Summer holidays and thinking about 3rd year project

I haven't posted anything on my blog for quite some time now, but I have been focusing on working and catching up with family and friends since I returned to York, so sadly the blog has been neglected. After a tutorial last Wednesday at university, I have made a decision as to what I am going to do for my personal project next year.

I have been interested in feminist theories and women being objects of the mail gaze, since being introduced to Laura Mulvey when studying media at A level . Then recently, when writing an essay on postmodernism, I found myself drawn to the subject once again. This time I found a huge interest in theory books by John Berger such as 'About Looking' and 'ways of seeing'. He talks about women being forever conscious of people observing them and that the way they behave is defined by what they believe other people to think of them.
I am fascinated by women's' behavior and how we almost disguise ourselves with make up and the way we broadcast ourselves through social networking sites, presenting the most perfect versions of ourselves. Young girls have even began a trend on YouTube, where they ask the public whether they think they are pretty or ugly.
Arts student Sophia Roessler from Kansas City Arts Institute brought attention to this absurd trend by fooling the public in to believing she was a young 'misguided teen'. See the article by clicking on the link below.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2109450/Insecure-tween-asked-YouTube-watchers-I-ugly-outs-21-year-old-arts-student.html

 I often watch friends of mine apply there make up before a night out in town, I observe their routines and how everything has to be done in a particular order. What are each of us trying to hide or cover up and why? Why must there be a need for false eyelashes or a change in hair colour?

I am keeping a sketchbook recording female friends and members of my family, and how each one of them chooses to present themselves. I am going to take photographs and hopefully get some short film footage in hope to find an insight in to the characters they created for themselves.

Image is a screen shot of Youtube page when searching for "Am I pretty?"
http://www.youtube.com/results?q=am+i+pretty&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=w1&gl=GB[20.07.12]