Woman as Design - Stephen Bayley

Putting aside the fact that I am in fact female, Stephen Bayley's account of 'Woman as Design' is expressed in such a patronising and flawed manner. The back cover blurb states, "Stephen Bayley discusses how the female body works as a sign, a symbol...as a designed object." Anyone else find that a tad offensive?

Bayley explores the female body and its relationship to design by addressing feminine curves, proportions, fissures and orifices and insisting that they have acted as inspiration over centuries for designers, architects and even car-makers.

BBC Radio 4 - Stephen Bayley and Vicky Richardson (the editor of the architecture and design magazine Blueprint) join Jenni Murray to discuss the arguments.

My favourite quote from this interview asks as the opening line of debate: "has he reclaimed images of the female body, or produced a coffee table playground for perverts?".

Bayley insists that his intention for the book did not diffuse from a sexist gorilla point of view but in fact a 'romantic appreciation as a robust heterosexual'
Vicky Richardson in turn addresses the uneasy first response that a book of this calibre stands to break the rules of political correction and that the feminsts amongst us will no doubt hold serious issues with the content.

The language is a confusing mixture of medical literal description with pornographic insinuations, even though he appreciates Andrea Dworkin's stance as a radical feminist, the imagery used could be described, out of art circles, as semi-pornographic.

How influential is the female form in ever day...?
Bayley seems to see sex everywhere and in everything, somewhere in the literature he refers to the number 3 rotated 90 degrees as a reflection of the female form. As he discusses, female symbolism is in architecture, and uses Vitruvius as an example, even pointing out the theory of antiquarians in that the initial plans of the Christian church revolve around the diagram of the female reproductive system; the porch as the entrance, the nave as the birth channel and the apse as the womb.

The human form is of course central to design as design is essentially created for humans and the argument that artists have long used the female form as a basis is a little narrow minded in my opinion as La Corbusier, Leonardo Da Vinci used humans as starting points but not necessarily and specifically the female form.
The overall theme is that the female form is perfection and modern product design cannot replicate the magnificence of it, he even questions: 'Could a modern day designer handle the complex area between a woman's legs...?' The innuendo is of course intentional.
This is a strong movement in design biomimicry, as human beings we can never come close to the perfection of nature which is becoming a huge issue as we try to improve on nature itself.

The female form isn't flawless and perfect so I find it tricky to comprehend Bayley's arguement that the childbirth, sex, urination and varying amount of wobbly bits is perfect design.

Post feminist awareness allows the once perceived wickedness of men objectifying the human form to be dull and Bayley arrogantly states that as a society we are now sophisticated in our interpretation of women and so not a bad thing in this day and age. Generously he devotes 10 lines at the front of the book to significant female artists such as Frida Kahlo and Paula Rego.

The image that provoked the most reaction (the shock image) was the juxtaposition between the Ford Edsel motor car (see right) and the vagina which pretty much sums up the basis of this argument.
Although the images are lavish and the high production finish of the book is quite sublime, the juxtaposition between the images and female form undermines the humanity of great art and just sees sex.

To close this review and sum up the general reaction I received from this book I'll leave it up to Stephen Bayley to articulate this:
'It was Simone De Beauvoir (reputation as key figure in feminist awareness) who pointed out that Brigitte Bardot has had as much positive influence on the French economy as the Renault cars.'