Intervention One

In the first intervention, we conducted an online chat on Teams with a total of 23 people taking part in the discussion (join at different times). Participants can choose their preferred pronouns and this discussion included 17 She/Her, 4 He/Him, 2 They/Them (Age 18-35). I presented the participants with five prepared questions and opened the discussion. To protect the privacy of the participants, I will paraphrase their answers through text and summarise them.

Q1: Are you satisfied with your body?

I was slightly surprised by the answers to this question. All women feel dissatisfied with their bodies for various reasons, such as not being tall enough, not having big enough breasts, not having long enough legs, not enough hair， have too long a waistline and so on. There was even one response about being unhappy with her pinky toe. In summary, the female participants were always dissatisfied with many details of their bodies. Participants of other genders also indicated in this section that they will not find these “imperfect details” described by women in their daily interactions. Only two participants of the other genders were dissatisfied with their bodies, but quite uniformly, they were all dissatisfied with their height.

Q2: What is your relationship to your body?

The answers to this question were more varied. I list below：（SHE+Number, HE+Number, THEY+Number)

SHE 1: Very close female friends who help each other out but occasionally fight.
SHE 2: Competitors. Every time I try to lose weight but my body won’t do what I want.
SHE 3: It might be a bit like parents. I have a poor stomach and whenever I eat spicy food I get sick. But I love spicy food!!
SHE 4: I think the relationship I have with my body just like ice.
SHE 5: I hated my body and even thought about removing my uterus. I am in so damned much pain every time I have a period.
SHE6: My body probably hates me. I had some cosmetic surgery before that left the scar hard to remove.
SHE7: I like my body, but I will wish it could get better.
SHE 8: Sister
SHE 9: Teacher
SHE 10-12: Enemy
SHE 12-15: Friend
HE 1: I’m quite proud of my body, I always keep fit.
HE 2: Friend, I guess
HE 3 & 4: Brother
THEY 1: I love my body a lot. I have a lot of tattoos and most of them my girlfriend tattooed for me.
THEY 2: Couple. We have different opinions and both want to change each other.

Q3: Do you think you dress in a way that others will like?

Most of the answers to this question are YES. Only four answers are NO. I list some answers below (the answers not listed are because only the simple yes or no was answered) :

SHE 1: YES. I’m a buyer and following fashion trends is kind of my daily work. What I wear is also part of the job that I present to my clients.
SHE 2: NO. I’m quite sure what style I fit into and I never change my outfit according to fashion trends. But it’s been in a style so long that sometimes I’m not sure whether I like this style or just used to it.
SHE 3: YES. I was studying at an art school and everyone was dressed up so subconsciously I start dressing up too.
HE 1: YES. My girlfriend will pick out clothes for me.
HE 2: NO. I work out a lot so I mostly wear t-shirts.
THEY 1: NO. I only buy clothes I like.

Q4: What can we do to reject the objectification and sexualization of our bodies by the male gaze?

I list some answers below (Other responses not listed were either no answer or only participated in the discussion) :

SHE 1: It should be difficult. For example, sexy female superheroes in hero movies have been in existence for so long that they become reasonable. I don’t like watching them either if female superheroes aren’t sexy haha.
SHE 2: I also think it’s difficult and can’t think of any useful solutions. There is nothing we can do to stop the male gaze of some people after we post the our photos on social media.
SHE3:There are so many visual products under the male gaze in social media that it’s hard to set a boundary to reduce them.
SHE4:The male gaze has so much impact that I can’t post a photo without photoshopping. I can’t think of any way at the moment to reduce.
HE 1: I think there should be science education so that more people learn to respect women.
THEY1: Popular awareness, let’s say we weren’t sure what the male gaze was before we joined the discussion.

Q5: Are we unconsciously objectifying and sexualising ourselves?

After asking this question the participants thought for a while and asked some questions about themselves to discuss whether they were objectifying themselves. All participants admitted that they had more or less unconsciously sexualised or objectified themselves.

