Blood, Gore, Intestines, Oh My!

This post will be the second in my series of guest blogs. This "Walking Dead"-inspired post is brought to you by Elizabeth, another great blogger, who writes primarily on her blog Wrapped Up In Words. Enjoy! 

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Hi everyone! My name is Elizabeth Woo, coming all the way from a blog called Wrapped in Words, to guest blog for Nicole. Take 1.

One thing you should know about me before I begin, is that I am a huge fan of this small, award winning show called “Walking Dead,” maybe you’ve heard of it. While I watch it for its killer (literally) plot, I also watch it for the gore. Despite knowing it’s make-up at its finest, the show uses the gore to realistically create scenarios with all the raw emotions and actions that follow. For example, if an arm needed to be amputated, how would it look? How would it be done? What would be the emotions? Covering up such a scene by cutting directly from one scene where he has two arms to another with one arm, seems a bit like avoiding our own shadow.

However, it turns out that the place we need the truth and reality the most, aka the media, doesn’t provide them. In response to the Boston Marathon bombings, the Daily News published the front page with a large picture of a woman lying in a pool of blood. This was the picture they posted:

Pretty powerful, right? Until Andy Neumann, a sports designer at Gannett’s Louisville Design Studio, thought something was a little off. He was right; Daily News had doctored the picture. Take a look:

As many criticisms for the apparent violation of journalistic principle poured in, I was both upset and yet curious. Why did they erase the gore? Daily News was far from the only newspaper to censor images, the Atlantic and Gawker both opted to censor their pictures. Why? As Charles Apple puts it, “If you can’t stomach the gore, don’t run the photo. Period”.

According to the Observer, the decision to publish the gore was mainly dependent on two questions: Does the gore advance the story? Does the gore infringe on the subjects’ privacy? In the case of gore advancing a story, author Jim Lewis pointed out the dangers of photographs becoming “horror-porn.” In other words, pictures that simply captivated audiences through its gore, without providing important information. On the other hand, after photos of the 2010 Haiti earthquake were published Valerie Payean-Jean Baptiste, a Haitian school teacher, referred to the pictures as a “cruelty,” making money on their pain and suffering.

We live in a society where the culture is deeply embedded in visual censorship. In fact, the New York Times in 2008 noted that, “after five years and more than 4,000 American combat deaths, an exhaustive search led to only a half-dozen photos of dead American soldiers.” While it is important to pay due respect to the ones being photographed, Washington Post Picture Editor Bonnie Jo Mount argues that it might be detrimental for us to not see visuals that we need to see. If we continue to avoid seeing the reality of a situation, there is the risk that we might be misled, misinformed, and in the dark.

In an age when taking photos and sending them halfway around the world can be accomplished in simply 2 button clicks, we must ask ourselves which pictures we decide to share and which pictures we decide not to share.

One Photo Truly Worth a Thousand Words

Today's post features a guest writer, Stephanie, who will examine a truly incredible photo used on the cover the most recent Special Report of TIME Magazine. Feel free to check out her blog for more interesting posts. Also, I will be guest-blogging on another great blog called "The Numbers Don't Lie", so feel free to check that out as well!

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Photos and paintings have the power to move us in different ways. They may stir anger, sadness, joy, and even a combination of different emotions. Oftentimes a photographer takes a photo to make a statement or capture an intriguing moment. It is no wonder that people frequently say "A picture is worth a thousand words."

In light of the Boston Marathon explosion, Time Magazine released a special tablet issue. The cover photo shows a close image of a frightened toddler, with blood smeared into his disheveled red hair, being carried by a police officer. It is headlined "Tragedy in Boston." Unlike several other images I have seen after the explosion, this one does not show any open wounds and is not explicitly graphic. Nevertheless, the photo is still emotional. The response to this cover, however, has been mixed. Many have responded that the photo is heartbreaking and moving, while others believe the media has gone too far. 

But it is precisely these types of photos and the reactions they generate that draw public attention. Instead of using a photo of a man/woman on a stretcher or of the explosion itself, Time specifically chose to place a little boy on their cover. His expression clearly depicts terror—a sign that perhaps he will be forever scarred with the moment he just lived through. Some Twitter users stated that the image gives “the bad guys” exactly what they wanted—proof that the explosions could affect not only the people at the marathon, as well as the youngest and most innocent; but also cause the entire nation to stir. 

The appearance and details of a photo tell a story. As I look at the photo, I associate the boy’s messy hair with chaos; the blood on his head with an act of terror or violence; and the police officer with help. I do not need to read a page of text to understand that this event will be historic. The image, in many ways, is a shortcut. 

