Design Context
Showing posts with label OUGD501. Show all posts
Showing posts with label OUGD501. Show all posts
Friday, 2 August 2013
OUGD501 - Resubmission // Evaluation
Taking into account the module feedback which I received, while re-drafting my essay I have researched a lot more into the Sexual Revolution and read a lot about culture from the late 50's to early 70's. While also researching into sexist advertisements and other visual aspects of the era such as Oz magazine I hope that I have evidenced consistent practical and theoretical research throughout my essay and on my blog. The research which I have carried out and the new part of the essay which I have written links in well with the practical outcome which I had already completed, therefore there is a stronger synthesis than before. Before I return for third year to help me with my writing skills, I am going to join the writing course as I think it will help me a great deal when writing my dissertation.
Tuesday, 30 July 2013
Why the Sexual Revolution needed a Sexual Revolutionary
Helen Gurley Brown's influence on American culture shows how important individuals are in affecting major moral changes.
Helen Gurley Brown, who died last week at age 90, was one of the most important, if often underestimated, agents of that revolution.
Moral revolutions do not happen by accident, nor are they orchestrated by a cabal of cultural conspirators. As Kwame Anthony Appiah of Princeton University argued in his 2010 book, The Honor Code, moral revolutions do not emerge instantaneously. In most cases, the basic ideas and claims to knowledge lay dormant for some time. In looking at moral shifts including the end of dueling and the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade, Appiah notes that "a moral revolution has to involve a rapid transformation in moral behavior, not just in moral sentiments."
As his historical examples also make clear, a cultural revolution takes place only when the ideas crystallize and gain traction in the culture, and that requires the leadership of revolutionaries, ready to transform those ideas into a platform for moral transformation. And, as Appiah argues, this must include a change in moral behavior. Does anyone remember the 1960s?
Consider for a moment the moral universe of America in 1960, specifically its sexual morality. Marriage, generally understood as the union of a man and a woman, was considered the mark of adulthood and a bedrock of civilization. A survey published that year in Ladies' Home Journal (cited in Gail Collins's 2009 book, When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present) indicated that "almost all" young women between the ages of 16 and 21 wanted to be married—and fast. Most hoped to be married by age 22, to work until their first pregnancy, and then to be at home with their children. Most indicated a desire for four children. Young men were expected to play their part, settling down for marriage and fatherhood.
Divorce was difficult, if not impossible to obtain, and it came with a
taint of scandal that could doom professional prospects and personal
reputation. Premarital sex happened, but it was discouraged.
Homosexuality dared not speak its name, and lifestyles pressing for
moral legitimacy today were virtually unknown to most Americans.
Adultery was not only censured, but often penalized by both law and
public condemnation.
Since 1960 we have experienced a moral revolution that has transformed every dimension of American life, and the death of Helen Gurley Brown is a reminder that the sexual revolution did not happen by accident. Like all revolutions, this one required moral revolutionaries.
The revolutionaries of sexual liberation would include some who did not live to see the transformation in full fervor, such as Alfred Kinsey (d. 1956) and Margaret Sanger (d. 1966). But the leading agents of the sexual revolution came from the generation who reached cultural influence just as the movement began to crystallize. This generation would include both Hugh Hefner (b. 1926) and Helen Gurley Brown (b. 1922).
1960 also marked the advent of The Pill. The first authorized prescriptions for the oral contraceptive came that very year, and that one little pill changed the moral landscape, separating sex and reproduction with chemical ease. The Pill was first made available only to married women, but that changed quickly.
When Brown's Sex and the Single Girl hit the bookstores in 1962, it lit a firestorm of controversy. A former advertising writer, then recently married to a leading Hollywood producer, Helen Gurley Brown dared to scandalize the nation, virtually inventing the "single girl" as a cultural category. Brown urged young women to see themselves as empowered by sex, money, and men—but without any need for the traditional commitment to marriage.
Her argument was so scandalous at the time that no major publisher would touch the book. The bookstores were filled with books offering advice to young wives and mothers, but Helen Gurley Brown was openly inventing a new cultural category, the sexually liberated single girl.
The single girl "is engaging because she lives by her wits," declared Brown, who pointed to her younger self as a prime example of the empowered single girl she now celebrated.
And, most central to Brown's vision, the single girl is having sex, a lot of sex, and enjoying romantic relations with men, lots of men.
