Projects - M01 Assignment One.

Pick a 1media or cultural artefact and explain how the consideration of 2gender, ethnic or cultural identity is central to our proper 3understanding of it.

With the above I shall take into consideration the following:

  1. I have chosen one cultural artefact, women’s high heel shoes and more specifically a pair of gold high heel shoes shown in three different photographs.
  2. While I could use cultural identity for the bases of consideration it would be difficult to analyse because I would have to comment on cultures of which I have no first person experience. Therefore I have chosen to go down the route of gender more specifically the male gaze and eroticism.
  3. The proper understanding of this cultural artifact must take into consideration: high heels within both the female mind and male gaze, how high heels encentuate / eroticise the female form and how this is dependant on culture and sex, discussion on codpiece and it’s function, the similarities between the old codpiece and the modern ornate belt buckle, discussion on the similarities between modern day belt buckles and high heels. I could also link high heels using freudism theory with garters, stockings and other such eroticised items of female clothing.

Semiotic analysis of the images I have used will be one tool within my discussion.

Essay Proposal

“The Female form, a cultural artefact within the male gaze of western media.”

This was my original title idea for the essay I am to write as part of this assignment however talking about the female form as a cultural artefact makes for a collection of books rather than an essay so I have distilled it down to high heel shoes being my cultural artefact and my discussion being on how they are eroticised by/eroticise the female form.

“High Heels and the female form, a cultural artefact eroicised through the male gaze.”

The above essay title contains my argument that High Heel shoes hold significant meaning within western culture when viewed from the gender viewpoint of the male gaze possibly caused by a Fetishistic Sopophilia. I shall be using material cited from the following sources to back up my argument:

Dann, S. (2008) ‘Gold Shoes’, [Online Article], Available: http://photogabble.co.uk/2008/10/25/gold-shoes [Accessed: 29th October 2008.]

This is the original article I wrote on my blog from a journalistic stand point, during which I diseminated using semiotic analysis two photos of gold shoes, so as to not self plagerise I have included it here as parts of my argument extend from that original article.

Podokycko, P. (2008) ‘Фотограф Michal Podobycko‘, [Online], Available: http://2photo.ru/2008/06/30/fotograf_michal_podobycko.html [Accessed: 25th October 2008.]

While the photos I am going to use are shown within my article, the first citation on my list, that is not their original source of where I found them. Therefore I am including their location in my bibliography to aid others when looking for references.

Ince, K. (2003) ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema‘, [Online Presentation PPT File], Available: http://artsweb.bham.ac.uk/kince/Mulvey.ppt [Accessed: 29th October 2008].

Online Presentation description goes here.

Mulvey, L. (1975) ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema‘, in Simpson, P., Utterson, A. and Shepherdson, J (2004). Film Theory: Critical Concepts in Meida and Cultural Studies Vol III. London: Routledge. Pg 56.

Article by Mulvey within an edited collection.

Merck, M. (1992) ‘The Sexual Subject: A Screen Reader in Sexuality’, London: Routledge.

Another book.