Act 2

For my second act I wanted to make an icon with which to represent myself within the world of blogging. I wanted it to be a photographic representation of myself, but I am also acutely aware of the fact that it is a representation, it is an aspect of myself that I choose to put forth. I came up with the idea of dolls and dress-ups after catching a glimpse of the Barenaked Ladies video, One Week, on a screen at the gym last week (link to the video on you tube). The image of the woman as a wind up doll at the start appealed to me. Although I am not so keen on the idea of woman as a play thing, as a doll, I am quite keen on the idea of both image and femininity as constructs and those constructs as playthings for the individual embodying them.

I used the metaphor of a tea party to reinforce the narrative of construct, and the progression of the images – playing, to drinking from a cup that is make-believe-full, to the realisation the the cup is actually empty – to comment on the way that some forms of femininity are seen as empowering (for example the kind of femininity popular in ‘raunch culture’), yet in actuality the power they impart is only make-believe. While I fully acknowledge that there can be awesome power in being a woman, real power does not come from red lipstick and a push-up bra. Still, sometimes I like to play girl.