Most scandalous of all was Helen Gurley Brown's insistence that married men were not off limits for sexual affairs—not by a long shot. Married men, she advised, were among other things, "frequently marvelous in bed and careful not to get you pregnant."
As Jennifer Scanlon, author of a biography of Brown, documents, Helen Gurley Brown sought the scandal and controversy that came with the publication of Sex and the Single Girl, even attempting to orchestrate a censure of the book by church authorities in order to boost sales. She didn't need the censure: The book sold by the millions.
Helen Gurley Brown was later hired as editor of Cosmopolitan, a traditional women's magazine that she transformed into an engine of cultural revolution. In her years editing the magazine (1965-1997), she remade the "single girl" into the "Cosmo girl," arguing for the liberation of women by glamour, sex, and relationships with men. Housewives and coeds alike bought Cosmopolitan, which offered covers that were enthusiastic about sexual technique and the power of overt female sexuality.
The mainstream feminist movement did not see Brown as an ally, but a glance at the "hooking up" culture of today's university campus reveals that she won the argument. She lived long enough to welcome the reproductive revolution and the ability of women to have children without a husband.
She never acknowledged the cost of her revolution. Just weeks before her death Americans would learn that 41 percent of all births now occur outside of marriage, and that figure rises to 60 percent among women without a college education. The personal and public consequences of that new reality are massive.
She was a living contradiction, who argued that being the single girl was the ideal, but then married; and that married men were fair game for adulterous affairs, but then drew the line at her husband.
The lesson for those who, like me, believe that the sexual revolution represents a moral disaster is that such moral revolutions come like a great tidal surge, led by revolutionaries willing to scandalize mainstream culture, confident that their controversial ideas will one day move into the cultural mainstream. Helen Gurley Brown lived long enough to see it all happen, to mark the 50th anniversary of Sex and the Single Girl and to know that she had played a major role in one of the most significant cultural transformations in human history.
A single individual cannot accomplish a moral revolution, but such revolutions cannot happen without individuals who are willing to make their arguments in public, push them with energy over decades, and never sound retreat.
Helen Gurley Brown was not just a celebrity. She was a moral revolutionary who lived long enough to see the sexual revolution become our mainstream culture.
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/08/why-the-sexual-revolution-needed-a-sexual-revolutionary/261492/
AP Images
How do you turn the world upside down? In the span of just five
decades, the moral and cultural world has been transformed by the sexual
revolution. In terms of both public and private impact, no moral
revolution can come close to the importance of the sexual revolution,
and none has occurred so quickly. The moral world taken for granted in
1960 has virtually disappeared. Helen Gurley Brown, who died last week at age 90, was one of the most important, if often underestimated, agents of that revolution.
Moral revolutions do not happen by accident, nor are they orchestrated by a cabal of cultural conspirators. As Kwame Anthony Appiah of Princeton University argued in his 2010 book, The Honor Code, moral revolutions do not emerge instantaneously. In most cases, the basic ideas and claims to knowledge lay dormant for some time. In looking at moral shifts including the end of dueling and the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade, Appiah notes that "a moral revolution has to involve a rapid transformation in moral behavior, not just in moral sentiments."
As his historical examples also make clear, a cultural revolution takes place only when the ideas crystallize and gain traction in the culture, and that requires the leadership of revolutionaries, ready to transform those ideas into a platform for moral transformation. And, as Appiah argues, this must include a change in moral behavior. Does anyone remember the 1960s?
Consider for a moment the moral universe of America in 1960, specifically its sexual morality. Marriage, generally understood as the union of a man and a woman, was considered the mark of adulthood and a bedrock of civilization. A survey published that year in Ladies' Home Journal (cited in Gail Collins's 2009 book, When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present) indicated that "almost all" young women between the ages of 16 and 21 wanted to be married—and fast. Most hoped to be married by age 22, to work until their first pregnancy, and then to be at home with their children. Most indicated a desire for four children. Young men were expected to play their part, settling down for marriage and fatherhood.
MORE ON HELEN GURLEY BROWN
Since 1960 we have experienced a moral revolution that has transformed every dimension of American life, and the death of Helen Gurley Brown is a reminder that the sexual revolution did not happen by accident. Like all revolutions, this one required moral revolutionaries.
