On the 2nd of September, I with my friends from all over the world, attended the First Friday celebration in the Old City. This event happens every first Friday of each month from 17:00-21:00 o’clock, rain or shine, as they say. This aims to acknowledge Philadelphians’ artistic eye and for them to showcase their craft. Not only did this fill our hearts’ passion for beauty, but it also filled our stomachs with good foods from participating restaurants. As an exchange student, and first time visitor of the mainland US, every place I visit brings profound happiness and this genuine feeling of elation from seeing and experiencing something new. Maybe we had this thing back home, but this is my first time attending one, and I can honestly say it
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They were highly artistic and professional and I expected nothing less from someone whose gallery was one, if not the busiest when I visited the city. Looking back at the photos I took, her Instagram, and homepage, I found a pattern with the way she draws especially the features of her lady subject. On one hand, it feels empowering to see beautiful women who are not as objectified and seen beneath men. They weren’t mere eye-candies to attract men and quench their thirst, but real genuine and respected subjects. However, on the other hand, they unfortunately support the ideal beauty standards propagate by the media. Maybe it wasn’t what she wanted, but it was what I took and many others like my friends from abroad who were repeatedly fed by media that white, tall, slender, small face, high nose etc., should be the standards of desirability. Arts is also a form of communication that delivers to viewers what is beautiful, especially when they are that pricey. As Kilbourne said, it tells us how to and what to look like. Moreover, Rapp’s work also supports the social construction of gender that a many group of people is trying to overcome. It’s like a one step forward, two step back process that sometimes well-minded people commit. She said that through her work, she’s telling us the fluidity of femininity, but when you only have one type of woman portrayed, as described above, it loses and negates the “trying to change/ combat female stereotype effect”. Unsurprisingly, people who paid a visit to her exhibition were mostly adults. I can only imagine what they were thinking while staring and ingesting the pieces. Maybe some women were thinking along the lines of “I should look like that. I want to look like that”. Meanwhile, another would be annoyed that she empowers conventional female patterns. Other (shallow) men may find the paintings alluring and bewitching and start looking for women who only bears resemblance to those or worse, closet sexist
They were highly artistic and professional and I expected nothing less from someone whose gallery was one, if not the busiest when I visited the city. Looking back at the photos I took, her Instagram, and homepage, I found a pattern with the way she draws especially the features of her lady subject. On one hand, it feels empowering to see beautiful women who are not as objectified and seen beneath men. They weren’t mere eye-candies to attract men and quench their thirst, but real genuine and respected subjects. However, on the other hand, they unfortunately support the ideal beauty standards propagate by the media. Maybe it wasn’t what she wanted, but it was what I took and many others like my friends from abroad who were repeatedly fed by media that white, tall, slender, small face, high nose etc., should be the standards of desirability. Arts is also a form of communication that delivers to viewers what is beautiful, especially when they are that pricey. As Kilbourne said, it tells us how to and what to look like. Moreover, Rapp’s work also supports the social construction of gender that a many group of people is trying to overcome. It’s like a one step forward, two step back process that sometimes well-minded people commit. She said that through her work, she’s telling us the fluidity of femininity, but when you only have one type of woman portrayed, as described above, it loses and negates the “trying to change/ combat female stereotype effect”. Unsurprisingly, people who paid a visit to her exhibition were mostly adults. I can only imagine what they were thinking while staring and ingesting the pieces. Maybe some women were thinking along the lines of “I should look like that. I want to look like that”. Meanwhile, another would be annoyed that she empowers conventional female patterns. Other (shallow) men may find the paintings alluring and bewitching and start looking for women who only bears resemblance to those or worse, closet sexist