09/09/2026
Year 9 artists began this term with a challenging stereotypes project, launched through a workshop originally conceived by Year 10 student researchers.The older students created a ‘Body Mapping’ method, asking participants to construct the ‘ideal’ woman’s body. Themes like slim waists, large hips, and large breasts quickly emerged as common trends. Interestingly, every figure was created in a passive pose.
As a result, when participants tried the second stage of the task—giving their figures a placard to challenge these stereotypes—the placards all ended up limply on the floor. Seeing the repetition of these embedded ideals shocked the participants, but it also opened up a powerful opportunity for activation.
It raised crucial questions: Where do we learn this? Who controls this narrative?
Brining this task into lessons we can expand on this, we explore art history—examining the female n**e, the male gaze, and the historical emphasis on whiteness, slimness, youth, and able-bodiedness—to unpick these engrained concepts.
The Year 9 artists then reclaim this history by activating their figures, changing their passive poses, and giving them placards to share their feelings, concerns, and offer counter-narratives. Some very passionate!
The original Body Mapping project was simply too good to leave hidden on the archive, and it is incredibly empowering to show students that their current lesson was created by their peers.See the original project in all its glory on the CCE website!
