Women on a stage.
In sexy high-heels no less.
The moment in this David Goldblatt image is different from our work. It is also similar.
Are these young women empowered?
Are they objects?
Are they there by conscious choice?
Is there a stage-parent pushing them?
Is the entirety of our culture a stage-parent pushing them?
So many thoughts about identity and other issues rush through your mind when you view the photo the way I’ve cropped it above.
In the wider cropping below those themes are still present… but… well… it’s a wider cropping!
It’s not Boise, Idaho.
Try Boksburg, South Africa.
1980.
I know, I know. Those young women are just having a bit of fun at some sort of event, and the photographer took the picture because pictures of attractive young women are enjoyable to look at. And that’s all. The women in the picture are just normal humans who grew up and had ordinary suburban lives, probably getting ordinary jobs. Can people just enjoy a bit of light-hearted fun without feminist indoctrinations being projected into *everything* anyone does?
PS, as a South African who grew up in the sort of culture depicted in that image (in fact, not far from there either in time or geography), I don’t see anything “startling” at all when you “reveal” the uncropped image. It is strange to me that a foreigner should think there is anything startling being “revealed”.