Designer Pussy: The Role of Graphic Design as an Arbiter of Gender Representation

Abstract

Paterson evaluates how graphic design plays a role in the visual representation of gender. By discussing how ideas of contemporary feminism operate through the graphic manifestation of vagina and vulva. Particular focus is given to graphic designs’ ability to create gender mythology through designed forms and the transitory nature of gender. Paterson uses an eclectic range of graphic design outcomes to discuss and connect the use of female genitalia. Highlighting the experience of gender as a mediated-design construct, Paterson explores ideas relative to activism, censorship and pornography examining why and how genitalia is graphically concealed or revealed through the practice of graphic design. This chapter uses female genitalia as a means of discussion to examine a range of perspectives associated with gender conscription and commodification.