Design competition

This week in class, we have been reading from Part III of the reader. Most of these readings discuss: what difference the gender of the designer makes to design itself, why the under-representation of women in the architecture profession matters, and whether there is a feminist method of design. To explore these ideas, the students have been divided into two design firms, who will respond to the following prompt. Stay posted for the results on Friday!

Feminist Design Competition

In the tradition of existing themed residence halls on campus for first years, which promote ecologically-aware or internationally diverse living communities, Emory University seeks submissions for a new, co-ed residential hall. The theme is “Feminist Spaces.” The goal of the dorm will be to promote feminist community through consciousness raising, community activities concerning the history of women and their status in society, and a shared sense of responsibility around the relationship between gender and space. Students of all genders will be given the opportunity to apply to live in the residential hall.

Submissions must take account of the following:

1. Overall concept: What is distinctly feminist about the residence hall, its spaces, the design process, its inhabitants, and the experience of the space itself?
2. Room layouts: provide a drawing, including furniture, of a sample room, or several if each will be different
3. Floor layouts: the residence hall may only have two floors. Provide one drawing of each floor, indicating the location of bedrooms, bathrooms, and other spaces. Think about what rooms you need, as well as how people will move between them and through the building. Where will they enter and exit? Are there community spaces? If so, how will they be accessed?
4. A choice and justification of location: to make space for the new dorm, Emory will demolish an existing building. Proposals should indicate which building the new dorm will replace and provide a drawing that places the new dorm within the context of its future surrounding buildings. Think about how spaces on campus relate to one another and how you would want a new, feminist dorm to be situated.
5. Residents: who lives there? What do they look like? What are their study habits? What do they do for fun? What are their genders? Are genders segregated or allowed to live together? How will the space provide for the feminist programs and activities the dorm must provide? How will you divide public and private space? Where do RA’s and SA’s live?
6. Research plan: How will you find out information about potential residents and how they will experience and use the space? What examples or sources of information can you draw upon? What knowledge do you already have that can help you design the building?

What is "natural?" What is "fake?"

--Nicole Gage

New York Fries’ advertisement for french fries depicts a woman holding a cup filled with fries,which are described in the text of the advertisement as “real” and “fresh”. Beneath the image of the woman, there is text that reads “Real Fries in a Fake World”. The woman in the image has very clearly dyed, blonde hair, a low-cut shirt, extreme breast enhancements, and a very slim body. On the surface, the advertisement seems to be condemning practices that change the true representation of an individual; however, once examined more closely, it becomes clear that, through their advertisement, New York Fries is merely perpetuating the subjection of women and their roles in society.

The text that is presented in the ad claims that the world is fake, and illustrating this point is the image directly above it. This text can serve two purposes. First, the“fake world” can be interpreted in a constructivist manner. For example, the world could be fake in that the socially constructed reality dictates that women should get breast enhancements and wear tight clothing. Another way to interpret the phrase “fake world”, however, is that women are the representation of what is fake. This creates the necessarily following idea that men are “real”. The division that this short phrase creates can lead to concepts of the self versus other, and can act as a division between genders.

Also, the woman is holding out food, which indirectly places her in the domestic realm of space that is associated with the kitchen and serving men. In the ad, she is not consuming the french fries, so there is no reason to believe that she is not going to serve them to someone else. The fact that the woman is associated with the distribution of food perpetuates the idea that she should be a homemaker or should reside in a domestic sphere.

Finally, the particular spaces that the woman occupies in this image are very important to its overall meaning. The woman’s hand that is not gripping the cup of fries is intentionally placed near her genitals, which is erotic and depicts her as an object to be viewed sexually. Also, she holds the french fries in front of her unnaturally large breasts, drawing attention to her body instead of to the food. Finally, the woman’s breasts are centered in the image and are the first thing a person’s eyes would naturally come across, especially since they are enhanced and take up a large portion of the image to begin with. This also allows people who see the ad to view her in a sexual manner, and detracts from what is supposed to be the ad’s main concern.

Overall, the advertisement portrays women as inferior by calling them “fake”, associating them with the home and food production, and portraying them as sexual symbols or objects. The advertisement also uses the “fakeness” it complains of to sell a product. By attracting people to an image that represents the fake, the company is going against their claim that fake things are unfavorable, and using them to sell fries. The subjection of women can be seen by the image and the text and how they interact, and these ideas are perpetuated as they continue to exist and are used to sell more products.