Study Task 3: Discourse Analysis

My source material was produced in 2013 by tumblr user (roaring-softly) named Tyler Feder. She's an illustrator who produces a lot of feminist and positive attitude artwork. This particular illustration is in reference to Hairspray and reinforcing one of the main themes within it (body positivity). I found this illustration whilst scrolling through my tumblr, it's produced as a digital format but also as a print on her etsy shop. 

 It was produced, like many of her illustrations, for her tumblr followers who share the same values as her and find her art pleasing as it reflects those morals.It is digitally created through Photoshop but taken from her sketchbook first. It's produced in this way so she can apply it to cushions, prints, phone cases etc like much of her other work is, it's more convenience illustration than anything else. It conveys a message to her followers and that's it's main purpose. The illustration itself is of characters from the 2007 musical 'Hairspray', a film set in the 1960's that is a social comment on American injustices in the 1960's which include an integration problem in America, the main character Tracy Turnblad is a chubby teenager who's main goal through the film is to be accepted by her other skinnier and popular friends and prove to the world that being fat shouldn't hold you back, it also mentions the major racial integration problem in America but only just. The main concept for Hairspray is self confidence and as a lighthearted musical it doesn't tackle much of the massive problems of 1960s racial segregation. 

The image is a very cute spot illustration of the two main characters from Hairspray together, both dressed in 1960's clothing and holding hands. 

There are red hearts around them symbolising the love between them and also providing decoration for the words above them. The female character Tracy has her feet turned inward which shows lack of confidence where as the male character has regular feet facing toward her. The words above them are a quote from the film to help audiences connect with the illustration, with the bottom line capitalised to draw the attention to them. The quote "Tracy I'm in love with you NO MATTER WHAT YOU WEIGH" capture the social values at the time and of today. The idea intended by the illustrator is that of body confidence and acceptance however the capitalisation of the lower line of the quote suggests differently. It says that the man is in love with her despite the fact she's fat which shows the need to mention it as a flaw "no matter what you weigh". It shows that she is not Infact liberated by her weight as he conditionalises his love for her which makes you question whether it's an equal relationship as someone shouldn't have to comment on the weight when mentioning love, this reflects the social values of then as obesity wasn't much of a problem those people that were overweight struggled to fit in with normality (as the whole film of hairspray displays) and it's a social value of now as more people are obese, being in a relationship with someone overweight you have to be accepting of their weight. 

Study Task 2: Illustration and a Theme

As I said before in my last post, I'm still pretty sure that I want to do my project on acceptance into society. Richard asked us to go and look for some illustrations that relate to our project. As I've been I'll the last few days I haven't gone to the library to look for illustrations but that's definetly my next stop. 

Instead I turned to looking on some peoples blogs to look for 'acceptance' illustrations although they were few and far to find. 

This first one tackles the idea of weight and acceptance into society, fat shaming is one of the big things that is part of many cultures especially the "lad" culture in Britain today. I thought this was a nice illustration (not amazing.. Just endearing) that just confirmed being happy with what they were. This was found on tumblr and produced in 2013 by Tyler Feder (roaringsoftly.tumblr.com).

This second one I thought was really good, I liked how it was composed but I also liked what it was saying. I chose it because I feel that society today is almost - if only just on the brink of tolerance for most things; gay relationships, freedom of expression, individualism. Whereas acceptance would be a lot better for humans as a whole. I felt like this highlighted that. I'm not sure who made this one as it was on pintrest but under a false website name but I found it and thought that it was relevant to my topic. 

I chose this one (again another weight one.. Not intentionally picked for it's weight issue I might add) because it represents people's freedom of speech, something which again is not okay in certain social circles. Somepeople flat out refuse to befriend people who have fat boyfriends or girlfriends or if they do they belittle them until they're ashamed of them. I picked this one out from other illustrations because I thought it was pretty clear example of acceptance. This is another one by Tyler Feder, her illustrations are very typically cutesy and promote an interesting view on body acceptance. 

Study Task 1: Library Book

I was asked to pick out some books to go with a theme, I chose 2 books on tattoos. Mostly because they were the first things I could think of that made people outcasts to society (or things people judged a lot in society anyways). The first one was on the art of Japanese tattoo just because I knew from previous knowledge that the Japanese culture is still very strict compared to our western acceptance of tattoos. 

The second book I chose was about tattoos in other cultures, and other time periods. I chose this because I thought it was interesting how some tattoos are accepted - particularly those of religious or tribal origins but how some nowadays are regarded as unacceptable and shameful.

I don't want to do my COP project about tattoos but I do want to do it about acceptance in society, how things such as tattoos, piercings, hair colour, clothing worn etc depicts how you are regarded in social circles. Mostly because there are a range of people I know that have experiences because of their tattoos or otherwise that have felt discriminated against and it would interesting to get their points of view to inform me (as I don't have tattoos).