Emma - Final Project

(click for full resolution)

This piece was created using a female mannequin as well as a collage made up of
magazine clippings and print advertisements of women. The purpose of this piece is to critique
the way women are shown in the media, especially in advertisements and how this can have a
negative effect on media viewers. Multiple studies have also examined this idea and found the
hyper sexuality of women in the media to be negative, “the frequency of sexualized images of
women in popular media, combined with the extreme intensity of their sexualization, to be
cause for concern,” says Erin Hatton a professor of sociology who has performed studies on this
subject. This art piece also hopes to draw attention to the sexuality that we are often blind to,
drawing attention to this can increase the viewers’ media literacy of female sexualization in the
media. The piece also uses remix, by taking multiple unrelated sources to prove a point about
the way we are portraying women especially more recently, “15 percent of ads studied used
sex as a selling point in 1983. That percentage grew to 27 percent in 2003,” says a study by Tom
Reichert. Overall this piece of art is attempting to show the emphasis we put of female sexuality
in the media and how that can affect the way everyone views women.

Resources
Donovan, P. (2011, August 10). Study finds marked rise in intensely sexualized images of
women, not men University of Buffalo. Retrieved from
http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2011/08/12769.html
Mulvey, J. (2012, June 7). Why sex sells… more than ever. Retrieves from
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/2649-sex-sells-more.html