OUGD505 Studio Brief 1, Gender Equality

Equalist

My initial research was into feminism, particularly looking at ‘he for she’. But from looking into it in detail I came to the conclusion that ‘he for she’ was about getting men to support women’s rights. Feminism is still a very vital thing in our society; women have nowhere near won the battle for equality. But men suffer too. Feminism, by definition is the equality of both sexes. However some men are yet to gain this equality. In the past it would have been seen as socially unacceptable for a women to ever wear trousers, but times have changed and women can dress however they like. But how many men do you see wearing a skirt or a dress without people assuming they are gay or transgender? Women are free to wear trousers and still be seen as feminine, but men in dresses are not seen to be masculine. Gender stereotypes have a big effect on people, but a man can be as feminine as he wants to be and still be seen as a man. Just how women can be as butch and as masculine as they like and still be seen as a woman. I decided to change my focus to gender stereotypes, mainly looking at how men feel they need to be masculine to be seen as a men, but this shouldn’t be the case.

Some interesting articles I came across during my research.

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/11514131/Why-must-we-take-sides-in-the-battle-of-the-sexes.html
http://www.theguardian.com/science/the-lay-scientist/2013/jul/16/feminism
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/12/us-un-men-genderequality-idUSKBN0M80A720150312
http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/05/when-men-experience-sexism/276355/

http://www.buzzfeed.com/skarlan/17-of-the-most-fabulous-gender-neutral-bathroom-signs#.eqGd267VW7
http://i-d.vice.com/en_gb/article/unpicking-gender-with-the-raw-photography-of-jessica-yatrofsky?utm_source=vicefbuk
https://i-d.vice.com/en_gb/article/gender-neutral-mx-title-officially-recognised-in-the-uk?utm_source=idfbuk
https://i-d.vice.com/en_gb/article/challenging-ideals-of-beauty-body-shape-and-gender-binaries-with-generation-z

OUGD505 Studio Brief 1 - He for She Speech

Emma Watson - He for She speech

"Today we are launching a campaign called for HeForShe. I am reaching out to you because we need your help. We want to end gender inequality, and to do this, we need everyone involved. This is the first campaign of its kind at the UN. We want to try to mobilize as many men and boys as possible to be advocates for change. And, we don’t just want to talk about it. We want to try and make sure that it’s tangible.

I was appointed as Goodwill Ambassador for UN Women six months ago. And, the more I spoke about feminism, the more I realized that fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop.

For the record, feminism by definition is the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. It is the theory of political, economic and social equality of the sexes.

I started questioning gender-based assumptions a long time ago. When I was 8, I was confused for being called bossy because I wanted to direct the plays that we would put on for our parents, but the boys were not. When at 14, I started to be sexualized by certain elements of the media. When at 15, my girlfriends started dropping out of sports teams because they didn’t want to appear muscly. When at 18, my male friends were unable to express their feelings.

I decided that I was a feminist, and this seemed uncomplicated to me. But my recent research has shown me that feminism has become an unpopular word. Women are choosing not to identify as feminists. Apparently, I’m among the ranks of women whose expressions are seen as too strong, too aggressive, isolating, and anti-men. Unattractive, even.

Why has the word become such an uncomfortable one? I am from Britain, and I think it is right I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I should be able to make decisions about my own body. I think it is right that women be involved on my behalf in the policies and decisions that will affect my life. I think it is right that socially, I am afforded the same respect as men.

But sadly, I can say that there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to see these rights. No country in the world can yet say that they achieved gender equality. These rights, I consider to be human rights, but I am one of the lucky ones.

My life is a sheer privilege because my parents didn’t love me less because I was born a daughter. My school did not limit me because I was a girl. My mentors didn't assume that I would go less far because I might give birth to a child one day. These influences were the gender equality ambassadors that made me who I am today. They may not know it, but they are the inadvertent feminists that are changing the world today. We need more of those.

And if you still hate the word, it is not the word that is important. It’s the idea and the ambition behind it, because not all women have received the same rights I have. In fact, statistically, very few have.

In 1997, Hillary Clinton made a famous speech in Beijing about women’s rights. Sadly, many of the things that she wanted to change are still true today. But what stood out for me the most was that less than thirty percent of the audience were male. How can we effect change in the world when only half of it is invited or feel welcome to participate in the conversation?

Men, I would like to take this opportunity to extend your formal invitation. Gender equality is your issue, too. Because to date, I’ve seen my father’s role as a parent being valued less by society, despite my need of his presence as a child, as much as my mother’s. I’ve seen young men suffering from mental illness, unable to ask for help for fear it would make them less of a man. In fact, in the UK, suicide is the biggest killer of men between 20 to 49, eclipsing road accidents, cancer and coronary heart disease. I’ve seen men made fragile and insecure by a distorted sense of what constitutes male success. Men don’t have the benefits of equality, either.

