Bait and Switch.

“Patriarchy is not men.

Patriarchy is a system in which both women and men participate.

It privileges, inter alia, the interests of boys and men over the bodily integrity, autonomy, and dignity of girls and women.

It is subtle, insidious, and never more dangerous than when women passionately deny that they themselves are engaging in it.

This abnormal obsession with women’s faces and bodies has become so normal that we (I include myself at times—I absolutely fall for it still) have internalized patriarchy almost seamlessly.

We are unable at times to identify ourselves as our own denigrating abusers, or as abusing other girls and women.”

That pull quote was from an INSANELY intelligent and thought provoking blog post by none other than Ashley Judd. Read the full article here. You could also read my post Dead Women: The New Porn.

Richard Drew

Photographs That Disturb Me

There is a rather famous quote that goes something like this, “Opinions are like a**holes…everybody’s got one.”

Without further ado, here’s mine.

I don’t like photographs that depict women as dead.

Especially FASHION photos.

As a matter of fact, they make my blood boil. It further infuriates and confounds me that women go along with this most blatant example of obvious misogyny by either posing for the photographs OR by creating these images themselves.

It seems, at least in fashion and certain parts of India, that the only thing better than a super skinny, barely post pubescent female is a DEAD female.

Disclaimers and caveats.

The two photographs I am featuring in this post were taken by a young, female photographer that I greatly admire. Her name is Zhang Jingna and you can find her website here. She has incredible lighting skills and unique visual ideas. I follow her on Flickr and do not intend to stop.

I am not singling her out. She is but one in a sea of photographers and models who participate in this genre –  Guy Bourdin and Izima Kaoru spring to mind. Nor am I suggesting that Ms. Jingna is in any way responsible for the fate of young women, or anyone else for that matter. Her photographs merely illustrate my point.

Photograph by Zhang Jingna - From A Beautiful Death photo spread in Filler Magazine

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