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.