This quote implies that women see themselves in comparison to the way other women are presented in the media. Women eternalise the Gaze and view themselves as other women are viewed.
Hans Memling - Vanity
By including a mirror in the image, in which the woman looks herself, it insinuates that it is okay for the viewer to be looking at her too. The reflection is not that of a realistic angle for where the mirror is placed and shows a warped image of her.
Mirrors have been often used in the media and photography. The placement of the mirror in this image allows the viewer to look at her without any resistance, as she is busy looking at herself.
Alexandre Cabanel - Birth of Venus
In this image, the woman is openly sexual in her stance, particularly with her head thrown back, which again allows the viewer to look at her uninterrupted as she can't see them.
Sophie Dahl for Opium YSL
This initial image to be used for the campaign embodies the same sexual elements as the two before it. Her hand position and head thrown back exudes sexuality but again allows the viewers to gaze upon her.
Initially considered to be too overtly sexual, this image was turned on it's side to reduce the sex appeal of the image.
Venus of Urbino
It could be interpreted in this image that the woman is unaware of the gaze from the viewer, and similarly, we are unsure if her left hand is positioned in such a way to cover herself, or to express a more sexual act.
Manet - Olympia
This image has been compared to Venus of Urbino, fitting the same composition, but a very different impression from it. The woman in this, thought of to be a prostitute, is much more challenging of the gaze from the viewer and it is not as comfortable to look at her. Similarly in this image, the hand seems to be much firmer as oppose to the inviting nature of the previous image.
Ingres - La Grand Odalisque
While this image is considered more modest than the previous images, there is a sense of mystery about the other side of her body.
The image has been recreated for Guerrilla Girls, interrogating the viewer about nudity in art. It questions why women are considered the models for art, and not taken seriously as creators.
Manet - Bar at the Folies Bergeres
The image above is an interpretation of the composition of Manet's painting. This photograph exhibits the rule of thirds, separated by the edges of the mirrors. We have to be reminded that we're not looking through a window but it continues the theme of the male gaze, this time shown in the actually image.
This image has made a point of the female being minimally dressed while surrounded by fully dressed people going to work, none of whom are reacting to her semi nudity, which normalises the idea of a nude female form in society. The use of the sunglasses is used as a tool to allow the viewers to gaze upon her without their stare being challenged.
Eva Herzigova - Wonderbra
This advertisement was blown up to a billboard size, which fits the stance of the woman looking downwards, but also gives another opportunity for people to look at her, since her gaze can't return theirs.
The Gaze and male objectification
In this image the man's eyes are closed and he is positioned in such a way that implies he could be asleep, meaning that there will be no objection to the viewer looking at him.
The amount of ads painting men in this light is substantially fewer than that of women, as it is more often that men return the gaze. Women are considered more passive figures while men symbolise power, so it is unlikely that they will be exhibited in a vulnerable manner like this one.
Films often suggest that the females are not leading roles, but are positioned to react quite passively to the men in the film.
In a dark cinema room, people can be comfortable knowing they are not easily seem and so are able to observe what is on the screen without any feeling of shame or guilt, allowing for an opportunity to use female objectification in film.
Artemisia Gentileschi - Judith Beheading
This is one of few examples of females being portrayed quite unusually, as they are in control and taking action over a male figure. The painter, a woman, is trying to make the impact of women more obvious, since they are often left out of some elements of art history.
G. Pollock 1981
- Women are 'marginalised within the masculine discourses of art history'
- This notion supports the 'hegemony of men in cultural practice, in art'
- Women are not only marginalised, but they are supposed to be marginalised.
Cindy Sherman - Untitled Film Still no. 6
Sherman made a point of saying that her intention was not to challenge the gaze, but her work does this in its own right. Again, the image has been rotated as she was very reclined in the original, and in doing this the focus shifts to her face. She is sitting in an awkward position, holding a mirror that she is not looking at, which eliminates the comfort that viewers would find in that (as in Vanity).
Barbara Kruger - Your Gaze Hits The Side Of My Face
This image is more challenging of the notion of the gaze than of the gaze itself, and gives viewers the opportunity to contemplate the social aspects of the concept of the gaze.
Sarah Lucas - Eating A Banana
This image is challenging the viewer, who would be under the assumption that this action is presented to them with an underlying innuendo. Lucas is gazing back at the viewer with a more aggressive expression, implying that she knows what they're thinking and is boisterously challenging it.
Sarah Lucas - Self Portrait With Fried Eggs
The more comedic element to this image is completely counteracted, before anyone can find too much humour in it, by the open challenge of the returning gaze.
Tracy Emin - Money Photo
This image was constructed to make a mockery of people who didn't agree with the money that Emin was making through her work, and has posed it as an implication of prostitution.
Caroline Lucas MP June 2003
This photo was taken before Lucas was asked to remove the T-shirt as it violated the dress code of the house of commons, in spite of the Sun being available for purchase there.
"I'd say it's a constant undercurrent, when women write about feminist issues or are exposed in a lot of media for speaking out about sexism they tend to get a barrage of abuse and threats" - Lucas
Criado-Perez argued that as the Equality Act 2010 commits public institutions to end discrimination. She received up to 50 death threats a day via Twitter, including threats of rape and murder. Although she reported the abuse, police lost evidence and she was forced to delete her account.
The woman who protest or speak out against the objectification of women are consequently met with violence. Proposing and pushing the idea of putting women on banknotes was considered a method to place women into history.
This headline wiped away anyone's memory of a female winner, who won only a couple of decades ago.
This suggests that a female victory has been erased from history because a man won.
Social networking is used to perpetuate the gaze of men/the media. It plays on teenagers body consciousness, and potentially carries on those perceptions to adult life.
Susan Sontag - On Photography
- 'To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed.'
- 'The act of photographing is more passive observing. Like sexual voyeurism, it is a way of at least tacitly, often explicitly encouraging what is going to keep on happening.'
Paparazzi shot of Princess Diana
This image shows how Diana was constantly of interest to the paparazzi, eventually resulting in her death. This implied that the female form is nothing more than an image that will interest the public.
Reality TV:
- Appears to offer us the position as the all-seeing eye - the power of the gaze.
- Allows us a voyeuristic passive consumption of a type of reality.
- Use of editing eliminates the concept of it being reality.
- Contestants are aware of how they represent themselves.
- Began as an experiment, but changed the way people thought they were being seen and looked at by others.
The Truman Show - Peter Weir
This film explores the concept that the world that people construct over other peoples views of them is a false identity.
Big Brother makes voyeurism an everyday occurrence. We can see the contestants and they cannot see us, but still they hold onto and play up to the knowledge that they are being looked at.
"Looking is not indifferent. There can never be any question of 'just looking'." - Victor Burgin 1982
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