Women's Views on News |
| ‘Perceptions of Perfection’ research fallacy Posted: 03 Sep 2015 05:05 AM PDT
A research project funded by Superdrug’s Online Doctor service purporting to demonstrate how people’s perception of beauty differs from country to country has been reported in the media recently. As the focus of the 'Perceptions of Perfections Across Borders' study, graphic designers from 18 different countries were asked to edit a woman's photograph in order to 'fit with their culture's perceptions of beauty and an ideal female form'. The subject of the photograph was a white female. The research was carried out on behalf of Superdrug by Fractl. Fourteen of the designers were female but four were men, apparently because they couldn't find women to do the work becuase of Fractl's inability to find them on freelance job boards – which was the expert way in which they appointed the designers. Apparently they ‘attempted to get as wide a spread as possible across the world, but many countries are poorly represented on these job boards, particularly when it comes to female designers’. It certainly sounds like they tried really hard to get as 'wide a spread as possible'. I mean I can believe that out of the 196 countries in the world only 14 have easily accessible female designers, sure. That makes total sense. The study claims to have located designers from five continents North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. And while this is technically true, this is how it broke down: Europe: Italy, Netherlands, Romania, Serbia, Spain, UK, Ukraine; North America: United States and Mexico; South America: Argentina, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela; Asia: China, The Philippines and Syria; and Africa: Egypt and South Africa. This hardly seems representative of many parts of the world. And yes, apparently Fractl couldn't locate female designers in more than fourteen countries and yet they managed to get a designer in Syria, a country currently crippled by a devastating war. Don't worry though, Fractl were really careful to make sure they gave the four lucky male designers a strict caveat – they were given clear instructions to seek input from women and base their design changes on that feedback. Well, that is a relief. The study describes the results as intriguing: “As you can see, our designers' changes made some of these images almost unrecognisable compared with the original photo. “While some remained largely similar with the exception of slight slimming, others resemble a new woman altogether. “Drastic changes in hair colour, attire, and waist-to-hip ratio were common. “Some designers in North, South, and Central American countries produced an exaggerated hourglass figure; others in European and Asian nations chose to render her so thin that her estimated BMI, according to a survey we conducted (described below), would fall under or dangerously close to 17.5. “According to the NHS, ‘Adults with anorexia generally have a BMI below 17.5’.” Hang on though, wasn't the whole point to find out how beauty is perceived across the world, and therefore the fact that in many cases the picture is unrecognisable is not really that surprising? Personally I don’t think you can claim they look unrecognisable. For starters, they are all still white. Plus, people’s average weight is also something that differs throughout the world, doesn’t it? I genuinely find it hard to think of a more pointless piece of research than this study. From beginning to end it seems to serve little purpose and the way it has been carried out questionable. Apparently the purpose of the research is to help "understand potentially unrealistic standards of beauty and to see how such pressures vary around the world". How it has achieved that is anybody's guess. Seriously, why Superdrug are paying for this type of ludicrous research is anybody's guess. In fairness, it has achieved a fair bit of publicity for them as this 'research' was written about in a variety of publications including the Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Cosmopolitan and The Telegraph, which described the findings as 'offering a fascinating look at the ideal female form". Really? Personally I think all we can glean from this research is 18 random people's thoughts on what they presume random people consider to be beautiful. Not much more. And a good example of how the rest of us must remember to check out how any ‘research’ we read about was carried out.  |
| Chrissie Hynde, war zones and rape culture Posted: 03 Sep 2015 04:50 AM PDT
Chrissie Hynde*, a well respected musician, recently promoted her new book ‘Reckless’. A quote from the book about her experience of being raped by a biker in the 1980s shows that she blamed herself for her rape. "If I'm walking around in my underwear and I'm drunk? Who else's fault can it be?" she said. "You know, if you don't want to entice a rapist, don't wear high heels so you can't run from him". This quote has been endlessly debated both in the mainstream press and feminist circles. A good example of this is in the Daily Mail, where six female writers offered differing opinions.** The points of view that the quote has attracted are also epitomised by a recent radio interview between freelance journalist and political activist Julie Bindel and Ella Whelan a writer for Spiked Online. Bindel is featured first and strongly comes out for the perspective that rape is never a woman's fault – only the perpetrator's. Whelan then states: ‘if we go out and aren’t aware of our surroundings, don’t know what is going on – then if stuff happens and we get into trouble then to a certain extent we have to admit our responsibility for that’. In other words, when women leave the house, they have to take responsibility for protecting themselves from sexual assault/rape. What was not discussed on the programme, as is usual with mainstream media, is the surrounding environment – or what Whelan calls ‘stuff’ – that we live within. Bindel did name it – rape culture – but the presenter did not mention it and Whelan dismissed it. Although loathe to use an analogy – we are all fed up with women who are raped being compared to houses/cars being burgled – I do think that there is a fundamental misunderstanding in the mainstream about what rape culture really is. It is not surprising that this is the case, because to acknowledge it would mean that society would have to really take on board how bad sexual violence/rape against women is in a capitalist and patriarchal system. So, my analogy: If you live in a war zone where snipers are firing across the streets at each other, then you would not walk in between them because you might be shot and killed. This is common sense within a war zone. Similarly, if you live in a culture where men are routinely practising sexual violence/rape against women and this is triggered by women being vulnerable in public, then as a woman you would make sure you would not be vulnerable in public, otherwise you might be sexually assaulted/raped. This is also common sense – BUT only if we accept that we live in a sexual war zone. So, the connection that is not being made in the mainstream is the similarity between a war zone and our culture – our culture is a sexual war zone for women. This is rape culture. And that is what feminists consistently point out as being the problem. Sexual violence/rape against women is part of our lives. And we are expected to deal with it every day and we have to mitigate against our chances of it happening. If we don't then it is our fault. My question is: is it reasonable to accept that we live in a sexual war zone? Is it? Or can we, by consistently trying to get the message across that we are in a sexual war zone and we need to address this, promote change? Obviously the analogy above is simplistic and does not acknowledge that sexual violence/rape affects women both in public spaces and within the home. However, once the concept of rape culture is understood, then the link can be made to sexual violence/rape against women in public spaces, in domestic spheres, in online misogyny, in the sexualisation of women in the media, on Page 3, in the violence against women routinely promoted within pornography – all the areas where women are promoted as sexualised objects. And rape culture can also encompass sexual violence/rape against everyone. Rapists do not care who they sexually assault/rape and it has very little to do with the class, race, age, sexuality, gender or disability of the person who is targetted. Because – as in a war zone – sexual violence/rape is about power. So back to Chrissie Hynde. Her comments make sense if we accept that we live within a sexual war zone. Within a rape culture. I will not accept this. I will not. *While not agreeing with Chrissie Hynde in blaming of herself for her rape, I would also like to state that she is dealing with her experience in her own way, and this article is not aimed at criticising her as a rape survivor. **I am not linking this post to the Mail because of 'click bait', but if you can bear it, search for ‘So DO women who dress provocatively invite rape? After the storm around Chrissie Hynde’s comments, six women writers share their passionately conflicting views’.  |
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