Academic Writing Techniques Study Task 7

1. All of the 4 authors within their texts show their concern and frustration with how graphic design is becoming less emotional and more commercialised. Garland (1964), Adbusters (2000), Experimental Jetset (2001) and Kalman (1998) all express the discontinuation of under designing graphic designers; giving in to consumerism, unworthy projects given by advertising agencies, a commerce culture, all of which don't feed the future but fatten the wallets of the billionaire entrepreneurs. An great example given by Kalman in 'Fuck Committees', "Magazine editors have lost their editorial independence, and work for committees of publishers (who work for committees of advertisers). TV scripts are vetted by producers, advertisers, lawyers, research specialists, layers and layers of paid executives who determine whether the scripts are dumb enough to amuse what they call the ‘lowest common denominator’. Film studios out films in front of focus groups to determine whether an ending will please target audiences. All cars look the same. Architectural decisions are made by accountants. Ads are stupid. Theater is dead." Money has become the motive and as time goes on this situation only gets worse and the passion and character is dying.

 

2

This image expresses the same harrowing feeling of being consumed by consumerism, in both versions of 'First Things First.' The black and white, vintage looking hand that could have been holding something worthy or expressing how the person felt purely by the gesture, is now replaced by harsh alarming red box we as consumers are placed in in this modern world, relating to the brand Supreme with the alarming text that has replaced the man's expression now replaced and defaced by the idea of owning brands is what he holds dearest.

3. Adbusters's manifesto (2000) is aligned with its predecessor highlights the way we are brought up and how advertising has played a role in our lives makes us being told our designs are only worthy if profitable. In doing so, Adbusters propose a meaningful alternative to the reader which reinforces that we can have profound lasting and positive effects towards productions of new meanings and a better future. However nice the proposal, in our day and age and most likely forever financial stability is what drives us and what we work hard for to provide for ourselves and our families, in which designers have to meet the needs of those putting money in their banks and the consumer. They even express how compared to the original 1964 text, their has been a further 'explosive growth' of global commercial culture. There is no easy solution. However, Kalman in 'Fuck Committees' tries to help us; "I offer a modest solution: Find the cracks in the wall. There are a very few lunatic entrepreneurs who will understand that culture and design are not about fatter wallets, but about creating a future. They will understand that wealth is means, not an end. Under other circumstances they may have turned out to be like you, creative lunatics. Believe me, they’re there and when you find them, treat them well and use their money to change the world."

4. Writing in 'Disrepresentation Now' by Experimental Jetset (2001) , they give an honest refresh on their previous writings on advertising and own up to what they said may have been inaccurate. 'Having said all this, we like to point out that our criticism of advertising is fundamentally different than the criticism expressed in the 2000 First Things First manifesto. Other than the signatories to that manifesto, we see no structural difference between social, cultural and commercial graphic design. Every cause that is formulated outside of a design context, and superficially imposed on a piece of design, is tendentious, representative, and thus reactionary, whether it deals with corporate interests or social causes.'. This seems like a rarity to me and a breath of fresh air in that their honesty doesn't throw off the designers working hard each day who may have been disheartened with the ideas that what they're doing is not sufficient enough. However, it is brought to attention their distaste for the term 'Visual Communication' being more commonly used, hindering the dimensions graphic design can flourish.

Gender Essay Ideas

So far I have looked at 3 different books focusing on gender, a few articles on ever growing dismissal of sexism in interviews/magazines and a more recent publication on solely advertising which will set my ideas in to motion as the books I were looking at were more about feminism, and I need to focus on the question in hand.

First of all I looked the popular book, 'The Beauty Myth: 1990', which was a good start as it reminded me of the basics of how women have been dominated in everything from adverts to films by men and how that has effected the way women have thought and felt throughout the decades. It was important to look at the dates the books were released as Im very conscious and interested in the rapid rise of feminism in the last decade which I want to research more.

After much note making, reading and taking pictures of key quotes from the books to reference, after a lot of confusion on what road to go down, I want to have the essay end on quite a positive note. I will discuss the basics on the discrimination of women in advertising, but I find this to be such an interesting time of women going against this so much in interviews (such as Ariana Grande and Scarlet Johansson shutting down interviewers due to sexism) and zines/magazines such as The Mushpit showing the world a different and radical angle, going against what has been the norm of perfect, preened perfection of women in magazines for the whole across all past time.

On an end note, I believe sexism will never completely die, but there are so many of us fighting back against these ideas and this will develop rapidly in future generations and the more people that do, the better world we will live in. Ofcourse, i need to see if from different perspectives, for example I am a woman who enjoys wearing makeup and clothes shopping but I do this because I enjoy it and it makes me happy, whereas I have seen arguments in the Beauty Myth for example that argue we subconsciously do this to please men, which I so disagree with!

I am glad I have finally got to the stage of knowing where to take the essay, which is why I felt ready to blog!

My scrambling of ideas over the last week of research

http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/28394/1/how-famous-women-are-taking-control-of-their-own-pr

http://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/blog/Adeles-rolling-stone-cover-destroys-the-male-gaze

'This Girl Can' campaign

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/feb/16/advertising-reverse-hypersexualisation

Key Excerpts- David Gauntlett - 'Media, gender and identity' and a summary

Quotes 

reference to 'Click' -'roll you're eyes predictable for a Hollywood movie'
-'remote is used to watch busty female joggers', however the focus on a loving family is not in favour of laddish behaviour

-representations of gender in movies are often predictable, but can also be quite diverse
-are more mans representations than womens
-man saves woman in a heroic moment more often than none
-men can get away with being older, whereas leading women have to be very young and attractive

Still recently used- 'Thats why mums go to Iceland', argue it just 'works for the target audience'
- women are more dominate in domestic product adverts, opposite for men
-we expect a women representing the tick of all the boxes
-'more publications on women in advertising than there are on TV programmes' ads are a flicker by whereas TV is watched often for long periods of time
-'woman knows she is a failure if not beautiful' starts from preteens
-booming cosmetic surgery industry
-'women enjoy fashion and adornment' argues these are all a source of pleasure and shouldn't be denied due to the 'conspiracy' it is being forced upon us
-womens ideal is mainly thin, more of a range for mens body ideals as they can get away with it due to charm or sense of humour, which reminds me of the film 'Shallow hal' very much so.

Sexuality

-'Ellen' had disney/abc drop her show after 'lesbian season'
-Dawsons Creek first proper gay kiss in 2001in the modern America

This part of the book is mainly informing of the times it had been shown and this isn't the area I want to explore but it's to consider.

Tone of Voice

very informative, balanced opinions, but at points has some roll your eyes sorts of comments at some of the still sexist ads and campaigns such as Icelands defending of its slogan. perhaps tongue in cheek- 'it is still uncertain where dads shop for their groceries…'

appears to be sided with the women, although that is the point as women are more undervalued than men in a harsher way, although they do balance the argument and acknowledge mens struggles.

Summary

Most importantly, in the text, the most summative quote that was given is these industries, productions are 'more a man's representations than womens'

In summary, there is still a gender gap in industries such as film, advertising and publications. Although these issues are highlighted more regularly in an ever growing movement of feminists, it is still a noticeable issue. I am going to borrow a book from the library that further explore a wider range of aspects and a text that isn't as balanced and informative, and maybe more bias views to get an idea of the extremes to develop a decent overview of the topic.