#4470. Grinning at horrors: gender and visual triumphalism

August 2026publication date
Proposal available till 13-05-2025
4 total number of authors per manuscript0 $

The title of the journal is available only for the authors who have already paid for
Journal’s subject area:
Visual Arts and Performing Arts;
Communication;
Places in the authors’ list:
place 1place 2place 3place 4
FreeFreeFreeFree
2510 $1340 $1170 $1000 $
Contract №4470.1 Contract №4470.2 Contract №4470.3 Contract №4470.4
1 place - free (for sale)
2 place - free (for sale)
3 place - free (for sale)
4 place - free (for sale)

More details about the manuscript: Arts & Humanities Citation Index or/and Social Sciences Citation Index
Abstract:
This article offers a reading of visually and ethically disturbing images, published over the past two decades, that have earned far-reaching exposure: photographs of male and female soldiers grin as they observe horrific sights. Perhaps more than other visual elements in these photos, it was the female soldiers’ smiles against the backdrop of atrocities that gained a greater presence in the eye of the media storm that had ensued, earning far more attention than the smiles of the soldiers’ male counterparts. Indeed, this visual imagery directly indicates the construction of femininity and masculinity within militaristic-cultural contexts and dictates its own ideological perceptions and moral judgments. This article comprises three pivotal interpretations, and while each framework construes the meaning of the smile in its own way, gendered visual literacy underlies all of them. By using this case study in order to point to visual literacy’s seminal role in critical interpretation, we aim to demonstrate the cruciality of feminist visual literacy in a multi-dimensional analysis of visual imagery.
Keywords:
feminist visual literacy; militarism; photography; Physical gestures; professional smile; ready smile; trophy shots; visual semiotics

Contacts :
0