The article by Ruxandra Looft challenges the male-dominated photography industry. The text discusses the website #GirlGaze founded by Amanda De Cadenet in 2016. This was created as a way to attract female photographers to promote their work as photography was seen traditionally as a male profession.
GirlGaze went viral after Amanda introduced the project to the Teen Vogue website, thousands of people were joining the trend. I personally feel that this is a great success already in engaging people into looking at your views and goals. The text also discusses the project goals and how they went on to addressing how women learn to understand themselves as part of a cultural discourse on womanhood.
“If we don’t have women telling their stories through all mediums, how are we supposed to see ourselves honestly reflected in the world” (Amanda De Cadenet, 2016) I support this statement by Amanda as I find it’s important that women have a voice and speak out honestly on their views as they will be heard, as the project GirlGaze shows, social media is a huge platform in the 21st century to voice opinions.
The text has helped me understand feminism in more depth when the author discusses the first to fourth wave of feminism from the year 1840 onwards. The discussion on the fourth wave and the usage of technology and social media has helped me to understand that these methods are even more powerful than we’ve ever thought. GirlGaze is a great example in relation to the fourth wave of feminism, using social media platforms such as twitter to promote and gain followers for Amanda’s project. Looft Discusses social media activism and mentions how twitter is a more political, volatile and scrutinized platform, this is because of the power that the use of the ‘Hashtag’ holds, one use of it and your post is worldwide.
Leave a comment