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Marina Abramović’s controversial performance art, 1974

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Marina Abramović’s controversial performance art, 1974

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Similar to the ‘Just Stop Oil’ protests Abramović’s performance activism is given meaning by us, ‘It is by our use of things, and what we say, think and feel - how we represent them that we give them meaning.’ (Stuart Hall, p3) It is one of my favourite art/activism pieces that showed when given free will, some men will always choose to make women suffer, and showed the rooted misogyny that still existed heavily within society. Although slightly outdated, I do not think Abramović’s piece will ever not be relevant, as I argue with most art.

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Immediately I am drawn to this common style of advertising in the 50s that really put women in the position that society at the time wanted them in, making this idea of interpellation relevant. I do not think advertising could get away with this style of “hailing” like it did back then. In my own research, Tide and other companies such as the retail and make-up brands had a very important role of putting women in this familiarly stereotypical position as “house-maker.” This is something I definitely agree would not be accepted in modern culture.

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Three days after Grenfell Tower, Eddie Otchere (June, 2017)

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Otchere’s photography and ‘activating the visual’

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Otchere’s photography and ‘activating the visual’

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Otchere’s photography ‘activates the visual’ by being a visual representation of people’s reactions to the Grenfell Tower fires, 2017.

He says, “It is a symbol of absolute failure, this monstrous tombstone that sits in our city.” (The Guardian, 2024)

Otchere’s had always meant his photography to be a political statement to the government failures and how it could have been prevented in relation to the Grenfell fires, as he says.

The Denotation of people looking at the reminants of the building is heart-provoking, but the connotation of the grief, and mourning which ‘activates the visual’ by not only the photo itself, but the black and white colour palette is a political statement in itself. You’re not only looking at the remnants of the building, but the effect it was having on the further community.

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2000s representation of queer women steering away from the heteronormative mindset in TV. Ex. Willow and Tara (One of the first on-screen kisses between two women) BUT...was critiqued for following the 'Bury your gays' trope (Dead lesbian syndrome) with Tara's death. Still, in this period, LGBTQ+ representation is heavily dominated by white, middle-class men.

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One of the main “femme fatale’s”, and the only woman on the Avengers, Black Widow has many provocative scenes throughout the Marvel Universe. The famous ‘car scene’ not only shows off Mulvey’s idea of the ‘Male Gaze’ in film, and how men are the active consumers to this kind of content featuring women, but also the line “Watch the road” said by Romanoff might reflect a particular ‘Female Gaze’ and unwanted male attention, as well as how women see men as predatory, they chose to have Happy react to her undressing in his car.

In no circumstances is this realistic, and there are so many moments in early Marvel films featuring women in vulnerable positions like this for the sake of their male audience (though this is significantly improved in Black Widow’s solo film (2021) which I would highly recommend watching instead)

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🔥 Black Widow: Change of clothes in the car "Watch the road" (Scenes) | Iron Man  | Movie Clip

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Jansz and Martis (2007) and the 'Lara Phenomenon.' The sexualisation of women in video games, and has it changed? Video game culture's biggest problem. Improvement in 'Shadow of the Tomb Raider' (2018) an attempt was made to re-write one of the most problematic representations of the 'Male Gaze' in video game history.

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Lara Croft Front Running Evolution (1996-2018)

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Neuro-images 'brain-screen,' analyses user data (algorithm) to create a personalised stream of content that stimulates the conscious/unconscious mind.

Lin, J., Swart, J. & Zeng, G. (2023) Theorising TikTok cultures: Neuro-images in the era of short videos. Media, culture & society. 45 (8), 1550–1567. "Studying TikTok culture, therefore, not only refers to the analysis of singular groups of videos, hashtags and community practices on the platform, but also requires a cultural analysis of TikTok as a deeply participatory, platform contingent, and algorithmically engraved cultural object” p.1552 Emergence of a new 'girl-culture,' originally started with dancing videos ex. Charli D'amelio, now I'd argue a larger problem of young girls feeling pressured to take too much care over their appearance. GRWM culture and the promotion of skincare products to young girls that is harmful to their skin.