Empowering Women through Image Transformation

“Whether intentionally or unintentionally, technologies are anything but neutral. As a part of a culture, they embody the values and biases of their designers” (Latterell, pg. 585).  The overbearing and domineering qualities elicited by men in positions of power are easily identifiable and quantifiable in their unfairness. But, then there are forms of sexism that occur covertly. The perfect example is found within this advertisement about Boston Singles. The Improper Bostonian (The Bachelor/Ette Issue: 2/13-26, 2013) implemented two visually appealing full-page photographs that chose fragmented portions of each gender as an opening to an article featuring Boston's most eligible singles. 

To represent men we can see the torso of a man in a suit.  Noticeably so thanks to the masculine features of the chin, neck, and broad shoulders. A suit represents power and dominance, standing upright and successful. However, the woman is featured upside down, in a skirt and heels, with legs positioned in a sensualized manner. Her feet are not firmly standing on the ground, she is instead suspended in air, with the same stronghold or power of the suit. The advertisement was possibly attempting to stray away from using a woman’s torso for the obvious over-usage of breasts as a sexualized representation of women.

In order to transform the photographs into something that is more representative of women's strengths I made the male torso become an extension of the woman. I added a woman’s face and made the legs stand upright in order to show that women can be just as powerful as a man.  So, it went from being two people to becoming one with the message that any woman can wear a suit just as well as a man. Furthermore, I utilized powerful words to exemplify that advertisements can use another vocabulary to reshape the traditional images of women.