Postcards & Synthesis with my essay

Format & Context

In terms of format I decided that these would look better to a smaller scale than a poster. I came up with the idea of postcards as I think they will tie in nicely with the theme of being dated. Postcards are quite a dated way of communicating but are also charming and a way of advertising.

These images influenced me to think about the style my postcards could take and where they would be sold:

War specific postcards:

I really like the colour of these and often the playfulness. I think if I were to create the backs of the postcards I would pretend to be writing as if I were a woman soldier within the war writing back to her husband. My own handwriting would work well as it is already quite calligraphic.
Influenced by:

My own attempt, role reversed (changed the levels for a darker tone):

 I scaled down my images to fit a postcard size which is 105x148mm standard size - A6.
I practised printing one out to see if the information was clear enough along with the text. They looked much better than A4 posters.

I then put the A6 designs onto A5 and put two A5's onto A4 ready to print

Synthesis with my essay

To tie in with everything that I have learnt from writing my essay I wanted to combine views that are arisen in modern culture but are still dated, still have that old fashioned sexist attitude. I wanted to mock this attitude through my style of illustration and through playing on gender roles. 

A few pointers 

• Women are weaker than men
• Men are to be dominant
• Women are to be passive
• Men have physically stronger 'male' jobs due to their physical capability
• Women are to be housewives and look after the home or are to work at jobs that require less physical strength
• Children are categorised into gender roles, playing with gender specific toys
• If a woman is forthcoming about her sexuality we are to think less of her or take advantage of this
• Men can be forthcoming about their sexuality

Within my essay the main point I raised was how we are going back over as a society due to these old fashioned, narrow minded attitudes. I wanted to express this through my illustrations. 

I felt that simply illustrating children with gender neutral toys was not enough to sum up how passionate I am about the subject. 

From my fisher price sexism pieces I began to look at posters from the 1940s-1970s. 

I immediately fell in love with how horrendously sexist they were and how they gave me so much to go off in terms of mocking these old fashioned beliefs. Looking back at them it seems we have came a long way; but at the same time my point is that if we don't encourage equality more we will go back to these beliefs. 

The old magazines, war posters, food ads, fashion ads, everything categorised gender, gender roles and using gender as a way of luring in the reader. I'd like one day for gender to not be an issue and for the media to simply advertise a product purely based on its craft and not the person who is modelling it.

• Gonnorhea and syphillis ad. This was targetted at men warning them to stay away from 'good time girls' and prostitutes. A 'real' man knew to say no to these devilish women that prey on street corners riddled with their diseases. This ties in to modern culture today because if a woman is seen sexualising herself, being a sexual being, she is the forefront of the media. She is subjected to the backlash of the public. Celebrities, glamour models, even prostitutes should be able to live however they wish to live, and sexualise themselves however they wish without being criticised. That is their choice. As far as gonnorhea and syphillis goes - it takes two to tango! Men spread that stuff too
• Victory women of war piece. I chose this because a lot of the victory posters back then were about uniting the country, power and driving forward. I chose to illustrate a woman with a mechanical job role in  during the war because I feel that women perhaps did not get enough recognition for their part during the war at the time. It was all about 'standing by the men' 'supporting the men' as if in the shadows of the soldiers. It takes all kind of humans to keep the world ticking. I think this ties in with my essay when I speak about gender roles of dominance. The men being the more dominant sex, the type to seek victory, and the women are to be passive and sit at a sewing machine in the background. I believe there is no such thing as dominance and power when it comes to gender.
• Nestle fighting food. I chose this because this particular food brand chose gender as its point of sale. 'Fighting food' with an image of a soldier, targetted at men during the war at the time. Buy this piece of chocolate and become even more macho and dominant than what you already are. Do women not eat chocolate? The sad thing is this is still happening within advertisement today. Snickers - get some nuts. Yorkie for men. Dove for women, do we not all have skin? Do we not all eat food? Do we now have to be a certain gender in order to buy a product? I changed it to a young woman to see if the brand would still have the same effect; which audience would buy into it?
• They depend on you. The original poster shows a female nurse with male soldiers smiling in the background, This was to persuade women to get involved in the war and take on the role of nurse, looking after the poor wounded soldier; the caring protective role. I modernised this by highlighting that actually, males can be nurses too and equally take on this caring protective role. That does not make him any less suitable for the job or any weaker than the soldiers. There were actually male nurses in the war at that time but these are hardly advertised.
• Your country needs you. Those persuasion posters were to ask men to get involved in the war, pointing directly at their point of sight to give them a sense of importance and urgency to get involved. I changed this around to a woman because women too can equally take on that role and did so. This ties in with my essay and with modern culture today because we need women equally as much as we need men and often advertisements are gender specific towards a certain audience. 
• My home. The original shows a housewife proudly posing and showing off her home, propped against her furniture and dressed to the nines. This ties into my essay because I researched into how women can be the breadwinners and career driven while equally men can be stay at home fathers or perhaps earn less than the woman. Men cook, clean, iron, look after children equally as much as women. They are equally a home owner and equally a parent, yet we rarely see them being forefont of advertisements to do with interior design; men advertise DIY
• Meccano. I originally had this as a fisher price piece but was recommended to look at Meccano which fit it absolutely perfectly. Meccano toys for boys - couldn't be anymore gender biased if it tried. Mechanical, engineering toys. Are females not mechanics? Would little girls not enjoy playing with those things too? I have a 4 year old niece that loves playing with cars, and equally a nephew that likes to push a pram or play on a pretend kitchen. Toys and fun should not have a gender. This is still happening today which is something I raised in my essay, toy stores are still advertising gender specific toys by the models they chose. Some stores are releasing gender neutral toys but I feel as a culture we still have this attitude about what children should or shouldn't play with. 
• Fisher price. This too echoes my last point but I chose to show a young boy playing with a hairdressing doll because we also have an attitude towards male hairdressers. I was looking at 1940s-1970s photographs of male hairdressers and whether they were often in the limelight styling womens hair. Barbers for men are becoming more fashionable in modern culture and the idea of 'lads' with their trendy styled hair and perfectly shaped beards. Men can also be hairdressers for women too though, and believe it or not are not gay either. I believe it stems from childhood and the fact that it is drilled into us subconsciously that females play with hair, hair accessories and dolls. 

I chose a range of postcards to sum up my essay and my beliefs about gender and tried to keep a wide range to show how biased advertisements can be. I chose posters and certain brushes to fit the old aesthetic but I think  my humour and play on the roles will give it that modern twist and make us think twice about where sexism stems from.
I really want to carry on with these ideas and further them so a series of postcards for me seems like little snippets of the type of fields I want to be exploring next year in Cop3. I really want to elabourate on advertisement.