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  • Essay / Gender equality and its effects on advertising and fashion photography

    Are men and women equal? Do we see them in the same way in photography? After all, women come from Venus, men from Mars, right? Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In this essay, I will discuss what gender is and how gender equality has progressed and developed in recent years. I'm going to talk about what feminism is, and I'm also going to talk about how I think gender has an effect on advertising and fashion photography and what effect that has on society and how we perceive ourselves in because of the photograph that is broadcast. exposed to the public eye. The topic of gender is an extremely important topic because many people have very different views on how the two sexes should live their lives and how they should associate with others during their lives. Gender in today's advertising photography is how we unconsciously influence people within society and create a false stereotype in their minds in which they feel they have to excel. While the use of female models in advertising photography practice is very common, male models are now common practice among advertisers. A major topic in advertising photography is how it influences the young women of the world on their appearance. This topic has created so much conflict in the world about how advertisers should not use “unreal” looks to promote their products. But what we don't think about as much is how these images affect the men around us just as much. Advertising dictates what the modern man should look like, how he should treat women, how to be successful, it has the same effect on women as it does on men. After doing a lot of research on several different topics for example suicides within the famous industry, the specifications of the modeling profession, the use of models in the fashion advertising industry, the main cause of everything this is photography and how it gives society an image of “how you should be”. There are two different forms of gender signaling, the first being feminism. After researching the subject, I found this site https://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2017/03/08/what-is-feminism-et-pourquoi-tant-de-femmes -and-men-hate-this/. The website helped me better understand what feminism is. Feminism is when a person disagrees that the two sexes should be different, they believe that a woman should be completely equal and have equal rights to a man. Feminists believe that feminism will create equality. There is also a society dominated by the idea of ​​patriarchy, it is a male dominated society, communication is filtered through men and therefore means that in this idea men are in control. What effects does photography have on society? Photography is a form of expressing emotions through people's eyes. Wherever you go, you will always see some form of photography, whether in a newspaper or on a billboard. Personally, I feel like imagery has become a way for people to escape from reality into a sort of dream world. As Ansel Adams said: “In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality. » What influences society? I think the answer to this question isphotography, photography influences modern society. Everywhere we go there are photographs advertising certain products and services, I feel like this makes people want to dress up and look like the models in the adverts. For example, if someone sees a picture of a man or woman wearing a new coat, they are instantly drawn to the coat and feel like they have to buy it. Another example is that when people see a photo of a car advertisement, they feel that they need the car to look "cool" and attractive. If advertising did not contain photographs, people would buy the products as much as they do. an audience? An audience is a group of people to whom you are trying to advertise your product or service. By finding out what certain people like and appreciate, you can market your product to them very effectively. What is advertising photography? Advertising photography is photography used to promote a product or service. By doing so, many people will want to buy the service you are trying to sell. What is the link between these two subjects? When you're doing any form of advertising photography, whether it's a car or makeup advertisement, your audience is obviously your main subject. You want to impress these people with the photographs you use to promote a product. So, what is gender equality? In principle, gender equality means that men and women have equal rights, equal responsibilities and equal empowerment. Gender equality attempts to change the structures of society. For example, women are sensitive and weak and should work in a family environment, while men are strong and powerful and should work in industrial environments. Unfortunately, even for us today, men and women still have stereotypical views, which still makes them unequal. The fight for equality between men and women has been a major topic for years. But there was a time when men and women were very unequal, the biggest difference was when women did not have the right to vote. Obviously, deference between men and women was a big problem for years and years, but eventually women gained ground. the courage to start fighting for their equal rights with men. It all started in 1848, many women and even some men decided to come together and discuss issues related to women's rights. After much discussion, they decided that women are individuals who deserve to have their own opinions and rights, including the right to vote. When the Civil War started, things stopped, but after the war ended, discussions about women's rights stopped. raised again, alongside the right to vote for black men. In 1869, a group called the National Woman Suffrage Association formed and began fighting for an amendment on the equality of men and women. After years of fighting for the right to vote saying "men and women are equal because they were created". same”, they decided to change strategy and fight for the right because “women are different from men”. This argument helped many political agendas, for example the Temperance Advocates wanted women to have the right to vote because they believed it would trigger a huge voting bloc on their behalf. In 1867, John Stuart Mill proposed an amendment that would give women the right to vote on the same terms as men, but unfortunately it was rejected