Data Collection

As a part of my primary research I have talked to a group of females about the subject of gender expectations and stereotypes. I have given them a question to think about and answer and I have collected the results below. I sent the question to some of the people I'm shooting and some people who aren't jut to get a varitety of answers. Below are some of the comments I received in reponse to my question -

How do female expectations and stereotypes make you feel about yourself?

One person I asked said the following but wanted to be anonymous - 'I feel like media creates large barriers and walls between what's real and what's not. I don't like the way we're made to look ugly compared to the people on magazines, we're not. Nobody is. It makes me sad knowing that we compare ourselves with it all'

Another person said 'I feel like I have to plaster myself with make up and style my hair a lot each day to be even slightly good enough'

The first comment I received from one of the models I am shooting with on Sunday said the following 'They make me feel like my character and personality is too big for the box they use to categorise gender'

The next was was from Jazmin, another model I intend on capturing for my project - 'Trying to meet societies unrealistic expectations has become so draining that even when trying to be myself I'm still told I'm doing it wrong

Overall I feel like women tend to feel pretty negative about themselves and the way they look. The way the media creates a bubble around the 'perfect person' is what causes a lot of the insecurities within the gender. Everyone has something they want to change about themself from what they've see in others but it's not always realistic. Whether we want longer eyelashes, tanner skin, longer legs, it all boils down to what we see in magazines and on social media and it needs to stop being so unrealistic. Everyone I talked to said something they weren't happy with. Nobody was happy with the way women are stereotyped or the way we are expected to look. I personally feel like we're being fed so much nonsense about the way we should look and the way we should act that it takes up too much of our time and efforts. Everyones forever worrying about how they look and how people are looking at them to think about more prominent issues.