Given the situation in recent days with Sarah Everard and the general conversation surrounding the treatment of women in society, and being part of the 97% women that have been affected by this issue, I understandably am not entirely in the mood to read a chapter about how women are sexualised in media. This is me saying this after reading the first three paragraphs - I will continue to read it and give an opinion but I couldn't do that authentically without expressing my displeasure for it. This being said, I have decided to write my essay on the gender and identity question as I feel strongly about how the typical gender roles are depicted in media, and particularly children's media as I feel there's so much there to be changed and explored while educating the new generations. 
I don't want to be misunderstood and I can entirely understand the purpose of this reading we have been given, I don't want to come across as though I'm being angry or irrational just because I don't want to read something. I know full well everyone else will have just sat and read it and written a review as we were instructed to do - which is fine too. I fully understand the significance of the piece and I know why it was written but I'm living this life to be authentically me and nothing else - and when the routine sexualisation of women has gotten in the way of that at times - I refuse to let it happen again. I hope you see my point in reading this and I know it isn't the task we were set but hey, we're artists. We have to do our own thing sometimes. 

David Riesman was an American sociologist, educator, and best-selling commentator on American society born in 1909. In the 1950's he wrote about a distinction between majority and "which passively accepted commercially provided styles and meanings" and a subculture that actively sought out a minority style. He also wrote about the reasons that the minority have the desire to go against the grain such as; anti-consumerism mindsets, changing ideologies and wanting something different from society. 

Eboy and Egirl (the E standing for electronic because of its origins in the internet) subculture is a really new style that has come about from around 2019 and it exists exclusively on social media, particularly TikTok. For both genders there's a very particular style that they all follow and its very easy to recognise. Eboys will typically wear lots of dark clothes, chains and have long floppy fringes. They tend to act quite flirtatious and with both eboys and egirls, they act very sexually. Egirls dress similarly to eboys but with skirts and a very particular style of makeup. 
You can tell it has influences from Kpop, artists like Lil Peep, Yungblud and Doja Cat and also the early to mid 2000's emo culture with people even saying that Avril Lavigne was an egirl before it was even a thing. 

After last weeks incident of losing my notes I've gone back to hand written notes. Hand written is better and we can leave it at that. 

Clyde Fans - A Picture Novel by Seth.
Transitions between the panels analysis:
1 to 2 - subject to subject
2 to 3 - action to action
3 to 4 - subject to subject
4 to 5 - action to action
5 to 6 - aspect to aspect
6 to 7 - aspect to aspect
7 to 8 - subject to subject
8 to 9 - subject to subject

The most vital lesson of this week is to not rely on Word auto-saving your documents. I've lost this weeks notes because my laptop restarted and I hadn't manually saved them, big mistake on my part and ill be going back to hand writing my notes from next week. I can't remember them to retype it all so I've just completed the blog task. 

1) linguistic message
Immediately you're drawn to the title of quality street and then your eye goes to the text above it saying you should buy once a week then you go down to the bottom to read the text basically saying how good they are. The name, brand and specific product is reinforced on the image of the tin too.

2) image message
The image shows an overflowing box of sweets being held by some very dainty female hands and it shows the assortment of chocolates along the bottom of the page too. The overflowing box is there for appeal because it would seem like you get a lot of sweets in one tin. The sweets along the bottom show the variety to the consumer - its not leaving any mysteries. The hands and the art on the tin is giving me the vibe of it being a treat advertised to house wives to buy to enjoy while their husbands are at work and to impress him with when he's home. 

3) anchorage
In my opinion i feel like it has been deigned for your eye to follow the yellow through the image. You start at 'quality street' then youre drawn into the tub of sweets then down onto the tin to read the brand name and the 'toffees and chocolates' and then you follow the sweets from left to right around the bottom and then read the remaining text. When I first looked at it thats what my eyes did. 

​4) frame of reference
1950's UK magazine advert for Quality Street chocolates

Anchorage is the relationship words and images have with one another in one piece and its said that there could be five different ways these relationships can occur;
Word specific - this is where words provide all or most of the information needed to decode the message.
Image specific - this is where images provide all or most of the information needed to decode the message.
Dual message - where words and images are communicating the same message either in tone or content and they go hand in hand, amplifying the design by working together.
Interdependent - This is words and images working together while independently contributing information to get across ideas that neither could do alone, they compliment each other and unify the design in the mind of the viewer.
Parallel - where the words and images each convey a completely different message and are not related to each other. 

In short, semiotics is the study of signs in society - signs being indicators of language whether written, images, gestures or by many other means. Signs can mean different things in different languages and cultures but semiotics looks beyond the surface at underlying cultural messages and ideas. When signs are grouped together they form codes like body language and dress codes. Society is built upon the concept of these signs and codes and they are essential for communication since communication needs a mutual understanding for a meaningful exchange. 

Wrestling is fake, but that's news to no one. Barthes obviously knew this but he had a deeper understanding of the implications of the body language - and ultimately signs - that are going on in every aspect of life but in this case, particularly in wrestling.