being themselves. I think that this picture does a great job portraying what we learned in this unit.
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