Unrealistic Beauty Standards
My final project is based on beauty standards in society today. Women are encouraged to change themselves by the promotion of advertisements and the spectacle. In the video we see a girl with a wig on and she is wearing a corset to look skinny. There are also three other girls in the video. The makeup artist is doing her makeup, the hairstylist is fixing her hair, and the designer is tightening her corset. We see the girl that is getting work done to her singing a song. She is singing about having to fit in with society's standards and being dishonest to who she really is. We see this girl pushing away the hairstylist and the makeup artist because she doesn't want to be seen as someone she is not. I wanted to show a girl who was being transformed into something she is not and then realizing how this isn't who she wants to be.
I would categorize my video as performance art. I chose this form of a video so we could see this girl getting glammed up and actively trying to stop the people who are working on her. We filmed the scene twice so I could set up the camera in two different angles. When editing the clip I made the transitions on the words flawless, promise, living in the in between and stopping. I felt like these words and phrases relate to how women feel they need to look when stepping out of the house. We are living in a world where nothing can be good enough.
Thinking about how everyday we see a new advertisement for botox or a new makeup palette, inspired me to show a girl who was being dragged into this unrealistic world and has to be fake to fit in with everyone. According to The Art of Self -Invention it states, “He viewed popular culture as a 'menace of unreality’ ”(Finkelstein 150). Today the trends we see are changing reality. Everyone seems to be following each other from the advertisements they see, leading them to be untrue to themselves. I feel this video conveys the truth about self love and identity to the viewers. I think it illustrates how women feel about makeup and changing themselves for others.
My inspiration behind this video was from the artist Marina Abramovich. Abramovich's performance art gave me the idea to focus on beauty and the connection it has to all women. Hearing Marina's first performance art about her trying to break her nose and then get it fixed to look like a celebrity's nose made me realize how everyone wants to fit into this perfect unrealistic and unhealthy picture. Media and its images influences ideality and self presentation because of its consistent promotion of fake but beautiful people making others want to look like them. When we see someone who has something we don't have we want to be just like them and follow the crowd. According to Guy Debord's, Society of the Spectacle, Chapter 1 (2002 Transition) “The spectacle cannot be understood as a mere visual excess produced by mass-media technologies. It is a worldview that has actually been materialized, that has become an objective reality” (Debord 5). The spectacle is the driving force that keeps us attached to the trends and makes us feel insecure about ourselves so we then do or buy what the advertisement is promoting. Seeing the same advertisement over and over makes us want to be a part of it.“The spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images” (Debord 4 ). Social media is a big factor in influencing people to change themselves and look a certain way. These platforms are only promoting false information encouraging others to follow along.
The difference between my first self portraits is that it's showing a series of photos of a woman looking at her nose and contouring it with makeup. My self portrait performance was of a woman contouring her now and then taking it off to realize she is beautiful without it. My third self-portrait was a side by side picture of a girl with make up on and a girl with no makeup comparing how the girl with no makeup on should be allowed to be seen more and not have judgment of being natural. Now my final self-portrait performance is a video of a girl getting her hair, makeup, and outfit fixed at once while she sings about how she has no choice to play this role in society. It is a shame we live in a world where people feel they can't show their true selves because they are afraid of what others will think and say.
Featuring:
Francessca Spatafora - Makeup Artist
Sophia Ortiz - Hairstylist
Selena Wielgorz - Designer
*You can find my music on all major platforms at “Nicolette Capua” :)*
The song in the video is called "Always Almost".
My name is on the bottom right of the video because that is my "brand".
(I decided i'm going to use this scene when I make the full music video!)
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