From: Danielle
Girls in the United States grow up in a society
that has many expectations about how they are supposed to look and what they
are supposed to act like. This is a photo of a 14-year-old female dancer, named
Claire, who represents that confliction many girls in adolescence experience. Claire
takes up the height of the frame to show that she has been working to gain
power in her life, but the space in width of the frame signifies society restricting
her from gaining full power because she is female. Her arm that partially
covers her face depicts the part of her that is suppressed by society, but the
part of her face that is seen is Claire breaking through the expectations of
her gender. She is gazing up and reaching with one of her arms to demonstrate
her yearning to become a well-established individual female. The other arm is
folded down on top of her head to represent the hesitation many girls feel when
they strive for high goals; something thought of as a male expectation in our
culture. The black shorts and white shirt that she is wearing represents some
of the conflicting thoughts many young girls experience when they are trying to
figure out who they are. Should she follow what society says a girl is or
should she break out from under this umbrella and do what feels right to her?
Claire’s black shorts are the thoughts that pull her toward society’s rules
which makes her blend into the black background (society). Her white shirt represents
her opposing thoughts that tell her to stand out from the crowd as seen by the
contrast with the black background. It also signifies the purity and innocence
of young girls. The media that children see provides an impossible beauty
standard which leads to many problems such as eating disorders and low
self-esteem. The dance step that Claire is doing is very beautiful and
delicate, two traits our culture thinks all women should have. She embraces the
femininity that her environment has exposed her to since she was young, but
these influences cause her to feel trapped which is shown by being place in the
corner. Society is represented by the back background which is like a black
hole trying to pull all girls closer to gender expectations so they then feel
pressured to follow those norms. If a girl only carried the two traits of
beauty and delicacy shown by Claire’s pose, she will not be taken seriously when
she attempts to strive for her high goals. Men tend to dominate in society; children learn
this at a very young age. When kids role play, the damsel in distress tends to
be a girl who gets saved by a male. Claire is currently being suppressed and
has not yet veered away from society’s expectations, but her shadow provides
the light at the end of the tunnel or her opportunity to break free from
society’s expectations if she chooses to do so. The bar on the right side of
the photo acts as two lines that pull the viewer’s eyes to Claire, and the
light that her shadow falls into is another line that draws the viewers eye
toward the open door that would set her free. Her shadow is leading her toward
freedom.
1 comment:
From: Coral
I love how, even though the subject of the photo is doing something that takes tremendous amount of skill and training, she is taking up very little space in doing so. As in the workplace, or our daily lives, women are asked to take up as little space physically and emotionally as we can. She obeying that expectation, even while reaching for heights she had to work hard to achieve.
This may betray my lack of knowledge when it comes to dance, but I also feel that imagery-wise, the foot that is supporting her whole body looks so strained that it looks as if it will give way at any moment. I think this signifies that weight of the societal standards a girl like the photo’s subject (and all women) face.
The swallowing blackness of the room is my favorite part. Dance, like life, is supposed to be an expression, often one filled with joy. But this room, the one made for dance that, in my opinion, symbolizes the canvas society gives us to express our lives, is joyless in its darkness. The contrast of the white shirt being, as the artist put it, a symbol of the subject’s opposing and independent thoughts, is brilliant- literally and figuratively. It almost glows in the context of the dark room, just as an independent thinker- someone who reaches as the subject does- makes an impact on society and its ability to oppress.
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