Week Five:
Create a collage of images that represent your big idea. As you write, reflect on what features are in common or dissimilar. What stands out to you as most significant? Why? What questions have you generated about your topic? How has visual culture made an impact on your issue of concern?
In this group of images about my big idea, I decided to focus on self identity. More specifically, I tried to find things in magazines that spoke to me, about me. I think that any object viewed in the proper context can be seen as referencing identity. Along with the images, I included words or phrases that I thought were important to my own self identity.
Things that I noticed the most when I was searching for images were big patterns and any variation of red or pink. I think the most significant image that I chose when I was considering my big idea though was the image of the little girl in the tutu with a sword around her belt. Little girls exude confidence before the media gets to them, and anyone who can bounce to the beat of their own drummer is admirable to me. I placed the word confidence above it just to cement the thought. The flowers were for the feminine side of me, even though I can run with the boys. And my very favorite part of this whole thing is the phrase that I found in Cosmo, of all places. "Men are attracted to women who challenge them." This statement once again comes back to the idea of confidence and conviction in one's own ideas, which in turn is a very large part of self identity.
Visual culture has such a huge impact on identity. Magazines, tv shows, and advertisements all play a large part in bringing up the questions that are needed in figuring out who someone is. Why do you like something? Why don't you? Sometimes the reasons why you don't agree bring you closer to figuring out who you are than the reasons why you do. Visual culture also has a negative impact on identity. Just one look at the people who have eating disorders can show you - brought on by stress in their lives, the need for control, and the image that the media has shown for perfection.
Having identity for a topic seems so very gigantic. Every step of the way is another set of huge questions that all seem to come down to only a few short ones. Why? What makes people identify themselves in one group over another? What makes it important to me that I'm seen as confident more than anything else? Would being brought up a different way have made it so that I would choose a different option, or would I have always gotten to this point, at twenty two years old, of being Mara? What makes us be who we are?
In this group of images about my big idea, I decided to focus on self identity. More specifically, I tried to find things in magazines that spoke to me, about me. I think that any object viewed in the proper context can be seen as referencing identity. Along with the images, I included words or phrases that I thought were important to my own self identity.
Things that I noticed the most when I was searching for images were big patterns and any variation of red or pink. I think the most significant image that I chose when I was considering my big idea though was the image of the little girl in the tutu with a sword around her belt. Little girls exude confidence before the media gets to them, and anyone who can bounce to the beat of their own drummer is admirable to me. I placed the word confidence above it just to cement the thought. The flowers were for the feminine side of me, even though I can run with the boys. And my very favorite part of this whole thing is the phrase that I found in Cosmo, of all places. "Men are attracted to women who challenge them." This statement once again comes back to the idea of confidence and conviction in one's own ideas, which in turn is a very large part of self identity.
Visual culture has such a huge impact on identity. Magazines, tv shows, and advertisements all play a large part in bringing up the questions that are needed in figuring out who someone is. Why do you like something? Why don't you? Sometimes the reasons why you don't agree bring you closer to figuring out who you are than the reasons why you do. Visual culture also has a negative impact on identity. Just one look at the people who have eating disorders can show you - brought on by stress in their lives, the need for control, and the image that the media has shown for perfection.
Having identity for a topic seems so very gigantic. Every step of the way is another set of huge questions that all seem to come down to only a few short ones. Why? What makes people identify themselves in one group over another? What makes it important to me that I'm seen as confident more than anything else? Would being brought up a different way have made it so that I would choose a different option, or would I have always gotten to this point, at twenty two years old, of being Mara? What makes us be who we are?
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