We live in an increasingly fast-paced society. Personally, I do not have time to stop and read every single current event. However, I do have time to skim through news photos and their captions. A photo will often tell me the gist of the story or and important aspect. By seeing it, I also know whether I want to take more time reading about the situation. Perhaps the simplicity of viewing an image as well as the power that an image can possess is why many social networking pages, apps, etc. have become media oriented (for example, Instagram, Pintrest, and SnapChat). In any case, Time Magazine succeeded in finding a photo that represents the Boston explosions, as well as drawing attention to their digital cover. 

It's All in the Packaging

Going grocery shopping has always been something that I enjoyed to do. However, only recently have I started to pay attention to the actual products and how they are being sold. I mean, you can't blame me. It is so easy to just stroll into a store, particularly Whole Foods, and instantly become captivated by the plethora of fruits, vegetables, artisan soaps and snacks that they are selling. It was enough to distract me from actually considering why products are sold in the fashion that they are and how that indicates something about American culture.

The first question I had to answer was "What makes Whole Foods products so enticing?". I truly do not believe that I am the only one who finds Whole Foods somewhat more exciting than the conventional supermarket. But why? What I realized was that it has to do with how everything appears...how everything is packaged. First, I walk in and see an array of vibrant fruits and vegetables, perfectly stacked with signs reading "Oranges from Spain" or "Organic Strawberries". Then, moving further into the store, the consumer is bombarded by beautifully packaged breads and cartons of eggs, each with a heartfelt story that often takes the reader on a beautiful journey about how that item was produced. Are you beginning to see where I'm going here? It's not the actual food that is mesmerizing, it's the experience, the packaging and the aesthetics. 

The first time I had heard about this concept was while reading an excerpt from a book called The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Pollan spoke a lot about how grocery shopping has become more of a literary experience, where individuals choose items based more upon their connection to a product's "story" and its appearance, rather than just the type of food itself. While I was initially skeptical, the more I thought about this concept, the more I began to believe it. 

Whole Foods does really go out of its way to give customer's a great experience, from the overall appearance of the store to the little messages they put on their baked goods. It seems like customers, including myself, are beginning to pay more attention to the aesthetics rather than the actual products. While this is, in some ways, a somewhat cool shift, it also poses some serious concerns. For example, if we are becoming so mesmerized by the stories companies write about their food and getting caught up in this sort of fantasy, aren't we ignoring the realities of food production? What I mean is that even though there may be a beautifully written story on a milk carton about how happy the cow that produced the milk was or how nice the farm was, do we believe that? Companies are still often big businesses and will do whatever they want to make a sale. So those beautiful stories are often exaggerations of what is really going on. And how about meat? Meat-producing companies are becoming increasingly conscious of how they package and advertise their food...often to distract from the actual production of the meat that they are selling. It seems like sometimes, people will get so caught up in the advertising, that they forget about the realities of mass food production, which often include cruelty, huge factories, and messy slaughter. So, while it's often a refreshing experience to enjoy all the distractions Whole Foods has to offer (trust me, I love it!), it's also important for consumers to remember that the aesthetics and appearances are usually airbrushed.

A New Lens for the Microscope

Compelling characters are often the backbone of good novel. While many observations about the individuals within a novel can be made just by reading the novel casually, critical lenses are always helpful to bring in fresh perspectives. Having recently read Hamlet by William Shakespeare, I was able to thoroughly explore the feminist lens. With this lens essentially exploring how certain authors, especially male authors, represent women in novels, I was essentially able to look at the female characters in a completely new light. How are these women really portrayed?

The feminist lens certainly reveals something interesting: women often appear differently in books than men do. This doesn't even hold true exclusively in literature; almost all forms of media display this. Women are constructed differently. For example, it has been a common dispute in past years regarding women being displayed as the "damsel in distress, always needing the male figure to come save her. While this may not seem like a big deal, I've started to realize how prevalent this is. Countless children's books and fairy tales embodying the same preset: the idea, as feminist critics say, that the women are represented as the "other" or the "lacking" individual. They are often the oppressed ones, the ones stuck at home performing chores, or creating some sort of inconvenience that must be resolved by their male counterpart. By growing up around these stories, it sets a certain standard in which society views women, which subconsciously stays in an individual's brain as they grow up. The feminist lens, when this individual grows up, can then help them answer the questions: Why are women always looking a certain way? Why are women appearing in the same fashion...doing the same things?

Instead of taking the portrait painted of women in novels and films so literally, the feminist lens allows the reader or viewer to delve deeper into the reasoning of why the woman was painted that way. Particularly, the upbringing of the author, the circumstances or societal norms may have dictated how the author portrayed the woman in the novel, exposing questions about the stature of women in society at that time as well. The feminist lens's ability to explore women's roles in a given work as well as tie that to the role of women in society either currently or during the author's time period certainly provides a well-rounded and in-depth look at a certain topic. Additionally, it helps paint a more detailed picture of women and their role in novels and works of art and media, making it a valuable lens for a reader or viewer.