Photomontage Hijack Part 1

          

The subjects I wanted to explore for my hijack photomontage were sexism, LGBT+ issues, and American propaganda. I had a hard time with this assignment because I didn't know exactly what it was that I wanted to comment on about these topics. For the Marilyn hijacks, I wanted to explore the idea of the limits of beauty as a currency for women; the limits being aging, other peoples' perceptions, and self-image. 

For the first photo, my hijack includes tears and fangs.
"Is she sad or happy?" is what I would want the viewer to wonder for the tears version. The fangs version is my way of commenting on the perceived digression of a woman's value as she ages, and the immortalization of her youth and beauty. 

The story behind this photo is that a newspaper journal called Monroe 
"cheap and vulgar" for dress that she wore to a part one evening. The journalist also stated that the starlet would look better in a potato sack. Monroe was often type casted as the dumb blonde bombshell and was even suspended from her filming contract at one point for refusing to take on another role like that. I wanted to play around with the "bimbo blonde" and "dumber than a sack of potatoes" sentiments. I think this one can use a lot more conceptualizing though.

The other photos I share here that depict couples are pretty straight forward. I just would swap the male figure for a woman for LGBT+ representation. It's not a remarkable statement but I'm not even really trying to make a statement necessarily, just trying to have the couple exist as these couples do.

For the American themed images, I wanted to explore hypocrisy and propaganda in media and in American symbols. I thought maybe my hijack for this photo was too much but with the unrest that has been occurring in the past decade, gun violence and issues of white supremacy are issues that affect us all. My meaning behind the hijack is that liberty has been tainted by violence and oppression.