Model: Amielle Morel
Make-up: Jaxy
Clothing: Mystic Rose Kalk Bay, Jacqueline Partridge
Special Thanks: Nerine Dorman

At the end of each week, we add two more images to that month’s gallery collection and feature the images in our weekly newsletter, sent straight to your inbox (which you can sign up to on our home page). All images are the featured works of members of one small seed network, our creative online community. To have your work featured in this series, simply sign up as a member and start uploading now!

We hope you enjoy our collection for the month of February 2012.

Week 04

Mpho H Mokgadi - "Untitled"

Keda - 'Eat Your Heart Out'

Week 03

THE LONG ROAD BACK by Zeno Petersen

SELF IMAGE by Dr-Benway

Week 02

TAKING ON THE SIXTIES by Xander vd Merwe

LIGHT by Jan-Lourens van der Merwe

Week 01

LE VISITOR 3 by SJ van Zyl

MUSE by Janine Kuschke - Van Der Tuin

Laura Mulvey the well known feminist film theorist first developed the notion of ‘the gaze’. A feminist theory developed to highlight the imbalance of power between the genders, and an analysis of the way men view women and how women view other women.  What Mulvey argued was that the way women are portrayed in film and media denied them human agency and relegated them to status of objects through the male gaze, which dominates the view of women in mainstream media. Women in media are fetishized and the stereotypes of women as sexual objects are reinforced. one small seed will take a closer look at the role of women in media, as shown by Mari Sarai,  in the next issue ‘Listen to my Colour & Look at my Sound” – out in stores beginning of January . Here we look at some roles current media have placed women in.

The woman as a secret late-night snack.

Mavericks new add campaign conceptualized and developed by Porky Hefer, markets suggestive fragrances as an alibi for men when they arrive home late after a night at the well known gentlemen’s club. The campaign has gained media focus with the tongue in cheek suggestion that men have an alibi for the night and the suggestion that the fragrance condones and promotes cheating. The advertisements themselves reinforce the fetishized sexual objectification of women, they are scantily clad and in erotic positions, they are sex symbols. The women in the billboards gaze down seductively inviting their objectification. The director of the Family Policy Institute, Errol Naidoo, has his own opinion about this: “Men are raised by the media on a steady diet of sexuality, making it okay to use women as sexual objects. Mavericks’s ads advocate adultery, which leads to divorce, the breakdown of the family, and then the social ills that plague our society: domestic abuse and drug use.”

Women, natural, nude and neutral.

The Great Wall of Vagina, a wall sculpture by Jamie McCartney, features over 400 women’s vagina’s in plaster cast’s. The 9 metro-long polyptych consists of ten large panels of labia’s ranging in ages from 18 – 76. All the women featured are volunteers from different countries and walks of life. The language of the sculpture and the visual language of gridlike rows with plain white casts desexualize the content and render it neutral. Instead the focus shifts to one of an educational nature, as McCartney explains, ‘ For many women their genital appearance is a source of great anxiety and I was in a unique position toy do something about that.’ The sculpture aims to empower women, and combat the worrying trend of designer vagina’s, by showing women a subject that is normally highly sexualized, and taking it out of that context and instead simply saying that no one is the same but different is normal.

Caged and on a leash – a life of Fetish.

Recently the photographic work of Dr Benway, a Cape Town based photographer, was exhibited by one small seed as album of the week. The series of photos entitled Fetish/ BDSM Studies in black and white feature encapsulate the gaze, inviting your gaze into the world of bondage and S and M. How does the camera position it’s female study? In the same way it positions the men in the photographs, as sexual objects. But rather than just being mere objects, their very actions invite a sexual view and you are left a willing voyeur to the tasteful art of bondage and S and M. The black, white and grey tones turn what could be considered light pornography into tasteful but risque’ art.

The Dominatrix.

Ah yes, the dominatrix, a figure which appears to turn the ‘ gaze ‘ stereotype on it’s head. Men who pay women in order to be submissive to them, who like being whipped, beaten and put in the naughty corner. Yes women hold the power but it must be asked is that not only because men have handed them the reigns while they get their rocks off? Can it be seen as women in power when they’re being paid for it? Much like Sasha Grey, the american born former pornographic actress who has since tried to turn that image into porn as performance art. With the release of her book, NEU SEX,  a photo essay of sorts interspersed with essays, Grey has tried to rework her image. But how many people will buy the book only because it features the famous porn stars name? Women who are paid to be sex symbols cannot be considered to have subverted the ‘gaze’ of the male, their power lies only in their own objectification.

The art of entertainment.

Geisha’s have existed since the late 600’s and have encompassed many forms, some trading sex for money but the more traditional form is based on strict moral codes and entertain with the art of music and dance. Far from being subservient or submissive, Geisha’s are trained from a young age to entrance their male guest’s through music, dance and conversation. The lifestyle of a Geisha is strictly matriarchal, women dominate, run, rule and teach in the Geisha houses, men exist as guest’s only, Founded on the principle of promoting independence and economic self- sufficiency, the Geisha figure is a celebration of traditional femininity and feminism. Mari Sarai while born in Japan, takes the female form to a new level with her celebration of the naked form in issue 24 of one small seed.

At the end of each week, we add two more images to that month’s gallery collection and feature the images in our weekly newsletter, sent straight to your inbox (which you can sign up to on our home page). All images are the featured works of members of one small seed network, our creative online community. To have your work featured in this series, simply sign up as a member and start uploading now!

We hope you enjoy our collection for the month of July 2011.

Week 4

My JHB downtown friend by Shaun Francis

Fallen by Dane Dodds

Week 03

Sydney VII by Lauren

Under Ice by Dr-Benway

Week 02

When We Were Young by Elsa Bleda

Human Condition by Reene Wessels