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The exploitation of sex and sexuality as an instrument of commerce has long been blamed for silen... more The exploitation of sex and sexuality as an instrument of commerce has long been blamed for silencing women’s desire via visual representations of women as passive objects for male pleasure and consumption (Gill, Figuring Female Sexual Agency, 38). Though, in recent years, visual advertising has moved away from such straightforward depictions of women as objects under the male gaze, instead emphasizing feminine empowerment and sexual agency, dominant discourses of contemporary heterosexuality has nevertheless maintained a narrowing definition of appropriate femininity. Informed by postfeminist and neoliberal rhetoric, society continues to prescribe successful femininity as a commodity for male consumption as a consequence of manufactured hyper-feminine symbols such as, “the Midriff” and “the vengeful sexy woman” (Gill, Figuring Female Sexual Agency, 46), used to promote false notions of empowerment. They achieve this by positioning acceptable femininity as a bodily property that one may only be achieved through self-surveillance and discipline in favour of this model.
Qingsong’s photographs offer a critical perspective on the impact of an emerging capitalist age a... more Qingsong’s photographs offer a critical perspective on the impact of an emerging capitalist age against the socio-political landscapes of modern China, thus commenting on the hollow promises of consumer culture. Blurring the line between reality and fiction, Qingsong’s images, Night Revels of Lao Li, (2000), Competition, (2004), Can I Cooperate With You? (2000), and Dream of Migrants, (2005), reconfigure and appropriate traditional Chinese sub-texts, whilst exploring themes of wealth and power in a society that appears to be in lacking in spiritual guidance.
The exploitation of sex and sexuality as an instrument of commerce has long been blamed for silen... more The exploitation of sex and sexuality as an instrument of commerce has long been blamed for silencing women’s desire via visual representations of women as passive objects for male pleasure and consumption (Gill, Figuring Female Sexual Agency, 38). Though, in recent years, visual advertising has moved away from such straightforward depictions of women as objects under the male gaze, instead emphasizing feminine empowerment and sexual agency, dominant discourses of contemporary heterosexuality has nevertheless maintained a narrowing definition of appropriate femininity. Informed by postfeminist and neoliberal rhetoric, society continues to prescribe successful femininity as a commodity for male consumption as a consequence of manufactured hyper-feminine symbols such as, “the Midriff” and “the vengeful sexy woman” (Gill, Figuring Female Sexual Agency, 46), used to promote false notions of empowerment. They achieve this by positioning acceptable femininity as a bodily property that one may only be achieved through self-surveillance and discipline in favour of this model.
Qingsong’s photographs offer a critical perspective on the impact of an emerging capitalist age a... more Qingsong’s photographs offer a critical perspective on the impact of an emerging capitalist age against the socio-political landscapes of modern China, thus commenting on the hollow promises of consumer culture. Blurring the line between reality and fiction, Qingsong’s images, Night Revels of Lao Li, (2000), Competition, (2004), Can I Cooperate With You? (2000), and Dream of Migrants, (2005), reconfigure and appropriate traditional Chinese sub-texts, whilst exploring themes of wealth and power in a society that appears to be in lacking in spiritual guidance.