Our modern cities have been dominated by men where society has taught women to be vulnerable and take up less space. As a result, women displace their fear onto the urban environment and reinforce their gender stereotypes. How can we unlearn this?
My thesis employs a hypothetical premise which identifies the danger in femininity and asks 'what would a post-fear city look like?'. The re-imagined city of Manchester will provide a space which is free of fear and a place where people can live harmoniously together. The post-fear, ungendered city of Femmopolis will offer a new approach to urbanism. The architectural group, Archigram, have provided a precedent to which my graphic novel can be taken seriously. They produced explorations inspired by their own perceptions of culture and city living. But what would their work look like from a feminine perspective? Their work legitimises my design process as it creates a basis to illustrate a new way of thinking and reverse the perception of fear within a city. As a result, my work produced will aim to create alternative urban scenarios to rebalance power dynamics by addressing the systematic inequalities currently embedded in our society.
