Buy essay on Images of women through the different times

The images of contemporary women differences from those were earlier. Jean Kilbourne (1987, pg 67) found that “women images changed in that way:
1920s – The flapper look was in (boyish, thin, bound breasts).
1950s – Marilyn Monroe was the sex goddess. By our standards today, Marilyn Monroe was fat.
1960s – Twiggy’s era, the beginning of the anorexic appearance time. Twiggy was 5’8” and 97 lbs.
1980s – Elle McPherson’ time; she typified the strong and lean look.
This ideal that was described is unobtainable by most women. The average women today is 5’4” and 142 lbs. Top models are 5’9” and 110 to 118 lbs. Only 5% of American women approximate the ideal” (“Still Killing Us Softly”). Friedan Betty (1960-1970), noted that “In the 1930s, the woman most likely to appear as a nurse who has “strength in her hands, pride in her carriage and nobility in the lift of her chin… the heroines of-the 1950s, did not have to choose invariably between marriage and career, they could have both. They were “young and frivolous, almost childlike; fluffy and feminine; passive; gaily content in a world of bedroom and kitchen, sex, babies, and home” (“The Feminine mystique”). She tries to make women in minds of society as capable as men to do any kind of work. Depicting women’ lives she says, “Each suburban wife struggles with it alone, being afraid to ask even of herself the silent question — “Is this all?”. Friedan’s great work have influenced many individuals like educators, writers, anthropologists, journalists, organizations, and your routine and usual woman to follow the feminist movement. For the reasons given above, I should admit how big and significant role Friedan’s book plays. Wolf (1998), states that “She helped to change not only the thinking but the lives of many American women, but recent books throw into question the intellectual and personal sources of her work”(“The Mystique of Betty Friedman”).
In 1980s, men are shown us as a drunken, obese ogre who is stupid and does not behave appropriately, and can not be a good father to his kids. Women are illustrated as sensible, musically orientated, and fun-loving person (“The Simpsons”). However, nowadays men are often shown as the witty, handsome hero, while women are weak, helpless victims (like in the James Bond movie “The World Is Not Enough”). Then Pamela Anderson appeared in media to represent society’s typical “blonde bimbo”. For the reasons given about I can conclude that time changes not only gender roles and stereotypes, but also images of ideal or typical person (man or woman). Women, as I think, are often shown as weak victims, however in life they do the same job the men do, or even harder. Nevertheless, it should be so; women should stay women in the men’s arms. In other case, what for do we need the differences between male and female? New time, new style, and new standpoints we will face in future. The role of gender is significant, it was argued through out this paper. In conclusion, it must be mentioned one fact. It was a research about images of male and female in mass media, which causes the specific way of viewing roles of men and women.

Manet’s works

This paragraph is about Manet’s picture “L’Dejeuner sur I’Herbe- The Picnic on the Grass”. The painting is very specific and it can evoke angry as well as admiring. According to Main, picture is the predicament. She is 18, working-class, poor, with a secret ambition to become an artist. He is 30, rich, aristocratic, and a painter. The year is 1862; the setting, his studio in Paris. She is modeling for him, and, as they talk, their ideas merge. Two of the paintings he produces with her will become among the most famous in the world. But the majority of his biographers will ignore her influence. They will say that she was a prostitute and an alcoholic who died young.

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And, with that damning description, her contribution will be erased from art history (2008)“The Fifer” of Manet (1866) seems to depict a young boy, but it really depicts Meurent. Her eyes looks from the other ace, the moutn that is bloked with a hand is an echo from obsession with control of manet.

The “Railroad” of Manet can be described such: the wall in the execution picture corresponds to the grating of The Railroad, which in both divides out a narrow spatial area across the picture and at the same time allows what is behind it to be visible. Even as far as the details of bodily posture, the soldiers are comparable to the otherwise altogether different figure of the girl who looks through the grating (Bernard, 2004, pg 4). In 1866, Manet created one more famous and beautiful picture “Woman with a Parrot”, which depicts Victorine Meurnet. She holds a bunch of violets and the monocle cord. This picture is a woman’s grace triumph. It depicts native elegance personality that is close to Manet.

According to Dickey, Manet’s treatment of Meurent’s face, and particularly her expression, did not square with his audience’s expectations. He was perceived to be deliberately disfiguring her: “It is said that this young woman was painted from a model whose head is delicate, graceful, and lively. The head that he gives us is perfectly ugly” (Theophile Gautier, “Le Salon de 1868,” qtd. in Cachin 256); “the accessories prevent one from looking at the face, but that’s no loss” (Marius Chaumelin, qtd. in Cachin 256) (2006, pg 3, <http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-161065922.html>). People also traditionally objected to the Victorine’s enigmatic expression (that is nearly blank). One could say that Manet’s pictures contain the modulation of all colours.

The point is that the way of Manet’s painting was different from others. It was not too expressive or too radical, no. But it was definitely talented and gorgeous. The humanity faced great works of Manet and even till now they are discussed and attractive. Meurent’s appearance was depicted by Manet in her various costumes and even contribute to the radical quality shaping of Manet’s masterpieces. Were Manet’s paintings at odds with the definition of womanhood at that time? Her red hair, her face, eyes, mouth, her petite stature – everything in Meurent was unusual and attractive, this Manet tried to depict through his works. Especially I was impressed with “The Fifer” of Manet, where the attractiveness and the woman’s character were depicted through the young boy’s face and figure. Only one detail opened all the “heart” of picture – eyes. Strange gazing and starring eyes that look at you from the young boy’s face showed all the nature of the hero of the masterpiece.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it will be appropriately to mention that Dickey has stated, contemporaries found the expressions of these figures “inexplicably blank, opaque, noncommunicating, without psychological interiority of any kind”. Thus, these viewers perceived a deficit in Manet’s paintings: the lack of some quality that turns a likeness of a body into the likeness of a person. For them, Manet’s figures offered only the exterior appearance of life (2006, pg 4). Victorine Louise Meurent is known as a French painter and even a popular and famous painters’ model. Victorine was a model for Edgar Degas and Alfred Stevens (who is the Belgian painter). However, Edgar Degas as well as Alfred Stevens was Manet’s good friend. Victorine Louise Meurent had really strong character and personality that was depicted and could be noticed in each of her works. Manet (as it is needed to be) was obsessed with his pure love: painting. He depicted his models in his own way. Thus, viewers could see his thoughts and emotions in his pictures. He is definitely talented and worth of attention.

 
References

Seibert, Margaret Mary Armbrust ProQuest. (2004). A Biography of Victorine-Louise Meurent and Her Role in the Art of Edouard Manet. (Volumes I and II), UMI #8625285.
Main. (2008). A Woman With No Clothes On. London: Delancey Press, ISBN 9-7809-5391-1974.
Bernard, Julia. (2004). “Seeing” versus “Perceiving”: The Execution of Maximilian and The Railroad by Edouard Manet, Ästhetische Erfahrung im Zeichen der Entgrenzung der KünsteHamburg, S. 83-101.
Signorielli, Nancy (December 1997): Messages reinforce sexual stereotypes – study finds media portrays stereotyped sex roles – Brief Article, Newark.
Connell, Robert William (1987). Gender and Power. Cambridge (University Press).
Dickey, Frances. (June 22, 2006). Article: Parrot’s Eye: a portrait by Manet and two by T. S. Eliot.(Edouard Manet ), Twentieth Century Literature.
Bareau, Juliet Wilson, & Musée d’Orsay,National Gallery of Art (U.S.). (1998). Manet, Monet, and the Gare Saint-Lazare, National Gallery of Art.