Free Humanity instigated a bus stop takeover in Los Angeles. He wanted to call attention to . . .
. . . the portrayal of women in the media.
We dig this bus stop take over, and the placement under the glass. As far as we know, Free is this only cat doing this type of operation on the West Coast.
Free sent us this bit below about the portrayal of women in the media.
***The below views are from Free Humanity and are not necessarily the views of MELROSEandFAIRFAX. We think body image is a tricky issue, and while the media can be blamed for a lot, our take is that we sure do love seeing strong, powerful, scantily clad women around~***
Free Humanity will be doing a series of Bus stop shelter in part of a series commenting on over sexualization in the media
The average child views over six hours of media per day. Among prime-time television shows popular with children and adolescents, 12% of sexual comments involved sexual objectification, the vast majority directed toward women. Other research showed that 23% of sexual behaviours observed on prime-time programs involved leering, ogling, or catcalling at female characters. Many comments concerned body parts or nudity, and 85% of the comments came from men. Up to 81% of music videos contain sexual imagery, the majority of which sexually objectifies women by presenting them in revealing clothing, as decorative sexual objects, dancing sexually, or in ways that emphasize body parts or sexual readiness.
It is estimated that girls aged 11 to 14 years see about 500 posters and commercials a day, and most of heroines in them - women with absolutely perfect figures. University of Minnesota study showed that viewing such advertisement from one to three minutes a day can have a negative impact on self-esteem.
Three of the most common mental health problems of girls and women, eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depression, have been linked to sexualization. Theincidence of anorexia nervosa in girls 10 to 19 over the last 50 years has tracked changes in fashion, with the ideal of a thin body type preceding the highest incidences of anorexia nervosa. A number of studies have demonstrated the links between media exposure to idealized women and depression and reduced self-esteem.
Over Sexualization of girls also has a negative impact on boys and men, leading to less satisfaction with intimate partners’ attractiveness, jeopardizing the ability to empathize with female partners, and interfering with the ability to form and maintain intimate relationships.
Women are also negatively affected by the sexualization of girls. As a culture, we have accepted the supermodel as the ideal of feminine beauty. Many of the most famous models have become renowned by the age of 16. Boundaries between girls and women are blurred in the media, with women “youthified” and girls “adultified” in a range of sexualizing portrayals.
Holding the ideal of youth as the only beautiful stage of life has put pressure on women to look younger, resulting in unprecedented growth in the cosmetics and plastic surgery industries, and has led to age-based discrimination related to women.
that old saying you are what you eat
it's true
we are what we consume with our ears and our eyes also
i speak solely for myself but i feel society at large can understand that we are being poisoned by the media
all i ask is for us to be aware of these things and water the positive seeds in humanity
thank you for reading
Free Humanity Loves you
Great stuff Free. Enjoyed the research as well as the art. good message
ReplyDeletethank you. just, thank you.
ReplyDeleteThat is all good and well, but how does a girl with, yet another, tomato spray can and the words "Free Humanity" get that point across, at all?!?
ReplyDeleteIf anything, you just added one more "ad" just like those that you say is causing the problem. I'm confused, how does this make sense...?
Biting KAWS
ReplyDeleteI'm with Q. Although I feel your heart is in the right place and your mission is valiant, I don't see how your image represents any aspect of objectification. The research is a sad sad truth of todays world. Great topic to tackle, I just don't read it in your image. Congrats on your culture jamming techniques. I want so bad to connect the 2, but I can't. There is something missing. I just don't get it.
ReplyDeleteIf your perspective women in the media are being glorified ad sexual objects then shouldn't you be anti-sexual art? For example, Bankrupt Slut bases their art on sexualized women. If you go thru their Flickr streem you will notice half naked women exposing themselves. Is it wrong to expose women in such a manner in art too? If so why talk about over sexuality if some of Bankrupt Sluts profile shows women in lingerie promoting sticker art. I believe if your going to be against sexuality in the media then you should be against Bankrupt and Mar because their amazing art is based on sexual women.
ReplyDeletefree humanity is such a toy. having a relevant statement to make is great, but everyone commenting is right. the image speaks nothing to the topic or explores anything creative. but what more could we expect from this guy, we've all seen the other "art" produced at the same visual level.
ReplyDeletethats not LA thats Santa Ana
ReplyDeleteIt's not even his text. It's plagarized (copy/paste) from an article on sexualization that comes up online. The only thing he actually wrote himself was the shit at the bottom that looks like a fourth grader wrote it where he has the balls to write "i speak for myself" when what he means is "i stole what i couldn't think of myself and i'm passing it off as my own intelligence"
ReplyDelete