the 5 Annas, 2019, Savannah Bracewell
After having experienced sexist comments from men online regarding her own appearance, to which she took much offense, Bracewell was made to believe she was ‘Asking for it’ by presenting herself in such a manner online. Therefore taking it upon herself to target men specifically in a social experiment across parts of Europe to see how they would approach women purely based on their appearance.
With a performative approach, Bracewell transformed herself into 5 different personas and used the images that were thoughtfully taken, to create Tinder accounts for each and using the images taken as profile photos. With all names, ages, bios and settings the same for each account, she was leaving no room for bias between accounts or the men matched. The only difference between the 5 separate accounts were the types of images each account portrayed. This included themes such as Tomboy, Body, ‘Raunchy’, Housewife and Chill girl – all based on stereotypical interpretations of each. These accounts took on lives of their own, all with the same face behind each. Having matched with thousands of men from across Northern Ireland, London, Ireland, Spain and South of France the reactions from each account vary immensely.
All accounts were open equally and Bracewell had no choice in who the accounts matched with. Each account was active at the same time, In order to keep popularity and consistency and again, no bias, with each account. Using no words and only images to communicate, it was determined only by the public what the final statistics would be for each account. This social experiment has been a very eye opening one. It contains a lot of humour, a lot of cringing and a LOT of surprising comments. Having had no physical or online interactions with these men have allowed us as the viewer, to see exactly how singletons attempt to ‘find love’ within the social media app within a matter of messages.
Throughout it all, there were no intentions of painting the subjects as a certain type of person. This is not a project out to paint all men the same. In fact, it’s believed within this work you may find comments that will surprise you – depending on your expectations. What’s your thoughts on who is asking for it? Is anyone ‘asking for it’? Did those accounts invite those comments to their account because of how the presented themselves on the app? Is there a certain way you can present yourself in order to get the most attention?
