The Gaze

‘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)

Hans Memling

 ‘Vanity’

(1485)

The female body – presented so that the female body cannot gaze back

The eye focuses on the womans body, not her as a character

MANET - Bar at the Folies Bergeres

Self portrait – looking out

Skewed perspective.

A sadness/unhappiness/not part of the group goings on

Role of women - disaffected, no longer the passively available, sexualised

Jeff Wall ‘Picture For Women’(1979)

-the gaze is reflected by the camera

the way nudity on banners and in magazines is the norm

-       sunglasses act as a way to stop women gazing back

Peeping Tom 1960 Films her death for voyeristic purposes

Nudes are not the same for the representaion of men – more nude females

Male – active

Women – passive/ looking back

Lara Croft - A visual spectacle
An overly sexualised object
Pleasure in the fantasy of her distraction

Social Networking is used to perpetuate the male gaze/ the gaze of the media – the judgement of body ‘ideals’ for women, and the objectification of specific parts and how they should look

Reality tv shows

-       offering ‘all seeing’ power to the public like the gaze

-       editing of the shows means that reality is lost

-       contestants featured are aware of their representation

Looking is not indifferent. There can never be any question of 'just looking'.

Victor Burgin (1982)

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Reading List

John Berger (1972) Ways of Seeing, Chapter3

Victor Burgin (1982) Thinking Photography

Rosalind Coward (1984) The Look

Laura Mulvey (1973) Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema

Griselda Pollock (1982) Old Mistresses