Essay and Presentation Talk

We met up today in 1F4 at Bower Ashton to discuss blogs, the essay and the presentation. This was extremely helpful as I have been feeling a little stuck. I now have a little bit more courage to start this essay and to get a draft out by next Wednesday!

• It should be 2,000 words and come attached with a bibliography
• I have been using only book sources so should include some internet and AV sources as well
• I must post this blog to Blackboard
• I have to try and post more on this blog
• I need to make sure that I mention that I am using sources and not primary research

With the presentation (due 17/04/2013) I need to:-

• Choose a source or topic from my essay and research
• Look at it in a different way, from a different angle
• Present back ideas and comparisons
• this can be an avenue to explore things you haven't been able to in  your essay

So I turned up and no one was there!

I assume it's because I was late and they had filtered off to another room but there wasn't much of a way that I could find where they were.
I wasn't going to waste my time spent in Bower library though and started to look deeper into the books I had chosen. There is a lot on gay fashion history in these books but nothing about attitudes of the audience of this fashion. I really need to FOCUS on how the clothes construct identities. Like the fact that because gay men liked other men they were assumed to be women stuck in men's bodies and often adopted women's clothing and feminin characteristics. This might have been true for some but there were other gay men of that time who didn't feel feminin they just were attracted to men.
Maybe I need to look at how identities effect clothing, fashion and taste?

Stilllll got writers block...

So this writers block i seem to be having is really taking its toll. Every time I sit down at the computer I get like stage fright and then I can't write. I almost can't bear going new my computer to write and I am not being as good as I should at turning up to lectures.

I have had training for my Student Ambassador part time job and doctors appointments but still that shouldn't be stopping me from writing. 

I am starting to get a solid idea about what I want to explore in this essay. I want to look at clothing and how it effects how we view someone. I want to focus on the community because these days you can't judge someone to be straight or gay by their clothing because everyone is wearing every style of clothing, regardless of whether it is a specific style which gays have adopted in the past.

Research into my theme

So today I sat in the library and got really into researching my theme.
I used the search system and found some books which I LOVE the look of and am really excited to get this essay underway.
The books I have read so far are:-

• Cervantes-Carson, Alejandro and Rumens, Nick ‘Sexual Politics of Desire and Belonging’ (2007)

• Cole, Shaun ‘Don We Now Our Gay Apparel: Gay Men’s Dress in the 20th Century’ (2000)

• Dijk, Lutz van and Driel, Barry van ‘Challenging Homophobia: Teaching about Sexuality Diversity’ (2007)

• Johansson, Thomas ‘The Transformation of Sexuality: Gender and Identity in Contemporary Youth Culture’ (2007)

• Suthrell, Charlotte ‘Unzipping Gender; Sex, Cross-dressing and Culture’ (2004)

• Ribeiro, Aileen ‘Dress and Morality’ (1st: 1986) (2nd: 2003)

• Tseelon, Efrat ‘Masquerade and Identities: Essay on Gender, Sexuality and Marginality’ (2001)

I have highlighted quote from these books and will start to think about starting this essay... although I seem to have writers block!

Labour in the Creative Industries

Industry - for instance, factories that produce a product

Creative - Critical thinking, artists those who create symbolic meaning etc.

Creative industries are processes like production combined with the symbolic meaning. Rather than use value as the primary aim, symbolic function takes it's place.
Bristol is a hot spot for speciality investment, a center for creative industries.

Self exploitation can occur when you are self employed (pushing yourself too hard and not giving yourself enough credit/ charging enough for your work).
   - See McRobbie

What is the value of my creative practice?
   -To be seen?
   -In the objects I produce?
   -In the way it's produced?

What do you value?
   -Your practice in your eyes as the maker?
   -Peoples perception of your practice?

How do I look?

Today we looked at how to analyse images using the ways we looked at last week. We also looked at the WAYS of seeing. "Men act; Women Appear". Within images there seems to be a trend of men being the lookers and women being the looked at. Read John Berger's "Ways of Seeing".

We then started a tutorial on what we needed to do to start our essays and what to look for when researching.

- I need to do some research (reading) on my subject. I want to look into homosexuality and the trends it has been associated with in the passed 40-50 years.
- I need to fill out a proposal form before next week which will be on Blackboard detailing what my argument is and what content am I analysing (images etc)?
-On the 9th of January I need to bring in two texts that I will be using in my essay.
- I need to start collecting images I can analyse.
- I want to look at the history of homosexuality and the attitudes towards it that have been recorded.

Image as Language: Semiotics

Key theorists - Roland Barthes, Charles Sanders Peirce and Perdinand de Saussure.

Ways of looking at and analysis texts using signifiers ad te signified.

Iconic - portraits, photos etc look like the things they signify.
Indexical - Natural signs i.e. Clouds signifying rain (call on some prior knowledge)
Symbolic - Usually a reference to cultural (religious) ideas i.e. the angel and devil on someones shoulder symbolising an inner debate.

Structuralism
Everything is a 'text' that we 'read' and subject it to any type of analysis.

Syntagmatic relation - a relation between signs into a more complex text. Think aout it like grammer (how things fit together in sentences or instances)

Paradigmatic relation - the relationshop between a set of signs within a text which can be changed without altering the text.

Parol - the spoken/ individual usage of signs within a system.

Langue - the structural riles and conventions of a system.

After this lecture we were asked to write an essay plan of how we would lay out out essay. I've been thinking about what my essay will be about and I think I will choose question two of the given questions: "In what ways do images construct identities? Discuss using specific examples"

I've decided to write about how the gay culture is associated with certain fashions, and how these fashions have changed from what had been assumed previously.