Irving Penn’s gallery was probably the most interesting exhibitions we went to, in my opinion. Two major themes were present at the gallery—animal cruelty and the mistreatment of women.

The first set of artwork that I saw was Morocco Vogue 1971. It features a set of women all covered up from head to toe in scarves. There are no colors in the photo. Instead there are blacks and grays. I’m just going to come out and say it, these photographs made me angry. My initial thought were the Middle Eastern countries, and how women are treated like complete crap. They are beaten if their dress is a little high and shows a part of their ankle. They are beaten if they only look at another person. They are beaten if they do not bear a son. Women are constantly being oppressed and mistreated, even if the reasons are complete nonsense. Now do not get me wrong, I respect the Islamic faith. And for anyone who is Muslim and is reading this, I do not want to disrespect you in any way and if I do, I will take the time now to apologize. Anyway, I understand why women wear the hijab or the burka. These clothing are sacred in that it shows modesty. But, when people, especially men, exploit that and use it as a way to keep women inferior, its just wrong. They are actually going against Islamic views by mistreating women. They keep women subordinate and deprive them of saying or doing anything to fight against the oppression.

Just as Michele said in her post, I also agree that Penn was trying to give these women a voice, to show how despite being locked up and despite not having the right to do anything, they are still human beings just like the rest of us.

The second photograph I saw revolved around animal cruelty. The artwork was called Extreme Beauty from L’Oreal 1986-2007. You all probably saw the photo of the dead turkey head. In one of the posts below, Karen mentions that this was symbolic of how one can find beauty in everything. While I agree with that statement, I do not think that is the case. I think Penn is trying to show how much of an effect testing makeup on animals can have. All of our everyday products—makeup, shampoo & conditioner, body wash, lotion, etc. may have all been tested on animals. And yet we are selfishly using the product. We are all technically supporting animal cruelty. Animals, like little cute bunny rabbits, cats, dogs, etc. are all being forced to subject to the torment. These products are harmful to animals and most, if not all, end up dying painful deaths from being forced to be test subjects. This photograph is an ugly reminder to think twice about that shampoo that “guarantees volumizing hair.” It was probably tested on some poor animal that was left to die right afterwards. Plus, chances are your hair will remain as flat as it was before (I would know, I have thin hair and am always looking for the best volumizing shampoo and conditioner). About a couple of months ago, I started looking and using products that were animal cruelty free and I feel like everyone should do the same. Besides, I started using this new shampoo that was not tested on animals and is actually working for my hair!