From: Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Date: 08/28/02-11:38:53 PM Z
On Mon, 26 Aug 2002, Thom Mitchell wrote:
> .... Things are changing, for women at least. I am
> not sure minorities would agree with such a notion of improvement. But then
> again look where America was in 1972. Segregation was still being fought and
> other than Room 222 there were very few shows with African Americans in
> positions of power or authority. Much less Latinos, Asians, etc. Now the
> best selling musical genre is Urban Hip-hop and African-American imagery is
> becoming a cultural touchstone of authenticity even for white kids from the
> suburbs. Things are changing.
I agree, Thom, that things are changing (wouldn't it be nice if we could
just have the changes for the better?). I think however that in some ways
photography has been in a time warp... when I first entered from the
artworld in 1978, I felt I'd dropped into the 50s. But the changes for
the better have come after much talky-talky. They didn't just happen on
their own.
Some of it is simply consciousness raising. Five or ten years ago male
photography students would still bring in naked girl friend pics... and
be surprised and hurt when the girls in the class landed on them.
Meanwhile, the girls began photographing themselves naked -- and then
their boyfriends naked. But they haven't yet simply hired a male model to
photograph "male nude" -- or if they did it was probably as a stunt.
I think it's fairly well established that men take greater pleasure in
sexual looking than women do... I could get an argument on that I suppose,
which I can definitively refute -- which I will, if necessary,the moment
I free up some brain cells.
Judy
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