A women becomes a virtual creature in a 3 minutes video-clip.
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The objectification of women in media, magazines, television and cinema is a symptom of masculine oppression. Deconstructing how their appearances are made up to satisfy dominant male’s fantasies, we learn to reduce our confidence in images and to question what we see.
Hungarian musician Boggie (Csemer Boglarka) created a beautiful video for a song “Nouveau Parfum”. It shows modifications made to her face while she is singing. A made up software brushes her face with all sorts of tools until an hollywood-style person appears.
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Originally posted on Bored Panda
First, from a technical perspective, I think it’s important to point out that there is very little digital manipulation, or so-called “Photoshopping” going on here. I get the video’s editorial point, but to make it, they started with a purposely underexposed image, then made real-world changes to the singer with makeup and studio lightning. The final product is layered and edited to make it appear as though it is being digitally altered on someone’s magic PC. But it isn’t. There’s no “magic hair” or “shrink neck” tool in Photoshop. Trust me on this. Second, the video’s message would have had… Read more »
I have to say that I am quite sick of the responsibility for this falling into men’s hands. Masculine oppression is not the only reason for this and men changing their attitudes is definitely not the only solution. I would like to see full grown adult women taking a stand on this. Our whole society is obsessed with female beauty which leads too sexual objectification of women. I follow Jezabel and every 10th article is about womens fashion. This is a feminist website for gods sake and they take zero responsibility for this issue. If we truly want to stop… Read more »
And yet, even this video is using the manipulation of womens bodies to sell you a product.
The problem with our society isnt sexual objectification, its economic objectification, personified by the greatest of modern evils: Marketing.
That vid may inspire some of the people who commented this post : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhjsRjC6B8U
Is there an editor anywhere on this blog? I appreciate the content, but please! Typos, incorrect grammar, and excuse me, but women’s objectification has nothing to do with “reducing our confidence in images and to question what we see” (sic). In fact it has the opposite effect – brainwashing.
Thanks for your comment Dawn. I am sorry for that and I’ll do better next time.
Gregory, it’s not your fault. Writers write, editors edit. That is their job. The Good Men Project should pay an editor to edit content, it’s that simple.
I can only speak for me an my circle of male friends, but I have spend most of my relationship life communicating to female friends and significant others that: 1. They look good 2. They don’t need to wear makeup 3. That they are not fat 4. That I love them (or will be friends with them) regardless of their looks 5. That I’d really like to go out – that your hair not being “perfect” is no reason to be late 2 hours (or skip the event altogether) 6. Trying to tell them that their current significant other is… Read more »
Good for you, Gary. That is certainly a good way of doing. The fact that you spent you life communicate with your friends about that might demonstrate the importance of that deconstruction we are talking about. I’d suggest a couple of books about male domination if you want. Do you ? The fact that women directors follow the path of women’s objectification still is an important sign of oppression. As Eszter mentioned above, those aesthetics codes are within our culture now. Women maintaining it are certainly to shame. They do their jobs of fashion mag’s director according to the rules… Read more »
Evidently, I’m not the only one a little taken aback by the highly contentious use of terms like “masculine oppression” and “dominant male’s fantasies.” I think it’s well and proper to deconstruct and combat superficialities & ‘lookism’ – But dogmatic language like that just seems to be geared to reframing the fight against negative body image as a canard to promote the idea (the false idea, I would argue) that it’s all really rooted in gendered adversary- it’s not. But language like that tries to bind opposition to lookism with the same old faulty dogma in which men (by virtue of their gender alone)… Read more »
Did I miss the meeting? I didn’t know we were only objectifying women this year. Inane. This article objectifies men as a conspiracy theory.
Sure, it is masculine oppression again. Bogus Male model’s get photoshopped too. what is that? feminine oppression? The photoshopping of people in commercials has to do with both gender’s appreciation of what they see as a fit or beautiful body. The author is just the so manieth male who decides again what is good for women and what is not. Women (and males) have been the subject of ‘altering’ as long as written history. Make up was already known by the egyptians and greeks and also throughout the ages men have alterd their appearance by e.g. wigs and make up,… Read more »
Not to mention the art forms stretching back centuries. Portrait painters *definitely* altered the forms and features of their subjects to portray them in a flattering way (at least they did if they had any hopes of selling that painting). Go to any art museum and examine the paintings and sculptures for blemishes and asymmetry, or poor lighting choices, or unpleasant contrasts, on depictions of women and men alike. Where those things are present, it’s usually a deliberate choice by the artist.
Would you say that, all things considered, women finally succeeded in their fight for equality and that, things being done, we should stop talking about how unfair our society is between both gender ?
Would you say that women having the power to decide for themselves and men being photoshopped as well, we can say that we’re equal and move forward ?
Then yes, I disagree with you.
Its us that do most of it. We as women objectify each other. I’ve never had a man tell me I was less beautiful without a specific kind of lipstick and I’ve never had a man tell me he would love me more if by breasts were bigger. Until we stop competing with each other and support each other, we will continuee to do this to ourselves . By the way, the video above is not the original artist its some overdub in another language. The original is in Hungarian
True. Even if I still believe that this reality of competition have been generated by men’s dominant role and medias over-exposition of made up women bodies. For years.
Do you have a link to the original video ?
To a point, yes – you might say that female-to-female competition and objectification is all tied up in the mating game, the idea that being attractive to men gives you status, and as a woman, you must always fight for that status and increase your odds of snagging a mate. But do men (or the abstract Masculine) actually determine what beauty standards women are supposed to meet, on the macro scale? I think that’s a myth – a theory that is so disconnected from day-to-day reality that it’s barely relevant. If anything, the sexes are jointly culpable in shaping, sustaining… Read more »
To add to your point : it’s also fed to us that “being more attractive equals putting on a lot of make up (and dressing up)”. Even when limiting to the purely physical -which isn’t that important- it’s inherently untrue.
That was my first thought too – this is as much a feminine fantasy as a masculine one. Artificially perfect images of women are sold to women just as much as they’re sold to men.
I dig the song, though – gonna go look up more by this artist.
well I actually did have a man tell me specifically that I would never be beautiful or have a relationship unless I have plastic surgery on my face. I have had men say many cruel things to me about my appearance.
I thought the Good Men project was about not conforming to this tired clickbait pandering yuck.
I am trying to understand how this video illustrates the oppression of masculinity through the media’s objectification of women. How does ‘making men question what they see’ in media images harm men in any way? Shouldn’t we question most of what the media is trying to feed us anyway?
Yes we should, I guess. And we maybe good at it. But watching how it is made up, behind the scenes style, is a good reminder, once in a while of the reality behind the “beautiful” appearances.
They put makeup on her and changed her hair. Aside from adjusting the hue, all of this is accomplishable with traditional makeup. This video does more to reveal the impressiveness of current live video editing technology than it does the supposed objectification of women.
No, it is not just makeup and hair. Did you watch the whole thing? They made her eyes symmetrical, whitened her teeth, paled her skin out beyond her natural skin tone, eliminated (not covered) all her skin blemishes, and changed her eye color. This is not all done with traditional makeup. The end result is a woman that only holds a passing resemblance to the original woman. By constantly “editing” women, the media ceases to show what regular women look like. Instead, they show an CGI of the “perfect” woman that regular women can aspire to, but can never reach,… Read more »
Why regular women would like to aspire to such a look ? Is it because of a traditional male description in medias and all cultural material that make them look that way ?
You wear a lot of makeup do you, Brian?
Go to http://nofilmschool.com/2014/01/photoshop-boggie-nouveau-parfum-music-video/ to see how it was done in reality :-). Cool result though!