The image of a black Ken doll with a white Barbie doll is almost impossible when I searched the web. Furthermore to see a black Ken prince is non-existing let alone being with a white Barbie princess. This image was created with the purpose of defying the norm. Even as kids most of the cartoons we watched has predominantly white characters. And if there are any people of color they are always portrait as evil or the lowly peasant scrubbing the floor. What is the message we are sending to our kids when we let them watch cartoons that has no interracial marriage, love or relationship? “Happily ever after” in this case only applies to a white man and a white woman and it has always been in fairy tales.
The chance of someone buying this set of White Barbie Princess and Black Ken Prince collector is going to be nearly impossible. Also not to mention the chance to it increase in value will not happen. Like the John Deer Doll, if both Ken and Barbie are white then it would be consider collectable and have value but since Ken is black it would probably not be consider as valuable. The chance of us seeing a real one of this set of dolls being made in the near future would not be likely. This goes to shows that even within a society as complex as we are, we still shows some type of racism. I guess when people say “if you ain’t white, you ain’t right,” they’re not kidding.
In our recent reading by Dine S. The White Man’s Burden: Gonzo Pornography and the Construction of Black Masculinity, she talks about pornography and white women were portrait to prefer black men over white men. So I have created an image opposite of that discussed in Dines’ article. In this I created an image of a black woman on a white man, and he looks terrified. Is he terrified because she is trying to ravage him? Or is he terrified of her race? Or perhaps her sexuality is different from his? There are many possible reasons for his fear; it is up to the viewer to interpret what they believe they saw. The idea of this image is not to provoke any type of sexual or racial ideas but it is to provoke the nature of our being.
We may not believe that we are sexist, racist or homophobic, and in our right mind many time we convinced ourselves so to justify the feelings we have and the actions we have taken. Usually when we see something for the first time we will have that initial thought of what we sometime trying suppresses. Those feelings or thoughts may not mean that we are sexist, racist or homophobic, but it is good for us to be aware of those feelings in order for us to make changes to ourselves. So look again and what do you feel after you have a look at it for the second time? Did you try to change your idea of your first initial thought?
Victoria’s Secret hmmm… As a man I do not mine looking at their catalog. In the United States the Victoria’s Secret’s stores can be found in every mall. It seems as though almost every woman in the US own at least one piece of their product. In this piece of advertisement that I have created, I used an image of a model looking at herself in the mirror, a Victoria’s Secret model and a Victoria’s Secret quote. All images were found online through the use of Google Image. When looking at this ad what do you see? What did it provoke in you? Normally when we look at the Victoria’s Secret ads on television, magazine or their catalog, we see a slender looking “super” model. As we have discussed in class, they target their ads not only toward female consumers but also toward male consumers; in thinking that (female) “if I wear this I would look ‘pretty,’” (male) “my wife/girlfriend would look like a ‘hot’ model in this.” So in my ad I created an image of a “large” girl looking at her distorted self (skinny) in the mirror wearing the Victoria’s Secret lingerie. The picture of the Victoria’s Secret model at the bottom corner gives her the perception of beauty wearing their (Victoria’s Secret) products. I found the accompany text to be very interesting. The quote seems to convey a message of (to me) “every woman want to be beautiful and perfect, so buy this!” This piece of ad reminded me of the article by Kember S. Virtual Anxiety: Photograph, New Technology and Subjectivity. She mentioned a quote from Harold Evans commented that, “[t]he camera cannot lie; but it can be an accessory to untruth.” This quote is unique because in today’s world our perceptions of what is real or unreal became questionable through the use of programs and technologies to alter that truthfulness.
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chivhua 