SELLING SEX: SHOWstudio Shop

 It is a well known fact that the majority of images we consume are created by men, and all too often feminism is an easy target for commodification in the wider context of contemporary culture. SHOWstudio has decided to examine this 'self-other' relationship and curate an exhibition about sex, as seen exclusively from a female perspective.
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Marianne Maric, Lamp Girl

Una Burke, Retreat 5 and 6

Ione Rucquoi, Second Skin

Vahage, PonyGirl

We all like to hope that times have changed and the war of the sexes is less like a war and more like a sophisticated dialogue. And yet, when you consider that only 5% of all the artists in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection in 1989 were women, while the Louvre today still has no female artists in their collection of over 35,000 artworks, it's a pretty shocking state of affairs. The facts suggest that the war still needs to happen.

 In Fashion, the leading fashion photographers creating the leading fashion campaigns are mostly men. And it's in Film, where women hold only 33% of all speaking roles and 7% of all Directors in Hollywood are women. And, the real kicker? There are still ONLY three industries in which women earn more money than men - Pornography, Prostitution and Modelling. What does that tell us?

So, its great that Showstudio is giving us the chance to focus on Female image makers and give us the opportunity to look at what womans image of woman. Let's explore such ideas as if woman creates an image of a woman, is the male perspective so engrained that she still creates a to-be-looked at female?

As Showstudio states this is just the start, the beginning of a conversation and one that we hope helps us all emerge just a little more aware of just how male gendered our visual culture really is and be a little less willing to put up with it.

(The statistics in this piece are taken from the Showstudio exhibition preview) 

 'SELLING SEX', set to open on tomorrow March 22, 2012 at SHOWstudio Shop, 1-9 Bruton Place, London