The revolutionaries of sexual liberation would include some who did not live to see the transformation in full fervor, such as Alfred Kinsey (d. 1956) and Margaret Sanger (d. 1966). But the leading agents of the sexual revolution came from the generation who reached cultural influence just as the movement began to crystallize. This generation would include both Hugh Hefner (b. 1926) and Helen Gurley Brown (b. 1922).
1960 also marked the advent of The Pill. The first authorized prescriptions for the oral contraceptive came that very year, and that one little pill changed the moral landscape, separating sex and reproduction with chemical ease. The Pill was first made available only to married women, but that changed quickly.
When Brown's Sex and the Single Girl hit the bookstores in 1962, it lit a firestorm of controversy. A former advertising writer, then recently married to a leading Hollywood producer, Helen Gurley Brown dared to scandalize the nation, virtually inventing the "single girl" as a cultural category. Brown urged young women to see themselves as empowered by sex, money, and men—but without any need for the traditional commitment to marriage.
Her argument was so scandalous at the time that no major publisher would touch the book. The bookstores were filled with books offering advice to young wives and mothers, but Helen Gurley Brown was openly inventing a new cultural category, the sexually liberated single girl.
The single girl "is engaging because she lives by her wits," declared Brown, who pointed to her younger self as a prime example of the empowered single girl she now celebrated.
And, most central to Brown's vision, the single girl is having sex, a lot of sex, and enjoying romantic relations with men, lots of men.
Most scandalous of all was Helen Gurley Brown's insistence that married men were not off limits for sexual affairs—not by a long shot. Married men, she advised, were among other things, "frequently marvelous in bed and careful not to get you pregnant."
As Jennifer Scanlon, author of a biography of Brown, documents, Helen Gurley Brown sought the scandal and controversy that came with the publication of Sex and the Single Girl, even attempting to orchestrate a censure of the book by church authorities in order to boost sales. She didn't need the censure: The book sold by the millions.
Helen Gurley Brown was later hired as editor of Cosmopolitan, a traditional women's magazine that she transformed into an engine of cultural revolution. In her years editing the magazine (1965-1997), she remade the "single girl" into the "Cosmo girl," arguing for the liberation of women by glamour, sex, and relationships with men. Housewives and coeds alike bought Cosmopolitan, which offered covers that were enthusiastic about sexual technique and the power of overt female sexuality.
The mainstream feminist movement did not see Brown as an ally, but a glance at the "hooking up" culture of today's university campus reveals that she won the argument. She lived long enough to welcome the reproductive revolution and the ability of women to have children without a husband.
She never acknowledged the cost of her revolution. Just weeks before her death Americans would learn that 41 percent of all births now occur outside of marriage, and that figure rises to 60 percent among women without a college education. The personal and public consequences of that new reality are massive.
She was a living contradiction, who argued that being the single girl was the ideal, but then married; and that married men were fair game for adulterous affairs, but then drew the line at her husband.
The lesson for those who, like me, believe that the sexual revolution represents a moral disaster is that such moral revolutions come like a great tidal surge, led by revolutionaries willing to scandalize mainstream culture, confident that their controversial ideas will one day move into the cultural mainstream. Helen Gurley Brown lived long enough to see it all happen, to mark the 50th anniversary of Sex and the Single Girl and to know that she had played a major role in one of the most significant cultural transformations in human history.
A single individual cannot accomplish a moral revolution, but such revolutions cannot happen without individuals who are willing to make their arguments in public, push them with energy over decades, and never sound retreat.
Helen Gurley Brown was not just a celebrity. She was a moral revolutionary who lived long enough to see the sexual revolution become our mainstream culture.
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/08/why-the-sexual-revolution-needed-a-sexual-revolutionary/261492/
Tuesday, 23 July 2013
The Faliure of the Sexual Revolution - George Frankl 1974
For the re-draft of my essay - How did the ideologies and values of the hippie subculture affect visual culture? - I have decided to look more into the Sexual Revolution of the time. This subject links in with my essay already as I had previously written a small part about it. The Sexual Revolution had a big impact on the visual culture of the time and it marked the end of old traditions.
I have read the book "The Failure of the Sexual Revolution" written by George Frankl, a psychotherapist which was first published in 1974.
