‘according to usage and conventions which are at last being questioned but have by no means been overcome - men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at’
(Berger 1972)
Tendancy to depict the female body in a way that doesn't allow the female to return the gaze
Alexandre Cabanel - Birth of venus
- goddess, virginal picturing of the women
- the position she reclines in allows her to cover her eyes
- technique used in advertising and photography
- 2/3 of picture taken up by the naked body, concentration on the body rather than her character.
Sophie Dahl for Opium
- 3/4 taken up by body
- overtly sexual pose
- advert was deemed to sexual for print or billboards
- image was rotated to make it more acceptable, more focus on the face rather than the body
Titians Venus of Urbino, 1538
- women regards us coquettishly
- knowledge of presence but not succinct recognition
- very passive nude
- covers herself but in a casual manor'
Manet, Olympia' 1863
- titans venus very casual, Manet more defensive
- identifies olympia to be a prostittue
- lifts her head as if she is addressing us
Ingres, Le Grand Odalisque
- basis for a poster for Guerrilla girls
- advertisement stating percentage of male and female nudes
Manet, Bar at the Folies Bergeres
- mirroring of the gaze
- the woman is ready to serve us, arms open standard stance for bar worker
- mirror is used to give an impossible reflection (to the right rather than behind)
- allows her to be viewed in two separate ways
- paris society - hall of mirrors, false social perception
- what is different about this is that she returns the gaze
Jeff Wall, Picture for women
- uses Manet's image as inspiration
- gaze of the women and gaze of the camera reflected in the mirror
- composition is divided up very cleverly
Coward, R
- "the camera in contemporary media has been put to use as an extension of the male gaze at women on the streets"
- nudity on the streets as the norm
- this idea is repeated on billboards
- the use of sunglasses means the figure cannot return the gaze
- free to look because she can't see us
Eva Herzigova, 1994
- wonderbra campaign
- figure looking down on us
- normalisation of nudity on the street
- comedy of the line 'hello boys'
Coward, R
- Peeping Tom
- "the profusion of images which characterises contemporary society could be seen as an obsessive distancing of women, a form of voyuerism.
Male advertisement
- but there are images of women
- although switching it merely reinforces the idea of the gas rather than challenging it
- the quantity is far outweighed by the number of female naked bodies
Dolce & Gabbana, 2007
- men are pictured in a more active pose, rather than womens more passive
- all looking at the camera
Marilyn: William Travillas dress from 'the seven year itch'
- looks at the way the camera breaks up the female body in film
- separate components
Freud
- pleasure of looking at female bodies
- cinema is the perfect place for voyeurism
Lara Croft, Tomb Raider
- active character
- overly sexualised object, pleasure in looking at a sexually exaggerated character
- a visual spectacle to be consumed
- pleasure is in the fantasy of her destruction
Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith beheading Holofernes
- challenging the gaze
- very physical
- alternative character, active female role
Cindy Sherman, Untitled film still
- filmed without the gaze theories in mind
- reclining female, although the image has been rotated to draw attention to the face
- mirror in the womens hand, although there is no reflection
- awkward hand, staged photography not natural
Barbara Kruger, Your gaze hits the side of my face
- turning away from the gaze
- feminist work
- implication of violence 'hits'
Sarah Lucas, Eating a banana
- implies a sexual act
- picturing the self consciousness of the connotations
- critiquing the idea
- the look is very confrontational
- this idea runs through her work
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