Getty Images gives us a Visual Trends webinar called #GenderBlend2015 and we want YOU to give us your views.
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It’s been true since mankind drew images on cave walls; if you want to know about a culture, pay attention to the images it produces and responds to.
According to global digital media leader, Getty Images, there is a trend in images that suggests that the way we view gender has changed dramatically and is continuing to change. They call it “GenderBlend” – we want to know what YOU call it.
Pam Grossman, who serves as Getty’s Director of Visual Trends, delivered a webinar last week to cover some of the aspects and implications of this macro-trend. And it is ALL right in the sweet spot of this conversation we want to have here on The Good Men Project.
So we want YOU to take the lead on the conversation. As always, you can put your thoughts in the comments, but if you are a writer and you have expertise, insight, or opinions about these trends we’d love to consider sharing your voice on GMP.
The webinar (embedded below) offers ample fodder for articles. Here are some topics we’d love for you to write about.
Female Risen
According to Getty, women are at the forefront of culture. But there is a trend toward inclusiveness. Their Lean In collection, a year old partnership with Sheryl Sandberg’s Female Empowerment Foundation, LeanIn.org. The new collection is called Lean In Together and it is about asking women to support men who “lean in.” Images in this Getty collection show men and women working together in equal collaboration. The NBA and the WNBA are participating – so if you are a sports lover you might send us a spin from that perspective. Of course we’re going to see impact in the workplace, so if you have a business background tell us what you see there. Where do you think gender equality stands today? What’s changing? What needs to change?
The Evolution of Fatherhood
Grossman reported that searches including the keyword “father” are up 15 percent in the last five years. And the images are no longer dad at the grill or mowing the lawn. Dads are cuddling, they’re cleaning, and they’re having tea parties.
Also cited is a trend called “Dadvertising.” Companies like Swifter, Dove, and Nikon launched campaigns featuring dads in “non-traditional” activities and the old Superbowl standards of busty females and beer guzzling male sports fiends has given way to loving fathers staying home with the kids and loving every minute of it.
Are you a dad? Do you have a dad? Are you raising kids with a dad? How do you think this “flipping the script” in advertising will change the face of fatherhood?
Gender Equity and Children
From President Obama’s toy sorting prowess and his stylish sporting of a tiara, to children’s clothing designs that are not boy’s or girl’s clothes – just cute clothes, the “Post Gender Poster Children” celebrates kids being themselves, without demanding that they adhere to stereotypes.
My Princess Boy, which started as a children’s book, has become a movement. The toy industry has gotten on board too, with gender neutral colored toys in a trend they call “No more Pink and Blue.” And “Let Toys be Toys,” which was the initiative that first demanded the changes, has now spawned “Let Books be Books.” Which all adds up to “Let Kids be Kids.”
We assume you’ve been a kid. Perhaps you also work with kids, are raising kids, or have grown kids. What are your thoughts about letting kids follow their natural inclination about their identity, appearance, and favorite stories and playthings?
Entertainment, Media, and Culture
Gender “norms” have been challenged in entertainment before. We’ve seen transgender characters, and drag queens. We’ve seen stay at home dads, and same sex parents. But we’ve not seen these characters presented as well, normal. And we may not be there yet – but we are seeing shifts.
Some of the entertainers mentioned in the webinar are Neil Patrick Harris and his role in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Laverne Cox in The T Word, and Eddie Redmayne who, just off his Oscar win for The Theory of Everything, has been cast as a transgender woman in The Danish Girl.
But not all the stories are about entertainment or celebrities (Grossman neatly side stepped taking a position on Bruce Jenner) there are plenty of stories about transgender citizens such as Martine Rothblatt, who was featured as “the highest paid female CEO,” and Brooke Guinan who is New York City’s first trans firefighter.
How do you think the portrayal of gender in entertainment and the media will evolve? How will it impact you, your community, and the world?
Fashion
From “Austria’s Beaded Lady,” who identifies as “he” when not dressed as Conchita, but is addressed as “she” while performing, to trans fashion model Andreja Pejic, we’re seeing beauty, talent, and grace celebrated regardless of gender.
Fashion houses are using gender twists to promote their lines too, from Julia Roberts in menswear for Givenchy to menswear designed for women’s shapes in answer to the demand for same-sex wedding tuxedos. Do you love fashion and style? Tell us what you think of these trends and what you expect to see in upcoming collections.
Slash and Blur
This is the term Getty uses as kind of a mashup of all the other GenderBlend trends. It’s about images that aren’t gender specific, a way of, as Grossman says, “treating gender as a nuanced spectrum” rather than a binary decision.
It’s showing up in ads, and articles. And Selfridges in the UK has announced that they will devote three floors to Agender, a “celebration of fashion without definition.” They mean “without gender definition” as the merchandise on these floors is designed to appeal to all genders.
People, the webinar reminds us, want to be treated as people. Not stereotypes. And that seems to be what “Slash and Blur” offers as a possibility. Even Facebook is apparently getting the message – they say they will soon offer 50 different gender possibilities for users to select for their personal profiles.
As the blurring of gender lines becomes more mainstream in the visuals we see every day, we’re even MORE interested (if that is possible) in what that means to the masculine experience in this century.
Won’t you add your voice to the conversation? I’ll even give you my direct email. Send your submission to dixiegillaspie at gmail dot com.
We’re looking forward to what YOU have to say.
The post There’s a New Trend in Town and We Need You to Write About It appeared first on The Good Men Project.