Gender identity under Nazi control
When condensing my essay for a poster, I first shortened my title in order for it to be snappy and intriguing to viewers. I approached t e rewriting process by highlighting and understanding my most important findings before condensing a d simplifying my points.
Discussing the impact on gender identity for women, I briefly discuss physical perceptions associated with femininity and traditional gender roles for Jewish families for the women to maintain strong emotional bonds. I chose to u se the portraits of a woman in the nazi concentration camps to demonstrate the shaving of the head, and the early stages of lack of sleep and nutrition evident by her darkened under-eyes in the first picture and hollowing bone structure. I then discuss the gender-specific trauma Jewish women experienced under Nazi control, partially discussing the mental toll of this without going into too much detail as these may be triggering topics but important f actors that must still be discussed.
When discussing how members of the queer community I used an image of gay men being marched through a camp to demonstrate the use of the triangle as a means of identification. I also chose these pictures as obviously some images from the holocaust are disturbing to sensitive viewers and I would not want anyone to be deterred from my posters as images of malnourished and injured humans in such horrible conditions are very hard to look at. However, the use of images in contexts such as this is s till very important as victims of genocide must continue to be humanised as people can forget about those who suffered and only picture these people as data and statistics.
I did consider using a graph or chart that might explore the extent of which women in concentration camps were affected by sexual assault and sterility resulting from either procedures or malnourishment, however, there is very little data, often figures cannot be accurate and I was concerned that this would be a more sensitive topic for audience members.
The colour scheme of my poster was important to not only conveying my message but also making an aesthetically pleasing poster to draw the eye. I chose pinks and reds as they are stereotypically associated with feminity, gay men were made to wear pink triangles as identification, and nazi symbolism is red. I chose a feminine font for the title to relate to the topic and be aesthetically pleasing whilst maintaining an appropriate font for the text and the discussion matter is serious. My layout is very simple as I wanted the poster to be easy to follow as it has a fair amount of text and is eye-catching from across the room for easy reading.
