Female Images

This was supposed to be my second image but the computer wouldn't let me put it in below, so here it is. It comes originally from a Marie Claire magazine photo shoot for women's work clothing but i found it in a blog from someone who was drawing comparisons between it and depictions of female workers during the second world war. The main vast difference between the two lots of women shown is that (and this is a quote from comments on the blog) 'I would have cast models whose arms don’t look as though they’d snap in the machinery' for the modern pictures. This is interesting because even in attempting to emulate these idolised pioneers of women at the forefront of 'masculine' work the magazine is still needing to use super model's to enable it to be appealing. This being because these clothes though highlighted as 'work clothes' are really purely fashion items that along with their price tag and practicality would ensure their very seldom use in industrious jobs whose image they have hijacked. Now in the post industrial era this image is no longer used as a motivation or display of women in the workplace but aims at attracting them to spend their corporate dollars on the clothing items to furnish their walk-in wardrobes with.

This image is from an advert published in New York Magazine's April, 1980 issue. As you can see the main focus of the advert is emphasising how good these blazers are because they are made how they are for men. This quality is what, the company implies, should make them desirable for women, like this kind of emulation is what's needed for women to enter the workplace. Though no mention of this being clothing for work is made in the advert, the company themselves at the time must have identified a greater demand for women's smart business wear to be promoting it so. The aspect i find most interesting being the shadow of a man behind the woman as it could be interpreted two ways. One, that women are literally in the shadow of men in these areas of society, dwarfed by the great achievements of men in various fields. Two, that from the predominantly male driven world of business emerges the corporate woman, shiny, new and the future.

The images are comparable with each other as well in that both depict how women initially were unable to carve out their own identity within the workplace. First and foremost what was necessary to prove was that they were able to do jobs the same way as men did them, in the same manner, with the same clothes.