FMP Research

I am making my FMP about photoshop and the distortion of our view of the human body. I have been interested in this topic for a while however have not had an opportunity to showcase my own opinion on this.

In my opinion the media is obsessed with the human body and uses it to sell everything and anything. Throughout our daily lives we see countless examples of how the media sexualises and objectifies the human body. I've gathered some examples of this for both men and women.

This is a fairly recent controversial advert for Protein World showing a skinny, blond girl in a bikini. The caption reads "Are you beach body ready?" This implies that you can only wear a bikini or go to the beach if you have a 'perfect' body. This poster incorporates several poster clichés such as; The rule of Z, Direct Address, Male Gaze.

The Rule of Z/reading path

The majority of people look and read a text from left to right and then top to bottom. This means that graphic designers will place the logos and images to follow the text so that we pick up all the information in one go. This makes the text more visually pleasing to us and leaves us with a logo or phrase which we generally remember. (1)

As you can see this poster follows the Rule of Z which is the most common reading path. It starts with social media links and the text which goes through her face and chest, back to her stomach and then ends with the product and website. She has been positioned so that the things that most people are self-conscious about are being looked at most often, we then desire to look like she does and want to buy the product.

Direct Address

Direct address in visual texts is the use of eye contact and/or facing the audience. It is used to directly involve the audience member and draw their attention to the text.(2) It generally infers strength and confidence, which reinforces the companies main goal for this advert. It has also been used to give more 'weight' to the question as the audience feels as though the woman is asking them directly and is almost staring them down.

male gaze

Male Gaze theory is how the media and literary texts depict women from the view of a heterosexual male. It suggests that women are presented as objects for men to gain pleasure from and women should look at other women from the point of view of a man. "The male gaze occurs when the camera puts the audience into the perspective of a heterosexual man. It may linger over the curves of a woman's body, for instance."(3) The man/audience is commonly the dominant character and the woman is a passive object for the enjoyment of others.(3)

You can see this in action on the poster above, the woman is there for the audience to look at her in a sexual way and is passive character receiving the sexual attention of others. However, she is dominant over the audience due to the direct address and powerful stance.

Salient image

The salient image is the main image of a text and commonly the first thing you see.(1) It's very clear that the salient image for this Hollister bag is the mans torso, it takes up most of the space on the bag and is the only thing in focus (other than the logo). The salient image is mainly used to draw attention to the text and be the main image which the rest of the text revolves around. This infers that the mans torso is the most important part of this bag.

Male gaze

This poster has gone against the Male Gaze theory as it has used a male model. This goes against the theory (which suggests that the camera is from the point of view of a heterosexual male) by putting the camera in the point of a heterosexual woman.(3) However this bag does follow the part of the theory which says that the woman is there for the enjoyment of men, however, it has been flipped so the male is there as an object for women's pleasure. This is further reinforced by the fact that the mans face has been cropped out, his face and identity isn't important just his muscular torso, the man is passive to the women's sexualisation.

This advert for Diet Coca Cola also goes against the Male Gaze theory in the same way as the Hollister bag. It has placed the camera in the point of view of women who are sexualising the man. The women are also in control of the situation which makes them the dominant characters. However, the man is not a passive character in this advert, he openly engages in the situation and continues it.

Nearly every shot in this music video has something sexual about it, it follows the Male Gaze theory as the women are seen through the eyes of a man. They are acting like how a 'typical' man would want them to act like and are dressed how a man would want them to be dressed. However, Nicki Minaj is not a passive character at all, she actively dances to the music and is in control of the video. She is the dominant character as the focus of the video is all around her.

This music video sexualises both men and women, the men are sexualised by women and the women are sexualised by men. The main focus of the video are the working men who are passive characters which are there for the mainly female audience. The men generally have a lack of clothing to show of their muscles, dirty/sweaty and are holding/using tools to show how strong they are. There are also countless male innuendos to further the sexualisation such as: jackhammers, a tape measure and a blow torch. Furthermore every shot of a man on his own (excluding the ones of Ty Dolla $ign) are in slow motion, which is commonly used to sexualise people.

The women in this video are the active and dominant characters as they are in control of the situation and are openly sexualising the working men. However, they are sexualised by the camera with the point of view of a man.

The main reason media uses photoshop to vastly change models bodies is to sell more of their product. If there is an attractive person on the bag, advert or video then we are more likely to pay attention and therefore more likely to buy into the product or idea. This perpetuates stereotypes of male and females as sexual objects.

(1)http://www.skwirk.com/p-c_s-54_u-247_t-642_c-2388/salience-reading-paths-vectors-colour/nsw/salience-reading-paths-vectors-colour/skills-by-mode-viewing-and-representing/required-knowledge-and-skills-language-features-and-techniques

(2)Fourie, Pieter J. Media Studies. 1st ed. Lansdowne: Juta, 2001. Print.

(3)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_gaze