​For the collaboration and collection of work I wanted to find female perspectives on female topics important in past and present media. I started this curation by questioning why certain genres and elements within the film and TV industry have inaccurate and misleading representations of gender. Focusing this collection on my own idea of gender-bleeding on screen, why within specific genres and narratives the portrayals of someone’s gender are ‘played upon’ and misleading for an uninformed audience. In this takeover the eleven pieces of work exhibited within this eleventh edition of PAD: Perspectives in Art and Design, exhibit and discuss themes of feminism, queerness, toxic masculinity, as well as the representation of mental health and disabilities (physical and mental). Looking at these themes through a feminist and queer theory-based lens. The collection of work curated together looks over the last 100 years of film; examining how women and gender have been portrayed within different time periods, film movements and genres, noting on the overall development of gender representation in film over the last century. I conclude this introduction to the exhibition by opening it with an outlined timeframe of key dates, genres, movements and individuals significant in the growth and development of how women and gender are portrayed and received on screen. From the collection of work within this publication there are periods and subject matters discussed in depth, and some that are not due to the current knowledge and understanding there is around these new subject matters important within the society we now live in.

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Jess Whitaker (Editor)​

MA Design History Student, 2024 - 2025 

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