Hi everyone! Welcome back!
This week I will be talking about feminism and the mediated public sphere.
Feminism
We have finished the group work about feminism this week. We were inspired by the advertisement of Victoria’s Secret and focused on how most people define the “beauty” of women in three aspects.
1. Size
A majority agree that female with skinny body type, youthful and glowing skin would be “beautiful”. In the picture, all models are having slender body and they are described as “perfect”. There are a lot more advertisements emphasizing the importance for female to be skinny in order to be perfect. Victoria’s Secret even got no larger size model before. This idea influenced women that they have to be thin, so weight loss pills are commonly found and popular among female.
2. Color
Another main focus would be the skin color. We seldom see models with dark skin. There are products for skin whitening but we rarely see products to make people’s skin darker. When people looking for cosmetic products such as foundation, they will usually look for the color that is slightly brighter than their original skin color instead of looking for a darker one. It shows that people nowadays treat brighter skin color as one of the criteria of being beautiful.
3. Gender
The chief marketing officer of Victoria’s Secret Ed Razek had claimed that “transsexual models should not be cast because the show is a fantasy”. The example would be the transgender Youtuber Nikita Dragun. She posted a video to “sell the fantasy” in response to Razek. Later on Razek apologized and the first trans model was hired. This incident shows Victoria’s Secret was disrespectful to transgender female. They had their own definition of what a “real” woman is. The message we wanted to bring out is, is there a definition of “female”? Why women have to follow and change to make themselves the “real” and “perfect” women?
Our title of the poster is “Beauty is Natural” as we feel that it is not fair to judge a woman according to different requirements and the public seldom do this to male.
What does feminism mean to me?
For me, feminism is to strive for equality between female and male. Although there is no 100% fairness in the world, we still want to reach a “relatively equal” status.
In the society, women are having comparatively less opportunities than men. Some companies are not willing to hire women as they are afraid that the ladies will have to frequently take a leave after they get married. Actors get more opportunities than actresses in the entertainment industry in China. A 30-year-old actor can still get good scripts and continue developing in this field while an actress at the same age will only get script that requires her to act like a 20 years old young lady. Not to mention there are still someone thinks that the female victims in rape crisis should bear the responsibility because they dressed up nicely, which is a “temptation” to male.
As I’ve mentioned, it’s hard to be completely fair but at least as a female, I hope I get the same opportunities as male does and not to be misunderstood by others that woman is always weak and needs to be “protected’ by men.
Mediated public sphere
Different media platforms allow people to freely express their feelings. In Hong Kong, there is a famous online forum—LIHKG. It is widely used by Hong Kong people, especially teenagers. They freely express their own thoughts (mostly the dissatisfaction and complaints towards the government) and comments are often radical. Some strikes in the anti-extradition bill movement were organized in this platform by the netizens. Materials for propaganda were also often posted in the forum.
This song would be an example.
This singer in the video actually supports the Hong Kong police and presented a speech which criticized that what protesters did was all harming Hong Kong. Her speech then was edited by the protesters and background music is added. The content was totally different that it changed to blame and scold the police.
A simple and brief translation of the lyrics:
“Don’t ruin the future of others (those arrested protesters). The police were doing nothing except attacking protesters, journalists and the members of legislative council. They are not willing to apologize for what they have done (such as threatening the citizens and arresting innocent citizens) that lead to social disharmony.”
The original speech express the opposite idea of the above lyrics.
There is an unique culture in Hong Kong during the anti-extradition bill movement. Songs, paintings and passages supporting protesters and criticizing the police were massively produced by people.
Some pictures were used as propaganda to encourage people to join and some passages were trying to explain the current situation shortly. However, as I have said before, some of the shorten version of the bill or some incidents were actually not telling the truth. People have to have their own judgement.
I still remember when I was in Hong Kong, lots of my friends were asking me to join the protests and support them, or even call me “Kong Pig” because I didn’t really agree of what they did. People’s comments in different online forums were relatively radical and that’s why I was afraid to express my own point of view towards this issue as I might easily be scolded. At that time, or even now, people who support the government or those just simply don’t agree with some acts of the protesters, will be regarded as the “50 cent party”. It is actually an irony—people leaving one comment to support the government would earn 50 cent, and they are the 50 cent party.
Supposedly, everyone enjoys the freedom of speech. However, comments opposing the protesters are rarely found. As people know that anyone opposing them will just resulted in being scolded, they choose not to express their views. That’s why people may think that most Hong Kong people oppose the bill as the comment sections are all opinions from the protesters.
Protesters said they are fighting for freedom of speech for everyone in Hong Kong, meanwhile some of us are not able to freely express ourselves because of them.
Is there a right or wrong in this movement?