- "In this book George Frankl examines the aims of the sexual revolution and the factors responsible for its failure. In showing that its ideas have their foundation in European radicalism he gives the sexual revolution a wider dimension beyond the superficialities of permissiveness. He presents the connections between social oppression and sexual repression and explains how class society has its roots in the repressive psychic structure and why any attempt to change the one without changing the other is doomed to fail.
He goes on to show how the sexual revolution itself has been distorted and exploited by a market-oriented society and also deals with the problems confronting the sexual emancipation of women and questions certain aspects of the women's liberation movement. This book is a critical analysis of one of the most important movements of our time and suggests new directions towards the realisation of genuine sexual freedom."
I thought it relevant to use this text as it discusses topics such as pornography and how the sexual revolution was turned into a money making scheme by the establishment. This also links in with the sexist advertisement which I mean to discuss and also about how "sex sells."
Below are some quotes which may come in useful in my essay:
“A polarisation of viewpoints has become manifest between those who welcome it as a sign of maturity in society, even as a therapeutic catharsis, and others who condemn it. Those who support the spreading of pornography for psychological and political reasons, see in it the manifestation of the sexual liberation that will overcome the old taboos and fears upon which authoritarian society is based. Others see it as an undermining of morality and of civilised values.”
I have read the book "The Failure of the Sexual Revolution" written by George Frankl, a psychotherapist which was first published in 1974.
- "In this book George Frankl examines the aims of the sexual revolution and the factors responsible for its failure. In showing that its ideas have their foundation in European radicalism he gives the sexual revolution a wider dimension beyond the superficialities of permissiveness. He presents the connections between social oppression and sexual repression and explains how class society has its roots in the repressive psychic structure and why any attempt to change the one without changing the other is doomed to fail.
He goes on to show how the sexual revolution itself has been distorted and exploited by a market-oriented society and also deals with the problems confronting the sexual emancipation of women and questions certain aspects of the women's liberation movement. This book is a critical analysis of one of the most important movements of our time and suggests new directions towards the realisation of genuine sexual freedom."
I thought it relevant to use this text as it discusses topics such as pornography and how the sexual revolution was turned into a money making scheme by the establishment. This also links in with the sexist advertisement which I mean to discuss and also about how "sex sells."
Below are some quotes which may come in useful in my essay:
George Frankl - The Failure of the Sexual Revolution
“Instead of being a catalyst for radical social change, the sexual revolution serves as a catalyst for business, opening up a new territory - a whole new continent for commercial exploitation.” pg 56
“The conflicts and anxieties of the repressed libido are exploited by the industrial establishment” pg 58
“The superego establishment is now in the extraordinary position to say to the masses: give up your inhibitions, have as much sexual pleasure as you like, we can sell you all the stimulants you want, we can teach you the arts of full sexual satisfaction and we can supply you with advice about sexual etiquette. You are no longer subject to the rules of sexual scarcity; now we enter into the age of material and sexual affluence, and business and science can supply the goods. You will continue to be dependant upon the establishment but this is an establishment of aflluence and permissiveness. There are now hardly any restraints and the more you follow your desires, the more you will consume our products and the happier we shall all be.” p59
“Today the sexual industry neutralises a revolution which threatened to dethrone the superego, to put an end to authoritarian repressiveness and class society: what was meant to be the revolution to end repression and oppression has become the latest prop of the establishment.” pg 59
“The failure of the sexual revolution is a failure of radicalism, and attitudes of thought which intended to go to the root of things are being defeated by the attractions of permissiveness and pseudo rebellion.” pg 60
George Frankl on pornography...
“A polarisation of viewpoints has become manifest between those who welcome it as a sign of maturity in society, even as a therapeutic catharsis, and others who condemn it. Those who support the spreading of pornography for psychological and political reasons, see in it the manifestation of the sexual liberation that will overcome the old taboos and fears upon which authoritarian society is based. Others see it as an undermining of morality and of civilised values.”
Wednesday, 17 July 2013
Sexual Revolution Research
While researching the Sexual Revolution in the 1960's for the resubmission of my essay I came across some advertisements on a website which are sexist towards women. The posters range from the 40's to the 60's. They focus mostly on where a women's "rightful place" is, for example in the kitchen. Unlike later posters where women are seen more as a sexual object, they are portrayed to be there to cook, clean and look pretty.
