I felt it was important to look into the motive I’m going to approach in my final outcome in a modern context. My two main sources of inspiration are bond girls and how the over-sexualization of women within that series is perceived and the male gaze as a theory.
Above is the page where I looked into bond girls, during my research towards the end I started to link Anna’s relationship with gender as I got interested in the topic however with the images on the page, even at first glance you can see how the women have a different energy to the men within the imagery. The women are often half-naked or in sexualized clothing. Only in the most recent source on that page from 2016 is the women model not being seen as vulnerable or gasping for help which is a good sign that this modern stereotype of women is being seen within the media as a side piece or accessory. However, my main inspiration for my shoot was from the bond series and how to switch these roles and the imagery and how differently they would be seen as the bond series is such an iconic and recognizable feature of film and media.
Another feature of modern culture I wanted to look into is the feminist theory of the male gaze which is portrait mostly visual arts and literature. I’ve summarized it in the sketchbook page above, however, I think the subconscious impression it leaves is far more important. The basic gist of the theory is it empowers men and objectifies women which are seen often in the bond series and other film examples. The male gaze has been formed into society as normal, even portrayed in the Disney film Aladdin with princess Jasmine and Aladdin, displaying this to younger audiences within film drills in the male gaze to children considering it normal. Connecting this to my final outcome I want to switch the perception around and impress the concept of empowering women and objectifying men and see if that will change the impression of sexualization within the media.