Today we started off by watching the Dove ad, and its powerful message set the tone for the rest of class. All the films we watched were about society's influence on a woman's image, power in sex, and sexual harassment. It's shocking how much girls are manipulated to believe they should look a certain way. I guess guys can relate to this too but I doubt its to the same extent as girls. I can imagine a young girl watching a commercial on TV and there would be a spokeswoman advertising a beauty product. That girl would probably be influenced by it because they see a woman speaking to them, when in reality it was probably a guy that made the product or the commercial. Guys seem to be at the root of the beauty industry, and it seems all advertisements are made to influence woman to look pleasing to men. This pattern seems all too common in our society, and I don't see how a little girl could grow up and not be influenced by it.
One film we watched was called A Feather Tale by Michèle Cournoyer, and it was very moving. Leeper mentioned another one of her films called Le Chapeau saying that it was more vulgar. This peaked my interest, so I googled it. It's a pretty heavy film on sexual harassment and performing for men. It's probably the most mature animation I've ever seen, but I feel like its a good thing that everyone should be exposed to. Here's the link if you want to watch:
https://www.nfb.ca/film/the_hat
I think you hit the nail on the head with the beauty industry bit. Do men get exposed to that kind of thing? Well, yeah, but I definitely believe that it's worse for women. I mean, in animation, it's pretty common to see an overweight guy with a skinny wife, but not so much the other way around. Have you also seen those videos that take you through the photoshop process for a model?? Because gosh, they do a lot of stuff to those girls! They make the legs waayyy long and the eyes waaayyy big!
ReplyDeleteAnd I did watch The Hat just now, and it is a little uncomfortable, but I think it's a very important message to get across. I felt really bad for the girl in that because the hat seems to follow her EVERYWHERE. She can't get away from it. The part where the music changes to screeching and the woman's face flickers through several terrified expressions was one of the hardest parts. Also, the little girl on the penis... Like, she was too young to even know what was going on! But that stuff does happen, and it's important to raise awareness about it.
Also, Cournoyer's style is so fluid. I just really adore how she does her transitions. They're beautiful. <3