Athletic Upskirting at the Australian Open
In addition to being a (sometimes) illegal pastime of amateur photographers on subway trains and public staircases the world over, upskirting has long been a mainstay of fashion, advertising, and stock photography. It’s no surprise, then, that it pops up occasionally in the realm of sports photography in athletic...
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Weaponized Entitlement: Book Cover Frames a Gun-Toting Clinton as Deviant, Dangerous
Clinton’s frontrunner status should be a major advantage, but a gendered narrative suggests she is bullying her way to the nomination.
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Nate Silver Closes the Curtain on Hillary
Since the aim is to challenge the news narrative framing Clinton, the choice to lead with this photo is both puzzling and problematic.
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Behind the Niqab: The (Male) Photographer's Perspective of Life Through the Veil – Part 2
The ability to frame a shot and have that image published in and discussed by major outlets is a privilege. Unfortunately, that privilege is too often reserved for men.
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Human Trafficking Awareness and Photographic Ensnarement: A World Press Winning Portrait
Despite the photo’s potential utility, however, it also raises important questions about the ways in which well-meaning outsiders and journalists depict the problem of human trafficking.
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The Battle for Fangirls '16. Or: "Look Dad, it’s Hillary Fuckang Clintaaaaaaaan!!!!"
On Hillary Clinton and the early contest for the hipster millennial female swing voter.
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The Focus on Janay Rice: The Pictures are Powerful, but Why are They Necessary?
Visuals that train the focus on Janay Rice rather than her husband play into the narrative that Ray Rice and the Ravens worked hard to construct—this is a marital problem rather than a criminal offense.
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Pictures Beyond the Veil: The Hijab and Free Choice
Although compulsary veiling is certainly a violation of women’s civil rights, the act of unveiling can similarly obscure women’s identities.
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#BringBackOurGirls: The Complex Optics of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation
The controversy over the politics of representation in #BringBackOurGirls must be used to bolster the broader campaign for women’s safety, autonomy, and right to consent.
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On the Move: 18 Visual Scholars Reflect on Previously Unseen JFK Assassination Photographs – #2
We at BagNews were interested in bringing a deeper visual analysis to the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. Accordingly, we invited a broad group of distinguished visual scholars to provide us with brief responses to unknown photographs from November 1963. This is the second of a three post...
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Augmented Mannequins Figuring Prominently: The Globalization of Barbie
As the Times tells it, the mannequins are the brain child of factory owner Eliezer Alvarez, who “created the kind of woman he thought the public wanted—one with a bulging bosom and cantilevered buttocks.” The strategy worked.
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Hillary: Like Any Good Rorschach
Of course, in the contemporary media landscape, being old is a far greater crime for women than is being inauthentic.
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Hillary Clinton Eyes Members of Congress (and a Presidential Future?) During Benghazi Hearings
Although Clinton takes politics, public policy, and diplomacy very seriously, these pictures suggest that when it comes to facing her critics, Hillary Clinton may, indeed, get the last laugh.
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Haute-Couture Heroes (or: Sandy’s in Vogue!)
Now that the Congressional tussle over the Hurricane Sandy relief fund has subsided, the nation can return to the important work of capitalizing on the disaster.
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Boys' Club Back? White House Gender Do-Over
Did criticism of Obama’s “boys’ club”—I mean, cabinet appointees—prompt the administration to choose this bland shot of a routine sit-down with advisors as yesterday’s White House “Photo of the Day”? It’s surely no coincidence that this image was highlighted the day after the New York Times published a similar...
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Brzezinski’s Vanity Fair Kick a "Pol Dance" for Scarborough
So, why did she do it? “Erotic capital” for women in broadcast journalism?
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Woman Seduces Asparagus: Newsweek, Food Porn and the Foodie Patriarchy
The Newsweek cover positions women as neither purveyors nor consumers of culinary high culture. Instead, like the accompanying asparagus, they are objects of desire.
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Yahoo CEO Ushers in Rise of the SuperNewMom
We’ve all heard of a pregnant pause, but for some women, childbearing no longer means pausing one’s professional life. Enter, the “supernewmom.”
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