Origin & Objectification

"The research, commissioned by Kellogg’s Special K, surveyed 2,000 women around the country. Fifty-four per cent said “bird” was a word they’d like to consign for ever to Room 101; 45% would bin “doll”; 44% would choose “chick”, while 38% loathe “babe”. They’re all diminutives, you’ll notice. Infantile, in the case of “chick” and “babe”. In all four cases, incapable of speech or even complex thought. Cute, but ultimately unable to change a light bulb unaided" - Hattie Garlick, The Guardian, 2016

Objectification: Martha Nussbaum (1995, 257) has identified seven features that are involved in the idea of treating a person as an object:

1. instrumentality: the treatment of a person as a tool for the objectifier's purposes;
2. denial of autonomy: the treatment of a person as lacking in autonomy and self-determination;
3. inertness: the treatment of a person as lacking in agency, and perhaps also in activity;
4. fungibility: the treatment of a person as interchangeable with other objects;
5. violability: the treatment of a person as lacking in boundary-integrity;
6. ownership: the treatment of a person as something that is owned by another (can be bought or sold);
7. denial of subjectivity: the treatment of a person as something whose experiences and feelings (if any) need not be taken into account.

Rae Langton (2009, 228–229) has added three more features to Nussbaum's list:

8. reduction to body: the treatment of a person as identified with their body, or body parts;
9. reduction to appearance: the treatment of a person primarily in terms of how they look, or how they appear to the senses;
10. silencing: the treatment of a person as if they are silent, lacking the capacity to speak. 

I began researching in to objectification and what it really means, after looking at my primary research responses and seeing that so many women are referred to as intimate fragile objects. 

Below is an exert from ‘Sweetie talk’: Unthinking endearment that’s meant to comfort instead can feel demeaning by Rachel Toor, a professor of creative writing at Eastern Washington University 

"When my mother suffered from a terminal illness, I took her to doctor’s appointments, sat with her during dialysis, and stood like a Gorgon by her hospital bed. Most of her caretakers were kind, respectful. But when my mother, shrunken by cancer but still herself, still someone who had taught at an Ivy League university, published books, and made a living as an artist, was called sweetie or honey, these attendants became the locus of my silent, impotent rage.

I thanked them for their sympathy and hated them for their insensitivity. I wanted to scream that my mother was not a child, to educate them about how their language infantilized her, took away a gravitas she had spent years earning. Instead, I said nothing." 

Within the article, Toor discusses how in some circumstances pet names or terms of endearments given my female strangers can sometimes be comforting, however they can also be demeaning, stripping people of their accomplishments or personalities, reducing them to a sweet object. She then goes on to discuss the power of naming, more specifically the ways in which people don't understand the power in what they're saying and how it can make a person feel. I decided to collect more primary research, this time asking people what they're called and how it makes them feel, seeing whether there would be any difference of feling depending on whether it was a man or woman speaking to them.

Primary Research Results

From the initial primary research just within my class it clear that there are many more names that women are called in comparison to men, and when i began to look at this collection of responses more closely are extremely objectifying. Below are some of the responses and the connotations of these words.

blossom, petal, flower; fragile & delicate

sweetie, honey, treacle; sweet, sugary things

princess, angel, tinker-bell; found in children's films/fairy tales

baby, doll, babe, baby girl, poppet; helpless, small, delicate, innocence 

chicken, pet, kitten, chick, duck, bird and hen; small animals/domestic pets 

Whilst collecting these results, i asked the women how they felt about being called these words, the majority did not have a problem being called these words if they knew the person eg a family member or friend, however they felt uncomfortable with strangers calling them these words; especially once they had the chance to think about the names they're called and the connotations surrounding these words.

The above words used to describe females are objectifying and are all big about ideas of innocence, fragility, helplessness and sweetness. The next step in this research is to see where these words originated from and why men are referred to as lads, bros, dudes and brothers which aren't objectifying where as for women it's the complete opposite.

Research Project: Language

As my practice mainly revolves around femininity and what it feels like to be a woman i decided i wanted to revolve my research project around women in some way.

I began researching in to possible topics to research, i began by looking in to female body hair; following on from the topics discussed within my extended essay. I found that the act of women shaving hair began in the 1920's around the time that flapper dresses came in to style; one of the first times is became the norm for women to show their legs and arms, this then encouraged women to shave their arms and legs due to the the style of the dress. However as i thought this topic over more i realised that all of the information was easily found on the internet, and as i've already explored this topic before i decided that i wanted to research in to something that i haven't previously.

I sat down with a tutor and discussed my current ideas and she suggested i look in to the language. We began discussing a number of things from the use of 'female' before a job eg female entrepreneur and calling a group of women 'girls', i then began to think of nicknames and pet names often given to people by their friends and family, which then led me to think of the names women are called by strangers for example darling, love, sweetheart.

I'd never really given much thought to the the words my self and other women are often called by people we do not know, i began to write down words that i myself have been called, by both family member and strangers, i then began to ask people around the university what 'pet names' or words they have been called by family and friends and strangers. I didn't just ask women though, i also recorded responses from males to see the difference in the names men are given in comparison to women.

See next blog post for results.

Merchandise designs initial ideas

 Following on from the facetime call with the client, i began working on the designs. Due to the fact that the client had a very clear vision of how she wanted the designs to look there wasn't much idea development, rather there was development in to how all of the elements she wanted could work together and fits in to the small scale.

The 'i'm a mug' design seemed to be the most complex design due to trying to make the round object of a mug work with type and in a rectangular format.

I began working on this design, first beginning with the mug illustration. The client said that she wasn't opposed to the design showing nudity however she didn't want it to be overtly explicit and so i illustrated a female character submerged within a mug of tea with the liquid covering any 'explicit areas'.
The image below shoes the first 'i'm a mug design' the type is very heavily inspired by the 70's, groovy aesthetic the lient expressed she wanted, with the type wrapping around the mug.

I sent the client the initial 'i'm a mug' design and recieved the following response

‘I’m a mug’ is looking really cute! Little thing, the moon earring hangs from the top of the moon down, rather than arching over if you see what I mean? Like a ‘C’. I love the spacing and the size it’s fab, really clear and will look great wrapping around the mug! I think for the text would I be able to see a bubble writing type font, like ‘That 70’s show’ vibes? The colours are really cool love the mustard and love the subtlety of the tea bag! That is the kind of subtle branding I like :) 

The Two

"For the ‘My hot beverage of choice’ mug, would it be possible to make the text more of the feature, it looks really cool on the rug but I feel like it get’s a little bit lost. So maybe if we go bigger with it and maybe make it a contrasting colour? Perhaps the teal green? Just to make the colour scheme a little clearer? Let me know what you think, but I really want the slogan to be the focus of the mug, rather than me :)"

For the final mug design, the client expressed that she really wanted it to be similar to the prawn shop diversity design (see left) in the way that there are many female bodies together.

 I created two inital design to show the client, the first is very similar to the diversity design, where as the second is more subtle and more focused on the type.

Personally i believed that the second design was the most effective out of the two due to how subtle to female forms are, however the client preferred the first, below is the feedback i received:

"I really love both! Very cute designs, I think I prefer the design of the first just as the bodies are a little clearer, however the colour scheme and font of the second. So do you think a hybrid of the two could work? Also, go for nipples I think, I don’t mind a bit of boob-age :)"