Summary

In the first intervention, the meaning of the male gaze was not very clear to the participants at first. After I explained it, they discovered that there are many situations in everyday life that are a product of the male gaze. Especially in social media, where women are flattened into commodities. The objectification of our selves happens unconsciously under the influence of the wider environment and we have even become accustomed to the presence of the male gaze. Participants from other genders also pointed out that the male gaze also affects them, for example, by comparing the size of men’s genitals or by the LGBT community being ridiculed for being effeminate. Most of the participants found it very difficult to reduce the objectification of women by the male gaze, but they did suggest that presentations or educational outreach activities could be carried out. The first thing to do is to make more people aware of the existence of the male gaze.

Final Planning for Intervention One

The activity will run online and I will be sharing the link of Teams on social media.
In the room of the Teams, everyone will cover their faces and change their voices. I hope this conversation without gender, age or other objective factors.
Firstly audiences who want to share can share what they have encountered on the internet about sexualising their bodies under the male gaze. Everyone can discuss how to deal with such a situation.
Next I have prepared some questions for the audience：

Are you unsatisfied with your body?
Do you think you will now dress in a way that men will like?
Do you think some women look at other women with a male gaze?
Do you think the effects of the male gaze can be harmful to men themselves？
What exactly do we do to to reject the objectification and sexualisation of our bodies by the male gaze?

There are no final answers to every question and I’m looking forward to the answers I can get. I will use the text to record the whole activity and reflect on improvements.

5. Poster

Reflection after the tutorial with Sasha and New Change

The problem Sasha thought there might be with organising an online campaign is that in general we need an actual event to start a social movement, but I didn’t. So Sasha suggested that I could try to start a conversation around the workshops on social media firstly and see how things would develop. After that, I could adjust the intervention based on the feedback. Following the tutorial, and based on my reflections, I made the following changes：

The Change of the Workshop

1.Theme of the workshop：Exploring the cultural suppression of female’s objectification in the online environment. Audiences can attend the workshop’s occasional events and discussion to think about how to reduce the objectification of women in the current online environment

2.All activities in the studio will be videoed and recorded, and consideration needs to be given to how to protect the privacy of the audience.

3.I will be using pink as the main element in the creation of the poster. After finishing poster, I will upload it on social medias.

The Change of the Research Question

How can I help women freely express their bodies online without being objectified by the male gaze?

Reflection after the tutorial with David and New Workshop Design

After the coaching session with David, I began to think about whether the symbols I had created individually were really representative of the group in general. In this way, I also seem to be objectifying and unifying women. I decided directly that the symbol of the campaign is undesirable.At the suggestion of the tutor, I can set up a workshop and invite people related to my project to attend the workshop and create symbol together.

Other groups, such as men and LGBT, should also be taken into consideration. I need to find a balance. Follow-up research and questionnaires are essential, and different groups need to be taken into account when designing the game for the workshop.

Workshop Design（Optional）

1.A4 sheets with the female body on them were handed out to the audience. Have the audience use brushes, paints, scissors and other tools to change.

2. Invite stakeholders to give speeches and discussions based on different topics.

3. Random interviews to collect people’s first responses to male gaze and measures to improve it by using a quick question and answer format.

Intervention One Planning

The first intervention I planned was an online campaign. The campaign will be launched on social media, asking women who have been subjected to the male gaze online to describe their feelings in drawings. I will be using their paintings to create digital wearable accessories and the design will be given back to the corresponding respondent. I will also invite them as models for the shoot. Some details of the plan and forethought I have written below:

1.I wanted butterflies as the main design element, inspired by the butterfly effect. The visual product of each male gaze on the Internet is every little change, but eventually evolves into a chain reaction that can drive the system in a long and huge way. I have listed a few reference diagrams below.

2. Contact relevant cyberbullying and women’s protection organisations to collaborate. The virtual accessories will also be sold on NFT and I hope to work with these organisations to promote them, with all proceeds going back to the organisations.

3. If the production is in reality, is it possible to find opportunities to help women in terms of materials or craft.

The aim of this intervention is to bring together women who have been impacted by the male gaze to see if a community for women can be built. By presenting women’s experiences of the male gaze in an artistic way, it calls for more attention and awareness of the effects of the male gaze on women.