Group Rhetorical Analysis

I will once again refrain from posting the images discussed in this post for copyright reasons, and will instead post this pin-up girl since it is related to the section I had to re-write. :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pin-up_girl

Rewrite of my section of Brumberg's essay:

In a culture that continues to value the physical appearance of a woman, it has unfortunately become commonplace to turn the rites of passage for young women that once held great symbolic meanings into commercialized celebrations of beauty. For a simple example, take a young girls first party. Lauren Greenfield captured four young girls attending the first party of their seventh grade year. In the photo, the girls are all posing, and they are heavily made up as well as in clothing that is quite tight and mature for their age. Greenfield seems to be showing her audience of other women and individuals that have peaked interest in girl culture that the purpose of these rites of passages has become warped in today's society. She is enhancing the idea that these girls, instead of being excited to go out and have a fun night with friends, are more concerned with their sexualized poses and physical appearance. In fact, one of the girls does not even seem to be happy about going out with her friends; it just seems to just be about getting pretty. Another example in which a more serious rite of passage is affected is during a quinceañera. The quinceañera is a tradition within the Spanish culture that celebrates a girls fifteenth birthday. In the photo Greenfield shows, the girls look rather nervous and dissatisfied with their formal appearance. The photographer wants to broadcast that these once crucial and heavily weighted moments in a young girl's life have now been deduced to materialistic celebrations. Thus, when a girl is taught this at a young age, it teaches them to be accepting of the roles men play in their objectification.

While there are a countless number of men that do not objectify women, there is still a fraction that does and/or allows it to happen. One prime example of this is the photo that Greenfield took in Panama City, Florida during spring break. In that photo, a girl has her legs wrapped around a man's waist, and her head bent back into the crotch of another man. In this way she is pretending to perform oral sex on one man while almost having intercourse with another. While it all may be supposedly in the spirit of spring break, does no one find it disturbing that we think that it "is a part of the spirit of spring break"? Here, Lauren addresses a multitude of women and men by putting this photo out there and saying, look at how this looks from a spectator's point of view. Women were once considered pure, and after seeing that photo, people are not so sure of that statement. Another example of how men can play an audience or a role in the objectification of women can be seen in the photo that Greenfield takes of a pornographic film star with her coworker. The focus of the image is the woman's breasts, body, and unhappy facial expression. By closing up on her body, Greenfield throws into our face how the man has hands draped across her arm and right under her breast across her stomach. The fact that the man's face is not even being shown demonstrates just how focused the image is on her and what he is doing to her. Furthermore, it is clear that she is not enjoying the experience (as can be seen by her facial expression). In today's culture, it has become part of the norm to both objectify women, and turn the once spiritual and mental rites of passage into sad events that focus on the appearance and "beauty" of these girls.

SOAPSTone paragraph:

The first S stands for speaker in this case is the photographer Lauren Greenfield. Each time I needed to introduce an example, I used her name in the introductory statement. The O is for occasion, and for each photo was actually the context of what was in the picture (in some cases, there were captions). I introduced those as I introduced the photo as well. The A in soapstone is the audience, and that is of course girls, and anybody that is interested in "girl culture" which can include men as well. The P is for purpose, and while the photo essay had an overarching purpose, each photo served its own reason for being in the essay. This statement typically followed the example of the photo and addressed why thee picture was important to understand. The second S stands for subject, and just as purpose does, it changes for every photo. In some cases it was the multiple girls going to a party, and in others, it was a single woman expressing discomfort at being touched and half naked. Moreover, by using all the rhetoric from her photos, Lauren Green was able to create a sort of grotesque tone in which she shows how disturbing the changes in girl culture have been over the years. 

Here is the link to the group outline.
I commented on Arrick's and Michael's blog posts. :)