Dean Porfirio Goes Global

13 October 2009 | Trinidad: Gender Studies | Vincent Porfirio

The Institute of Gender and Development Studies Presentation Abstract:

http://sta.uwi.edu/news/ecalendar/event.asp?id=1011

Presentation Date(s):

(Monday, November 16 and Tuesday, November 17, 2009)

Title:

“Women and Media: Gender, Consumerism, & Marketing in the Developing World”

Abstract:

The main trajectory of the presentation will analyze how female image(s) are represented through media in developing nations. Moreover, I will question whether or not the image shares an equal footing with that of power and eroticism. This subject (image) is a physical object or person that is reproduced and in many ways manipulated by the technology which records it. We see these images via adverts, sitcom characters, music videos and women’s roles in film. Through the concept of the female image we can pose several important questions. How does the image work to represent sex/gender/sexuality within the constructs of media and more specifically, branding? How does an image work within our perception of eroticism as a form of power or desire? How is this “power” and its link to the image acting in an idiosyncratic, masochistic, misogynistic, subversive, or erotic way? Within this same vein, are these images omnipresent in the sense that they are re-supplying themselves? Are the images negated in some way? Are there specific emblematic aspects or portions of the images excluded from their “selves”? Is this excision (lack or negation) of the image shoring up a social or cultural order? How can we trace this splitting (and/or blurring) of the bereft image from its whole? Are there images (plenary or refracted) in which “sexuality” is always inscribed on the body, or conversely, are there “desexualized” bodies represented? This presentation will open up questions to wrestle with, particularly concerning the manifestation of “female masculinity,” emasculation/“remasculinization,” and artificiality, all of which enact and inscribe interminably within the female image and her presence in developing nations. By placing a critical lens over adverts and “caricatures” of the female from third-world and developing nations, I will argue that shifts (or in some cases, formalized “loops”) have occurred. These shifts are affecting our interpretation of power and eroticism, as well as how they are represented by the image in various modalities.

 Bio:

Vincent Porfirio is currently acting Assistant Dean of Students at The Sage Colleges in New York, USA. He attended the University at Albany for an English Honors degree and a Masters degree in English and Film. He then went on to spend the last four years teaching English 101 and English 220 at The Sage Colleges. While working at Sage he received a second Masters degree in English Education. He is currently pursuing an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership with the Sage Graduate School  and a Ph.D. in Film and Media Studies with the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Vincent is the recipient of the Presidential Award for Undergraduate Research, a Broughton Fellow, Albert N. Husted Fellow, and more recently a Harvard Research Fellow who completed extensive work in South Africa. Vincent’s research has focused on branding and marketing, technology integration, and gender and identity. Vincent currently resides in Albany, New York.

Photo: