Stereotypes Photo Series:"The World Still Rotates"

I Am The Protector

I am Breadwinner

I Am The Bum

The series I decided to create is about the stereotypes society has given us as individuals specifically pinpointing the outcome it has on women. My inspiration has come from the artist Ana Mendieta and Cindy Sherman. Ana Mendieta was someone who urged others to forget what they were taught or think based on their beliefs towards gender, race, or sex. She represented someone who rather than follow society and its norms, decided to step outside the box and get in contact with the world around herself and in everything that was bigger than inequality of gender, race, and sex. Same with Cindy Sherman, they correlate in the aspect of going beyond what people would expect from a female artist or an artist in general. These two women have influenced me to bring to life my photo series that I titled “The World Still Rotates”. I decided to call it this because in the photos it's me however it's a version of me that is challenging what society tries to push on me as a woman. For example; in one picture I'm a woman but I'm also the “breadwinner male” and the protector of the ones I love, yet the world didn't fall apart because I took on this role. In another, I'm a female letting the male in the family take over the house chores. Meanwhile I'm the one relaxing and getting pampered. My Self portraits are to show the world that it’s okay to break tradition and/or stereotypes, we don't revolve around them. Dare to be different. “She was the first woman who empowered women at the time. Being a woman is an identity problem. We are all every single one of those women that Cindy created.” (Doring-Baez 26). “This woman can stand in for me and for you; she can stand in for the audience, she leads you into history. She’s a witness and a guide.” (Weems 8) "Patriarchal gender roles are assigned to us as children and we are given continual guidance about the ways we can best fulfill these roles." (Hooks 18). The quotes I chose from the past 4 weeks were all ways of inspiring women in society to understand that they don’t need to feel helpless just because society tells them they need to be. They can be that protector, the leader, that breadwinner, the brainiac, and the couch potato all in one same way a man can.