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Stojanov, Amanda "Women Online: Is self-representation enough to tip the scales of femme visibility within dominant cultural narratives?." Master of Fine Arts
, University of California Los Angeles, 2017
Keywords/Fields of Study : women, online, self-representation, femme, visibility, digital, narratives, narcissim, power
Abstract: This thesis asks, are femininity and masculinity imaged differently? If so, how and by whom? When gender and sexuality are utilized to gain social capital, what is the difference between exploiting your own image versus having your image appropriated and exploited by corporate and capital endeavors? What are the conditions for gaining social capital online? How do these socially determined value systems effect the construction of stereotypes?
In this paper I will focus on the representation of women in media historically and in this current moment. I ask, if to put an image of one’s body on the Internet is to frame it with the apparatus of porn, to lose control of its circulation, and to expose oneself to the cultural anxiety, sexist scrutiny, and confounding hostility that attends the gesture, then what is the way forward? If women and sexual minorities are excluded from pornography as subjects of pleasure, and masculine desire is constructed in a way to objectify the former, how do we image ourselves online, without adhering to the stereotypes defined by toxic masculinity?
Department: Design Media Arts
, University of California Los Angeles
Advisor(s): Jennifer Steinkamp, Henri Lucas, Chandler McWillaims
