Contents
Female Street Style - Page 2 Not Just Another Sample Size article - Pages 3 - 8 Male Street Style - Page 9
“I firmly believe that what makes you sexy and beautiful is not the size of your body or the colour lipstick you have on. What really makes you sexy is what you project, your confidence, and your self awareness, having a great sense of humour and being really smart” – Kate Dillon
With Thanks to: Callum Nicholls Katherine Dunlop Lottie Talbot Rob Head
Editors Note
In this December issue of Aphro/Adonis we have focused on the issues of Identity. Inspired by Greek Mythology this magazine IS empowering for both women and men, inspired BY THE LIKES OF GREEK GODS APHRODITE AND ADONIS AND the real beauty inside each and every one of us.
Laura Jane Barnes-Martin Editor of Aphro/Adonis
“What you wear is how you present yourself to the world, especially today, when human contacts are so quick. Fashion is instant language” – Miuccia Prada
2
Not Just Another Sample Size
In a society where many aspire to have the perfect body, are there pressures from media, celebrity and the fashion industry on both men and women. With an interview from a male feminist Rob Head on his views on the growing issue of identity through body image. How malleable is the concept of beauty? And how has it changed, when throughout history men have been perceived to be manly and defined, and women to be womanly and curvaceous. As shown within art and sculptures, image has represented social status and qualities that were important at that time. So what now?
3
Words and Photography by Laura Jane Barnes-Martin Models: Callum Nicholls, Lottie Talbot
From the painting ‘The Judgement of Paris’ (Rubens, 1936) we can see that what was valued in terms of beauty back in the 17th Century is a complete opposite to what is valued today. It is very much the rounded, Rubenesque figure, there’s no shame in their bodies. Bodies seem to be more aesthetic more than functional, the way a body looks is more important than what a body does. Some people look at their bodies like objects to be critiqued, to be fixed, which makes you wonder how very early on images in the media can have an impact on someone and how this can provoke eating disorders. “The whole time you’re dealing with an eating disorder you’re not addressing the real problem, it’s like a coping mechanism, going through reward and then punishment, unachievable goals, which you fail and punish yourself for. It isn’t just anorexia; it’s more like binge eating then purging like bulimia, which is a lot more prevalent. But it’s not a path that leads to an end goal where you’re happy because it’s the way it’s constructed from negative emotions and unresolved issues.” Says Rob.
-----Eve and the Mirror by John Johnstone, 1964, depicts that what that mirror tells you you’re not, is potentially damaging. We don’t see what the woman sees in the mirror, and it’s really poignant. We are only aware of our reflection and not how others see us. What we see in the mirror is not necessarily dependent on what’s there, but what we think is there. ------
When it comes to image women compete on the basis of looks and that is often done in a very covert way. The painting of ‘Milieu’ (Harry Holland, 1998) shows three women all completely disengaged with each other, in a way rating how they stand against each other, which doesn’t show much of a sisterhood. British Artist Jenny Saville stated ‘I want to be a painter of modern life and modern bodies’ she is fascinated by the idea of self-image and its physical representation, producing works in the style of Bacon, Freud and Rubens she creates fleshly, larger than life, oil painted visions of bodies and self-disgust. They capture the grim reality and extreme of body dysmorphia.
4
-------“There’s pressure on a man to be a man, it’s not just about money and power anymore, it is about having like the Hercules body as well, that’s what is put across as desirable. In the media, you get hammered with it, it’s like women think that men want skinny women and men think that women want a muscly man” - Rob Head
-------Real Women have flaws. Real women take chances. Real women know there hearts. Real women embrace life --------
--------
5
6
Back to present day, within the fashion industry there has been much talk about how most runway models meet the BMI criteria for anorexia. The media doesn’t show enough diversity of body shapes. PLUS Model magazine stated that ‘A decade ago plus size models averaged between size 12-18 and today the majority of plus size models are between size 6-14’. The average fashion model weighs 23% less than the average size 14-16 woman.
-------Young women seem to see beauty as static -------Ideals change across cultures and time. We live in a visual culture where photographs in magazines or campaigns are photoshopped. Many magazines will create images of women that don’t really exist by using computer – modified compilations of various body parts. Dove released time-lapse Photoshop videos named ‘Evolution’ and another video named ‘Onslaught’ demonstrating just how dramatically a woman’s body can be transformed by digital retouching and also the effects beauty ads and imagery can have on young children. Every person is unique, the fashion industry need to be more realistic with the effect they want to have on today’s youth, there is not a right or wrong size of shape as long as a person is happy and healthy then that’s all that should matter.
7
“If you know its photo shopped that’s fine, but I think a lot of people don’t have that awareness of what people do to an image. Every image you see will have been manipulated in some way. If people don’t question it then they’re setting themselves unrealistic goals for what they think they should be” --------
-------Look in the mirror and find the unique beauty in you --------
From an early age young children are bombarded with images of celebrities and models that reinforce the idea that to be happy and successful you have to be thin, which is not something that they should aspire to, especially when it comes to the point of being self-destructive and leads to lowered self-esteem and eating disorders. Robs states: “It was around the Year 2000 when it came out about size 0 in the music industry, when every other image of a woman was like a stick with their hipbones and collar bones sticking out. I remember thinking at the time; well that’s not healthy or natural, but it was portrayed as normal and desirable. That’s what gets to the youth nowadays because that’s what you want to be when you’re 12/13 years old, you want to be a singer or an actress. These are your role models.“
-------Robs thoughts on photo manipulation:
-------“If you’re selling clothes and the people are happy then it works. You see the UK adverts on the TV like Dove Real Beauty and the people look happy. I think there needs to be a celebration of all different shapes and sizes but people should just accept the beauty in each person like the Gok Wan approach. - Rob Head --------
8
“When i was a teenager everything in fashion was very seperated and codified - punks, skins, metalheads atc. Now I like wearing clothes that don’t really give anything away about the wearer” - Jon
“Two sides of the coin of British Identity: blending in or making a spectacle of yourself; the difference between knowing your place, and trying to find one”
“Over time i’ve collected clothes to dress to impress but I’m just out on a cold day with a military inspired coat and big boots. I let my goth past glimpse through into everyday streetwear” - Simon
9
Objects, Possessions, Creations, Choices, Values, Beliefs, Appearance, Ethnicity, Practices, Habits, Work, Hobbies, Friends, Family, Interests. - IDENTITY
10