Best british wits were chosen and none of them woman - yet another example of the dominance of men, of which the oddity is never stranger than if its all women in the list - because we always treat dominance of men (at more prominent ranks) normal. /related entry: Invisible Men/ "She...makes her point a far more subtle, funnier way." Right. This sentence tells women's character. Possession of a subtle kind of power (funniness as discussed in the article, other kinds of ability in other contexts). Women may be made invisible by the society, but their force is undeniable. Be it conventional mothers taking care of every family member and nurturing children, elite women performing in specific fields, or any types of women working in different areas, they all contribute to the wellbeing of the human race. They may be subtle, they may be soft, but we should not neglect them - as female myself, i would say, we should not neglect us - and some of us can be as strong as needed. /drawing/
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The original blog was opened for the research stage of the project. Below is the introduction for that phase. - This blog is opened to act as a notebook to jot down any materials, notes or thoughts concerning feminism and gender, for research of my final year project at school. The subject to be studied will be women fashion magazines in Hong Kong. The result will be a visual execution that is not yet known/ decided. This is an exploration stage for now. Below is a brief reflection on the topic: The field that I am going to study is feminism. Since feminism is concerning with the equality between male and female powers, it would concern how men and women are viewed, not only women. It could be seen that despite the relative freedom of women in Hong Kong, whether it’s occupational, political or legal, there are some values that are held by people including them, about how a woman should behave. Despite always being labeled as strong and confident, especially those in professions, they are most probably still bound to some set ideas about women. In other words, independent as they may be, they cannot fully exercise will, or are shaped by the society to a large extent. This would happen to men also, as long as it happens to women, for one rule on women often implies one rule on men. Though these may be clichés already, it is true that they are still believed or held by the society. The following are ideologies in four aspects, adapting from classification of ideologies introduced in an article《尋找香港本土意識》by 吳俊雄. These aspects are: daily life practices, shared views (common sense), ideological elements and systematic discourse, concerning how “woman” is portrayed. In daily life practices, most women followed the conventional style of having long hair and wearing dress. Certainly, all can and do wear trousers and some have short hair, and following a traditional style of being “feminine” does not mean inferior in mentality to gain any kind of rights. Yet viewing how few men leave long hair and almost none wear dress, it is easy to see implications of “male” and “female” images, which very possibly refer to views other than mere look. Over-dominance of men in all types of professions and work exists, especially in high ranks. Women are responsible for taking care of children while men are responsible for earning money. The former does not change even when women have to work for a living. One example of conception of men in professions can be this: male doctors are called doctors, while female doctors are called female doctors - as if it’s normal for doctors to be male. This would be same, or reverse, for nurses. Even naming suggests certain thinking about gender. There are some shared views on this subject. Taking work as an example again, besides perceiving women as who to take care of children and housework, they are not considered working, i.e. having a job, for what they do. Housewife is not considered an occupation. On men, they would be considered “weak” if they were the ones who stay at home to look after children instead of working, if it’s the wives who earn a living. Thoughts such as “boys don’t cry” may not be applicable nowadays, but boys are expected to play robots rather than dolls, and girls vice versa. Clear borders are set between the two sexes and they mould children’s characters. This is the case, however, only in child development. In the field of professions, men are dominant as mentioned. Stylists, fashion designers, cooks, dancers…all of whom the actions would be considered feminine and not suitable for men if they were not in the professional level. But once professional, persons in charge would be expected to be male. About ideological elements, main qualities of a (perfect) man as perceived by the majority would be strong and able, that of a (perfect) woman would be gentle and beautiful. “Men for what’s outside the home, women for what’s inside the home” is a general conception about a decent family. Women are still behind and supporting their great successful men. All these ideas were directly or indirectly implanted since family and school education. The mass media and other social voices are reinforcing these to be true. Pressure ensures that only those who fall into these categories are considered normal. On systematic discourse, most obvious manipulations of gender and gender stereotypes can be seen in advertising. Business companies portray successful life through decisive male characters. Fashion brands portray beautiful women who can own the power to stylize themselves, whether it’s for men or to fit feminine qualities. Sometimes women may dress up neuter, but it’s often for a fashion style or gimmick than to really break the norm, and most often they are pretending to be masculine than feminine-in-suit. Women (have to) look like men to be strong and confident. This is depicted in some credit card advertising. Exploiting gender contributes is more of a way to attract customers than to make ideological stands, but advertisements do take a large part in setting mind sets of different groups of people. For this project, to narrow down the area to be studied, I would choose fashion magazines for women in Hong Kong since they not only have a large amount of advertisements that deal with the image building of the female character, but also writings on it. They often emphasize the ability of women and importance of them in the society. Whether these views are justified through the content and how different concepts of “woman” are depicted would be the main area of study. Other feminist and gender materials would be viewed to support any judgements.
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