by194 votes to 74. After this rejection, it gave energy to the campaign to continue and fight for what they wanted. After 1888, women gained the right to vote in many municipal elections. On August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted women the right to vote. On November 2 of the same year, more than eight million women in the United States voted for the very first time. It took more than 60 years for the other 12 states to approve the 19th Amendment. Mississippi was the last to achieve this, on March 22, 1984. Although a major milestone in history, it was also an important milestone for photography, as photography captured the the entire process by which women acquire power and rights. This meant that women began to appear more in photography, which meant that types of photography such as fashion photography began to be produced more often. Gender is something we see all the time in photography, but it may not initially register in our brains as to how the gender in the image has a big impact on the whole. When we look at images, it's normal to see women in heels and pretty dresses. And see men in suits with ties. But it is obvious that gender affects all photographic genres in different ways. In the 21st century, advertisers use the differences between men and women to create conflict and create sets of compelling images for audiences. Not only do advertisers themselves see men and women differently, but they also bring different aspects to advertising photography, as having a man in the image compared to having a woman in the image has a completely different meaning . Many studies have been carried out. done in an attempt to make women “better” than men. There was also evidence that women were better than men in certain areas like endurance, but the studies mainly focused on the differences between women and men, rather than the similarities. It is quite normal these days to see a beautiful and attractive woman appear in an advertisement for Male customers are a perfect and flawless woman in an advertisement for a feminine product. Many magazines often divide the audience between female and male readers. There are separate magazines for teenage boys and girls, and their content and language are often gender stereotypical (Willemsen, 1998). Some famous magazines like Elle and Bazaar offer famous fashions for women around the world. It seems that magazines like Playboy and FHM have excluded female readers and focused solely on supposedly male interests. As the development of mass media has continued, the focus has shifted from advertisements in newspapers and magazines to those on radio or television. Images, music, characters and elaborate plots can be very effective means of persuasion, while language remains a fundamental communication tool in human society. Previous researchers have conducted quantitative studies on gender. While doing my own research on some advertising photographs, I came across a photograph named Jo Uriarte. Uriarte created a series of images in which he called “Men Under the Influence”. This series of images shows heterosexual men dressed in their female partners' clothes. When we first look at these images, they do not seem to usobviously not “normal” since men are not dressed in masculine clothes, but why do we think this way? That's because for years we've been drilled into our heads that men and women can wear certain types of clothing, so when we see someone wearing something that doesn't respect that, it seems unusual to us. Below, a photo created and taken by Jo Uriarte. In this photo he dressed a male character in women's clothing and the setting of the image is in a kitchen. I feel like this image is trying to combat stereotypes about men and women because most people think women should be in the kitchen. I feel like the photographer is using this image to try to push the idea that men and women can do the same work and that certain jobs should not be assigned to a certain gender. Below is another photo, this photo was taken by Rion Sabean. , the name of the photo is “Men-Ups!” ". In this image we have a man holding power tools, which is stereotypically a "men's job." But the problem with this image is that the man is not striking a very masculine pose. The man's posture is very feminine, which again makes me think that this image was created in an attempt to contradict the "stereotypical" view of society. I have the impression that these two artists chose to go against stereotypes in advertising. They both achieved this and I think their images are quite powerful and have a lot of meaning for them. Richard Avedon is a very famous fashion photographer for whom gender has a big impact on his images. The very famous American fashion photographer was known for breaking the boundaries of photography in the world of fashion and politics. Whether it was works found in Vogue or the New Yorker, Avedon was able to capture the pure emotion and unique essence of his subjects that many other photographers failed to do. Many of Avedon's works consist of fashion photographs advertising numerous dresses, as you can see in the image above. Avedon used an attractive young woman to advertise this very impeccable flowing dress. When we first look at this image, it seems normal to us, a woman advertising a dress. But why can't we let a man advertise a dress? I feel like it's because the woman is considered elegant and therefore works perfectly to advertise a beautiful dress. Richard Avedon was passionate about photography and dedicated his life to capturing the reality of his subjects. He is one of the most famous photographers of all time due to his revolutionary photographic techniques and his drive to transform photography into more than just images by expanding the world of fashion and transforming the photography genre into a unique art form. Another famous fashion photographer is David. Lachapelle. Who is Lachapelle? David Lachapelle is an American photographer best known for his highly unusual commercial fashion photographs, such as Angelina Jolie. His work is often full of humorous and often very provocative remarks. Lachapelle often uses a large amount of nudity in his advertising images. Helmut Newton added: “A lot of the nudity is just gratuitous. But someone who makes me laugh is David Lachapelle, I think he's very brilliant, very funny and good." An enthusiastic user of pop culture, Lachapelle is also inspired by art history , readily using iconic compositions or poses in his imagery...