We don’t often talk about men being imprisoned by gender stereotypes, but I can see that they are, and that when they are free, things will change for women as a natural consequence. If men don’t have to be aggressive in order to be accepted, women won’t feel compelled to be submissive. If men don’t have to control, women won’t have to be controlled.

Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong. It is time that we all perceive gender on a spectrum, instead of two sets of opposing ideals. If we stop defining each other by what we are not, and start defining ourselves by who we are, we can all be freer, and this is what HeForShe is about. It’s about freedom.

I want men to take up this mantle so that their daughters, sisters, and mothers can be free from prejudice, but also so that their sons have permission to be vulnerable and human too, reclaim those parts of themselves they abandoned, and in doing so, be a more true and complete version of themselves.

You might be thinking, “Who is this Harry Potter girl, and what is she doing speaking at the UN?” And, it’s a really good question. I’ve been asking myself the same thing.

All I know is that I care about this problem, and I want to make it better. And, having seen what I’ve seen, and given the chance, I feel it is my responsibility to say something.

Statesman Edmund Burke said, “All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing.”

In my nervousness for this speech and in my moments of doubt, I told myself firmly, “If not me, who? If not now, when?” If you have similar doubts when opportunities are presented to you, I hope those words will be helpful. Because the reality is that if we do nothing, it will take seventy-five years, or for me to be nearly 100, before women can expect to be paid the same as men for the same work. 15.5 million girls will be married in the next 16 years as children. And at current rates, it won't be until 2086 before all rural African girls can have a secondary education.

If you believe in equality, you might be one of those inadvertent feminists that I spoke of earlier, and for this, I applaud you. We are struggling for a uniting word, but the good news is, we have a uniting movement. It is called HeForShe. I invite you to step forward, to be seen and to ask yourself, “If not me, who? If not now, when?”

Thank you very, very much."

Filmdoo Movie Poster Design Evaluation - Responsive Studio Brief 1

The brief was to design a film poster for any film of your choice. I chose the film the hobbit, an unexpected journey. The brief was very open, so I had a lot of fun and freedom while designing, which I enjoyed. The hobbit one of my favourite books and for the film poster I wanted to mimic J.R.R Tolkien’s illustrations in my own style. I am overall very happy with how my design has turned out, I think that the hand drawn illustration matches the concept of the film and reflects with the personal aspect of the film. It also engages the audience because it is different from the mainly photography based film posters. Learning from my mistake during the secret 7 brief, I did this as big as I possibly could. It took a lot of time but the end result was definitely worth it, as the image would work at different scales without looking distorted. One of the main weaknesses during this project was time; the illustration style took a lot of time at such a big scale. If I ever try something similar in the future I would leave myself a lot more time so that I don't have to rush, this would improve the overall finish of my work making it look more professional.

Penguin Design Award, Freakonomics Evaluation - Responsive Studio Brief 1

For this brief I redesigned the cover for the non-fiction book Freakonomics, a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything. On whole I am happy with the final outcome. On of the strengthens is that I think that the concept behind the cover is imaginative. In the brief it states how the judges are looking for an imaginative design. Inspired by the tagline of the book I wanted part of the book to be hidden. This is when I come up with the idea of need a mirror to read the cover, allowing the reader to have to think about how they have to read the cover, similar to how the author doesn't do everything simply and straightforward. One of the disadvantages of the design is that I think it looks too busy. The brief states how you have to include all of the text they provide, which there was a lot of. I could have designed it my way I would have used less text. I found it difficult to include a lot of text into my design, as I didn't want it too look cluttered. Another problem I faced during this project was that I didn't give myself enough time and I rushed at the end. I underestimated how long it would take to design a book cover and I took longer than I expected. In the future I will insure that I always give myself plenty of time and try not to underestimate things.

Feathr Evaluation - Responsive Studio Brief 1

I chose to work on the Feathr brief because working with patterns was something completely new to me. To begin with I found this brief to be very challenging, actually getting a pattern to line up and work, as a repeat was I lot harder than I had originally thought. I did a lot of research and spent a lot time looking at different patterns and how they worked, after this I found coming up with ideas to be easier. I submitted two designers in. I think that my most successful (and one that one selected by feathr) was the geometric print; I think that it looked more appealing and suited the target audience much more. One of the problems I had with my burger design was colour. I designed it for print, and because of this the colours came out a lot different once I uploaded it to the website. From this I have learnt the importance of checking the colour mode is correct with designing. Overall I am happy with how my geometric print as turned out and think the project on a whole was successful.