Further development

The more practical work the more my idea for my final creative element for this project changes. For my three final pieces I want to intertwin my poetry and digital art together and focus on the meanings the fruit can have and portray rather than having a direct link to the context which is something that I will try and focus on within the essay part of the assignment. With this being said I wanted to look at words and sentences associated and directed towards these specific body types and features.

Pear-shaped body, apple-shaped body and peach: A pear-shaped body is a body type that features wider hips than shoulders and a smaller bust. The narrower top is why it is associated with the pear hence the name however it can have negative connotations due to the term pear-shaped being "used as a slang term which describes an event or situation that has taken a bad turn." (Language humanities, 2022) meaning it can almost act as an insult. Because of the pear-shaped body type have wider hips, bum or thighs it links to the peach being used as slang for bum. Words associated can include thicc which means having "having a full, attractive figure" (Collins, 2023), "fatness" or "blubber" (The free dictionary, 2023) which also have negative connotations. Apple-shaped bodies also have this association with the apple-shaped body type having a " larger waists and carry a lot of weight around their abdomens" (mayoclinic, 2023) with the ideas and associations of having health problems. This highlights how some of these labels for body types might be problematic.

Artist research:

Because I moved into and have used digital art of my final pieces I thought it would be beneficial to see other artist who use fruit in their work. I am hoping to find some that have ties to some who link their work to ideas involving women to build a stronger case to why have chosen this medium for my work.

An artist that paints realistic fruit is polish artist Dennis Wojtkiewicz. His work is visually stunning using a variety of colours and I feel showing fruit in a way that it would never normally get looked at. It displays fruit in a beautiful and captivating way, the large scale work he does I feel emphasizes the detail fruit has and reinforces that it is truly captivating. Examples of his work are below and are from his website: http://www.wojtkiewiczart.com/work#/recent-work/

Lemon Series #18

Pastel on Paper

14 1/2” x 29”

Peach Series #10

Pastel on Paper

16” x 29”

Another artist is Stephanie Sarley (https://stephaniesarley.com/about/), an American artist who uses photography and videos to "boldly challenge how sexuality is perceived and define". I feel this artist is a good example to link to my work because she highlights the sexualized connotations fruit can have, which is something I have touched upon within my work. Her work is also slightly uncomfortable due to the nature of not seeing work like this often but also due to the fact that ideas about sex and sexuality is still very taboo, secretive and personal in todays society, so is still difficult to process and a shock when shown so boldly.

Other artists include:

Linda Nochlin

Natalia LL: "LL directed a group of young female models to provocatively eat a selection of sexually suggestive or phallic foods—bananas, sausages, ice cream, and jelly. Through the performance, the male body became a product for consumption" () This is the opposite to what I am doing as I am trying to show how men can be a consumer but still a valid piece of work in terms of understanding how fruit can be used.

The sexualization of food becoming a problem:

the sexualization of food in general has become a societal obsession and is potentially problematic when you think about the stereotypes and pressures that both men and women can have due to this. Sexualizing food has even made it to mainstream TV with Nigella Lawson incorporating it into her cooking show not only Nigella Lawson does this even "Jamie Oliver describes pretty much everything he is about to cook as "sexy"" (The Gaurdian, 2023). With these ideas filtering into society and normalizing the concept of sex and food why is it shocking when advertisements do this.

Many ads use this link and the sexualize women as well as the food. An example of this is OH ad not as guilty.

This ad uses fruit to imply women's body parts to increase consumers, which is implied to be a male consumer. It’s clear that the ad is trying to be seductive by the way it says ‘not as guilty as it looks,’ but the specification for which gender’s body parts are being shown is all socially constructed. There is nothing explicitly said to link the fruit to women,however, even though almost all humans have a buttox and nipples, we automatically view these body parts as female. This is the result of the overwhelming amount of ads of women sexualization being associated with food. Seeing women as inherently sexual has now become subconscious thought as men’s body parts are rarely shown to advertise anything, let alone used to advertise food or drinks using these body parts as a reference for sex.

Advertisements like this reinforce my ideas about how companies use women and women's bodies to gain male custom but also how the male lens is still dominant in the media world.

References:

Artsy (2016) 8 Women Who Turned Food into Feminist Art. Available at: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-8-women-who-turned-food-feminist-art (Accessed: 04/01/23)

Collins dictionary (2023) Thicc. Available at: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/thicc#:~:text=(%CE%B8%C9%AAk%20),having%20a%20full%2C%20attractive%20figure (Accessed: 02/01/23)

Language humanities (2022) What does the Term "Pear-Shaped" Mean? Available at: https://www.languagehumanities.org/what-does-the-term-pear-shaped-mean.htm (Accessed: 02/01/23)

Mayoclinic (2023) Apple and pear body shapes. Available at: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/metabolic-syndrome/multimedia/apple-and-pear-body-shapes/img-20006114#:~:text=Print,of%20weight%20around%20their%20abdomens. (Accessed: 04/01/23)

The free dictionary (2023) Big butts. Available at: https://www.freethesaurus.com/Big+butts (Accessed: 04/01/23)

The Guardian (2023) Let's end our obsession with making food sexy. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/dec/11/sex-food-obsession-nigella-steven-poole (Accessed: 04/01/23)