From: Kelly
For my photo, I have chosen the subtopic of how there are consequences and risk of beauty standards and how it is socialized to girls. I could really visualize this theme throughout reading the photo essay, “Girl Culture” by Lauren Greenfield. “Women aren’t taught to use their voices. So they use their bodies instead. Many girls are not taught that it’s special to be a woman, and a lot of girls find out that it hurts to be a woman. That’s what I know. It’s not a vanity issue. We don’t all want to be supermodels. It’s a distortion. And it’s something that is tormenting and frustrating and sad, and it’s a struggle to come back. If you can come back.” (Girl Culture, Interview with Erin, a woman in eating disorder treatment). This specific interview emphasizes there is a torturing routine women have to go through in order to fit into beauty standard, because if they don’t, they have nothing because their voices are pushed down. In my photo, I used gradient lighting to highlight the “beauty” of trying to fit the beauty standard, and to take the spotlight away from the truth of it. Where the light hits the brightest, you can see the lipgloss and cosmetic products that are heavily associated with women fitting social standards, but on the far right (the darkest part of the picture), we get into the “ugly”, starting of with zero calorie sweetener. I saw this as a needed part of the picture because all my life, the women that I have looked up to only ever used Splenda, low calorie sweeteners, or only drink diet sodas. And these things have always been associated with them “needing” to have these things in order to “keep weight off”, AKA stay within the standards. Past the sweeteners, and almost not visible, there is berberine, also known as “nature’s ozempic” or an appetite suppressant pill. Another element that I added to my picture was the confetti/glitter, the glitter is more concentrated on the highlighted side, and becomes more sparse as you move to the left.
1 comment:
From: Chloe
Looking at this photo is like looking at a glimpse of every single girl's life, even in my own life; the making up used as a front, “putting on my face” and dieting and the gym as my dark side of the picture. I feel that every girl could flip this picture with one or two items and make it a picture of them. I love the use of confetti in the picture and how it is not used with the Splenda and the pills, as that's not part of the glamor shot, often something people hide away. I picture the confetti towards those items to the right as a barrier (using line as a creative element), separating the things we see, the makeup, and the things we do not want to see, low calorie sugar and the pills. The lighting is another thing that really emphasizes girl culture, and the beauty standards girls are suppressed with. Making the makeup the front and centered in the bright light and then placing the other two items in the dark almost hiding them away and it also being a darker part of reality for some girls. I also like the shadow created by the light from the makeup. To me it symbolizes that there is also a dark side to the seemingly normal items. Instead of these items being for self-expression, they instead cause suppression, making girls feel they need to wear makeup and hide themselves with it.
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