Centerfold Syndrome reframes and alters modern advertisements which employ methods of over sexualization of the female body, the male gaze, and other demeaning techniques in order to sell everything from cheeseburgers to make up. Inspired by the “Bad Girl Artists” of the 1980s, such as the Guerrilla Girls and other feminists artists, the works question why society continues to let the capitalist market and male dominated groups manipulate the female body for profit. If the women in the ads had a voice of their own, what would they say about how they are being represented? This collection discusses female power, identity, and sexuality: where it was, where it is, and where it is going. As Betty Friedan wrote in 1963 in The Feminine Mystique, “We have come as far as we can with the male version of equality. We need a new model of equality encompassing female experience, female values that men now begin to share.” What will this look like in art and advertisements?