All images taken from http://www.gurl.com/2012/10/30/sexist-vintage-ads/#15
All images taken from http://www.gurl.com/2012/10/30/sexist-vintage-ads/#15
Wednesday, 15 May 2013
OUGD501 Module Evaluation
At the beginning of the Context of Practice module I feel that my written skills needed a bit of brushing up, I now feel after completing my essay and the tasks that they have improved slightly. I think that writing my essay on something that I was actually interested in definitely helped as I often struggle with essay writing. I have also developed my inDesign and photoshop skills slightly as I often just use illustrator. I now feel more confident in both programs.
Throughout the practical side of the module I had a go at making my own recycled homemade paper, as originally I was going to put it in my publication, however I changed my concept, but now I know how to make paper which is a skill I feel that I will probably use in the future as I enjoy craft based art.
I feel that for this project did a lot of development work and research before diving straight into designing which helped me to make informed decisions about my work. I found the practical side of the module quite difficult as normally when designing there isn't as much theoretical content to consider and deliver however I feel like I achieved what I wanted to achieve within my publication. In the future I will seek out help sooner if I need it, rather than just worrying and this will help me to keep on working instead of worrying. Also in the future I intend to be stricter with myself when it comes to deadlines and intend to do lots of research for COP3 over the summer so that I am not behind at all when I start 3rd year.
Throughout the practical side of the module I had a go at making my own recycled homemade paper, as originally I was going to put it in my publication, however I changed my concept, but now I know how to make paper which is a skill I feel that I will probably use in the future as I enjoy craft based art.
I feel that for this project did a lot of development work and research before diving straight into designing which helped me to make informed decisions about my work. I found the practical side of the module quite difficult as normally when designing there isn't as much theoretical content to consider and deliver however I feel like I achieved what I wanted to achieve within my publication. In the future I will seek out help sooner if I need it, rather than just worrying and this will help me to keep on working instead of worrying. Also in the future I intend to be stricter with myself when it comes to deadlines and intend to do lots of research for COP3 over the summer so that I am not behind at all when I start 3rd year.
Tuesday, 14 May 2013
Monday, 13 May 2013
Sexual Revolution Final Publication
The relevance of the legs here is to illustrate further the fact the book is about the sexual revolution. Also the introduction of the mini-skirt.
On the left is my hand-painted sign in the style of the Hippie Protest Signs of the Sixties scanned in and edited to fit in with the style of the publication. 'The true drug of the sixties' the pill kick started the sexual revolution. The yellow dotted background represents lots and lots of little contraceptive pills. It does not matter if this is not obvious because it has a good effect which is similar to effects I have seen in design in my research.
I have written previously about what this quote means and where it came from. The image is duo toned and I think it works much better like this as it isn't as distracting from the information on the right. The use of pink emphasises the fact this book is more about women's liberation and women's troubles.
The quote on the left is the beginning of where I begin to talk more about how the Sexual Revolution wasn't all free love and flowers.
Women Against Pornography March in the seventies showed a change in attitude towards sex.
This image of Virginia Ironside I have edited from the original which I took from an article. The fuzzy almost blocked out face gives the lady some privacy.
A few quotes which inform about the problems which we now face today due to sex not being handled as delicately as it could have been.
A female fighting for free contraception and abortion. When this was legalised Birth rates did actually drop.
Edited Photos // Sexual Revolution
Below are the images which I have edited in photoshop so they fit in with the style of my publication. I never normally use photoshop and I may have gone a bit mad with the effects you can use but managed to try and keep only necessary themed images in my publication.
Halftone Pattern
Duo - Tone
Sexual Revolution // Experimental Photographs
'Put the Love back in Love-making'
Feminist posters, hopefully they will make people take a step back and think about what sex is really about.
'Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere' - quote by Helen Gurley Brown, author of Sex and the Single Girl (published in the sixties, this book helped start the sexual revolution for women) and long time editor of Cosmopolitan Magazine. People like this and quotes like this encouraged women to sleep around and generally disobey the strict lifestyle of earlier times.
I also took a few sneaky shots of my sign outside and inside Ann Summers as it is the perfect illustration of female sexual freedom.
I thought that taking pictures of my sign inside Ann Summers with the mannequins dressed in bondage gear would illustrate what the sign was saying. As I only had a short amount of time and the awful lighting instore the photo's did not turn out quite as I desired but was still fun attempting to get some good shots.
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