That’s all for today! Thank you for reading!:D
References
Marketing boss quits Victoria’s Secret after first trans model hired | Fashion | The Guardian. (2020). Retrieved 5 March 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2019/aug/06/marketing-boss-quits-victorias-secret-first-trans-model-hired
Marketing boss quits Victoria’s Secret after first trans model hired | Fashion | The Guardian. (2020). Retrieved 5 March 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2019/aug/06/marketing-boss-quits-victorias-secret-first-trans-model-hired
(2020). . Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHzXk5bPmrQ
Cecil, Y. (2020). [Image]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/yuen_cecil/status/1189198888080564224/photo/1
(2020). [Image]. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactions_to_the_2019%E2%80%9320_Hong_Kong_protests
(2020). [Image]. Retrieved 5 March 2020, from https://twitter.com/remonwangxt/status/1167275587326685184/photo/1.
Standard News. (2020). [Image]. Retrieved 5 March 2020, from https://www.facebook.com/standnewshk/photos/pcb.2241377132614561/2241369505948657/?type=3&theater.
(2020). [Image]. Retrieved 5 March 2020, from https://www.businessinsider.com/victorias-secret-perfect-body-campaign-2014-10?IR=T.
(2020). [Image]. Retrieved 5 March 2020, from https://dailyillini.com/opinions/2019/04/10/feminism-needs-to-be-intersectional/.
Josie's Blog 
Hi Josie! I absolutely loved your blog post for this topic! I’ve seen that Victoria’s Secret ad as well when it came out and I was too affected by it. I don’t think it’s fair that it is always publicised to women to be of a certain look or body shape. I liked that you brought up gender as well. I don’t think it’s fair that people could be discriminated for just being themselves. How unfortunate!
I loved your team’s posters because I loved how you represented ‘natural beauty’ and how it showed that we can’t always look that beautiful all the time and it’s okay to look different.
I also like your example you brought about from Hong Kong. It provides a different perspective for us here who have been in Singapore for a long time and that was very unique.
Can’t wait to see more of your posts! xoxo
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi josie, very interesting blog post today! Your points were will constructed and I agreed with basically all of them. In modeling culture especially there has been an ideal body that is unrealistic to many. Yet it is so widely advertised in our media through their shops, shows and posters. It is demeaning to women of different ethnic background as well as size, as they might feel that their bodies are inferior. The industry has opened up alittle by including more women of colour, I remember that there was a model with a certain skin diseseas too.
On another point your public sphere examples in your home country is always a great read as I get to learn more about what’s going on from the perspective of a citizen like yourself. Your example shows the creativity and strong wills of the protestor, and that they will not go down without a fight. Looking forward to mote from you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hey Josie,
Your post is a lot of new information about Hong Kong for me. The point that even though media has been so much developed, people are yet to be able to express their views against certain things is very true. It is not always people are bold enough to voice out all their thoughts. Especially in a country with so much of restrictions to media access.
And talking about the unfairness of the world, I feel that unfairness of wealth, health, etc. keeps the world running but, unfairness with regards to gender should never be agreed to. Personally I feel that gender is just the biological division of human kind to keep the evolution of human kind ongoing.
Everyone is unique, discrimination based on outer appearance is the most cruel action. I believe in the years to come people will be exposed to the knowledge of appropriate content hence teaching them to respect all individuals.
Overall your post was very interesting to read. All the best for your posts to come!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great job, Josie!
Detailed elaboration of feminism of identifying the ideal woman body by size, colour and gender! The subvertisement shows strong contrast between ideal body types versus the normal realistic body of common people. I love how you brought up the idea when female victims of rape were blamed because they were dressed up nicely. The rise of the #metoo movement in the west by Tarana Burke highlight this issue.
The example of the LIHKG forum and posters shows that advancement in technology can shape the truth. It is true that as much as they like to express their displeasure against the government which they viewed has infringed on their rights, they are also the very same people who are obstructing the daily lives of their fellow citizens. Perhaps, good communication and renewed trust can wheel the movement in the right direction.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Josie! I strongly agree that a woman’s value should not be based on how she physically looks and also to provide more opportunities for women of colour and also transgenders. Women are struggling and fighting for their voices to be heard whereas men are unaware of the hardships women have to go through. I hope in time to come, everyone should learn to respect each other more and that there is fairness no matter what gender.
It is interesting that citizens of Hong Kong are able to express their views on the government through the said online forum. This enables them to have the freedom of speech, however some decisions made through the online forum can be endangering their lives e.g organising strikes. It may also be difficult for them who do not share the same views as the majority, fearing that they might get criticised. I would love to hear more about your stories while you were in Hong Kong in the subsequent blog post. Till next time, cheers!
LikeLiked by 1 person