User:Nsymanski/gap analysis

Gap analysis

 * What is the title of the article in which you identified a gap. If no article exists at all, what should the title be?

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, specifically the section on her project entitled "Stop Telling Women to Smile."


 * Document the gap you found, describe how you identified it, and analyze its impact on knowledge.

While the current Wikipedia page for Tatyana Fazlalizdeh describes her work in oil painting and involvement in the campaign Stop Telling Women to Smile, it does not engage with the significance of the movement in the realm of feminist street art. Fazlalizdeh’s biography is short, but because she has her own web page, I felt that the description of STWTS needed more of a facelift than the artist’s history. The page briefly touches on the nature of the project, but did little to show the interactive community dialogue that Fazlalizdeh has begun and her commitment to making art accessible for public dialogue. It also did not discuss that Fazlalizdeh herself experienced street harassment, and that she used her experience as a woman of color when deciding to feature other women of color in her artwork. I also wanted to update the information following her Kickstarter campaign to let it be known that a significant amount was donated to her cause and that her work was being successfully displayed in cities across the United States. I also felt that the nature of the posters was not being adequately depicted. It is important to note that Fazlalizdeh’s drawings are in pencil, and that wheat paste is a necessary component in displaying her work. I wanted to include a photograph Fazlalizdeh’s self portrait so that the reader would be able to visualize the campaign posters and determine their impact alongside text descriptions of the work, but nothing in Wikipedia's database showed her work and I could not upload it myself since it is not my original content. Because Fazlalizdeh travels and works in communities, the need to mention volunteers that helped put up posters was integral to the mission of STWTS. The actual link to the Stop Telling to Women to Smile website was not listed under this page, so I added it to my sources and would recommend including it in the website.
 * Propose a paragraph of new or substantially edited content based on reliable sources. (If you are editing existing content, post the current version along with your edited version, and clearly mark which is which.)

Fazlalizadeh created a portrait of Michael Brown, an 18-year old man killed in Ferguson, Missouri by a white police officer. Her oil painting of Brown makes use of the hashtag #JusticeForMikeBrown, solidifying her involvement with the empowerment of African American communities. Her activism through art has continued as a part of the movement against police brutality.

By adding images of herself to her campaign, Fazlalizadeh related the STWTS campaign to her personal experience of growing up in a black neighborhood and being heckled on the streets by men around her. STWTS features women of color, a group who is often hypersexualized in public arenas (Berk). This hypersexualization is accompanied by the gendered expectation that women act pleasant and smile when they are approached on the street, despite catcalls and unwanted advances. Notably, the campaign addresses harassment in the place where they are most frequently compromised. The public nature of the campaign not only makes it accessible to all by provoking the feminist pedagogy of art to become a public dialogue. Since her Kickstarter campaign raised $34,000, STWTS posters have been displayed in New York City, Philadephia, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Newark, New Orleans, Washington D.C., Chicago, Portland, and Seattle. These posters are available online and can be printed by the general public. Stop Telling Women to Smile stands with other campaign that have been aimed at ending the harassment of women in public spaces. Examples of these campaigns are StopStreetHarassment.com and Hollaback!. 

Posters in STWTS are different sizes, and are posted in large cities across the United States using wheat paste. The use of wheat paste is significant because it allows artwork to be posted on property without causing damage. The posters feature pencil sketches on paper that is not glossed. This art movement is interactive and encourages vandalism. By interacting with the project through defacement or handwritten comments, the public is achieving the desired effect of interaction between genders ). Fazlalizadeh recruits volunteers when posting her artwork and attempt to engage the communities she visits.
 * List the reliable sources that could be used to improve this gap. (You can use the Cite tool from the editing toolbar above to input and format your sources.)


 * Conner, B. (2015). Faces of feminism: an ideographic analysis of" stop telling women to smile".
 * Douglas, E. R. (2015). Foucault, Laughter, and Gendered Normalization.Foucault Studies, 148.
 * Holmes, A. Street Art as Public Pedagogy & Community Literacy: What Walls Can Teach Us.
 * http://www.womenstreetartists.com/tatyana-fazlalizdeh
 * http://tlynnfaz.com/Mike-Brown-Poster
 * http://stoptellingwomentosmile.com/
 * www.StopStreetHarassment.com
 * http://www.ihollaback.org/