The fashion-y, stylized woman. The non-creative default subject matter. You know her when you see her. If she’s poorly-rendered (and most of the time she is), her nose is as long as toboggan run; sometimes her nostrils are just little black spheres hanging above pointy lips, and, of course, ridiculously large eyes set so far apart you could drive a truck between them. My critical impulse is simply to respond that THIS is to ART what SPAM is to MEAT. But what if it’s my student’s work? How do I do my job: provide actionable feedback to the fashionladyface drawing without humiliating and shredding the self-esteem of my student?
I’m going to keep the Spam analogy, but….soften it? Spam is made of various of pieces of meat, presumably pork. Let’s call those pieces of pork “idealized female beauty + eroticism + the Male Gaze + fashion + the entire panoply of commodities that comprise the cosmetic industry.” This cultural “pork” is visually and cognitively processed by you, by me, by the student, and by everyone within its sphere of influence. Now what? An experiment: what if you add something completely unexpected to that can of Spam? I mean REALLY unexpected, like a habanero pepper, or a whole strawberry, a handful of M&Ms. That would certainly change things. Now that can of Spam is UNIQUE in its image, its feel, its taste, and in our entire understanding of what a can of Spam is supposed to be.
I think it’s important to emphasize that this can of Spam should stay away from being beautiful or delicious. In fact, why not throw in a railroad spike? Make it not only inedible, but dangerous. This is how fashionladyface goes from being ubiquitous to the point of invisibility to something that commands attention and response. So, I have to ask my student, what are you putting in your can of Spam? How far are you going to go? A hard-boiled egg? A band-aid? Broken glass?