The Gaze and the Media
"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
This does not mean women are vain. This is a result of images of women in contemporary society. Women carry around an idea of themselves being looked at.
Hans Memling 'Vanity' (1485)
The mirror is present in the painting as a device which distracts from the fact that the artist paints the womens body because he enjoys it. It appears the women enjoys looking at herself as opposed to the artist and acts as a reference to the title, 'Vanity'. The period in which the painting was painted was when witch hunts were common.
The mirror is also used in contemporary advertising.
Alexandre Cabanel 'Birth of Venus' (1863)
Berger uses this as an example of the tradition of the nude to depict the female figure in a reclining position. Venus is reclining on the wave and raises her hand which partly covers her eyes. This gesture implies she is just waking from sleep or just about to go to sleep. This covering of the eyes allows us to look at her body without having her looking back at us. The body composes almost 3/4's of the painting.
Sophie Dahl for Opium
A contemporary version of the aforementioned painting. This advert was withdrawn initially because of its overt nudity and sexual nature. There is a similar spacing and composition to that of the 'Birth of Venus'. After the advert was refused for publication, they re-released the image simply by changing the orientation from horizontal to vertical. The emphasis is now on the face as opposed to her body in a horizontal format.
Titian 'Venus of Urbino' (1538)
Berger puts this forward as a traditional nude in the sense of although the woman is looking at us, she looks at the viewer as if she is aware of their presence.
Manet 'Olympia' (1863)
Manet represents a 'modern' nude and points out the differences between this and Titian's nude. The subject is elevated and looks at us in the eye. Her pose is more assertive and wears adornments which are reflective of wealth. Although she is a prostate, she gives the impression she is of more wealth.
Ingres 'Le Grand Odalisque' (1814)
1985 - Guerilla Girls - formed in response to an exhibition at the museum of modern art. Only a minority of the artists featured at the exhibition were female. They devised a poster using this image in a poster which 'Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum? Less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art sections are women, but 85% of the nudes are female. The campaign was never publicised, however, due to its 'sexual' connotations.
Manet 'Bar at the Folies burgers' (1882)
Manet himself is featured in the painting and provides several different perspectives at once. We are facing the barmaid but he is allowing us to see him/ourselves in the painting, also as we are placed in his shoes. It is a distorted mirror reflection as her reflection, in reality, would be composed differently.
Her body is arranged in an open gesture, suggesting an approachableness.
Jeff Wall 'Picture for Women' (1979)
Picture for women was inspires by Manet's masterpiece. In Manet's painting, the subject gazes out of the frame and forms a complex web of viewpoints. Jeff Wall uses this theory and creates a sense of spacial depth through reflections and light. Wall updates the theme by positioning the camera in the centre of the work. There is no hidden recording device as it is looking straight back at the viewer.
The metal poles separates the image into 3 frames - one with the woman, the centre featuring the camera and the third featuring the man.
Coward, R (1984)
The camera in contemporary media has been put house as an extension of the male gaze at women on the streets. There is almost a normalisation of nudity and nakedness in the street - people walk behind the model without looking at her suggesting she is of a normal appearance.
The woman is wearing sunglasses - we are not challenged by her look as her sight is covered.
Eva Herzigova, 'Wonderbra' (1994)
Billboard campaign for the Wonderbra. There is a play between the text and the image - we assume it is Eva Herzigova saying the words providing a flirtatious interaction suggesting it is okay to look at her. She is looking down which in one sense, she is looking down at herself or alternatively, the viewer (as this is a large scale billboard).
Peeping Tom (1960)
The profusion of images which characterises contemporary society could be seen as an obsessive distancing of women... a form of voyeurism. In this film, the man lures women to his apartment to film them being killed.
Men in advertising
Men are also objectified in the media/advertising too. The subject is in a similar position to that of the 'Birth of Venus'.
Dr Scott Lucas
Scott Lucas Authors the website, genderads.com (A resource for advertising images). He looks at this 'gaze'. He states, "The issue of the male objectification is often raises in gender classes I have taught. I have heard many men and women that men are equally objectified in popular culture. Can men be objectified as much as women are?"
Dolce & Gabbana ad
Display of male strength. The subjects are looking at the viewer directly in the eye.
Laura M (Essay in 1976)
Looks at Hollywood cinema in the 1950's and 60's and analyses the treatment of the female body. The framing of the camera separates the subjects body and features the woman as an object for consumption. She declares than in Patriarchal society that pleasure in looking has been split into active male and passive female roles.
Marilyn: William Travillas dress from 'The Seven Year Itch' 1955)
Artemisia Gentileschi 'Judith Beheading Holofernes' (1620)
There is a tradition in art history that presents this idea of the female as a passive role and the male as an active role. This painting reverses these traditional roles.
Pollock, G (1981)
Women 'marginalised within the masculine discourses of art history'
This marginalisation supports the 'hegemony of men in cultural practice, in art'
Women not only marginalised but supposed to be marginalised
In the history of painting, a womens role is often left out.
Cindy Sherman 'Untitled Film Still #6' (1977-79)
She wasn't making this work with the theory of the gaze in mind. Similarly to the Opium advert, she has rotated the orientation of the reclining body. There is a subversion of tradition. The subject is holding a mirror but is faced away from the viewer - it is therefore not used as a device for vanity.
She has left small clues which remind us that this is a constructed image - one of which being a photographic timer. We are looking at a reconstruction. The womans gaze looks away from us - out of the frame - which makes the viewer slightly uncomfortable due to an unnatural/awkward pose/stance.
She also makes a similar point where she reproduces a paparazzi shot. There is a sense of a celebrity character - the subject comes out of the room looking disheveled.
Barbara Kruger 'Your Gaze Hits the Side of my Face' (1981)
Her work combines text and found imagery. Kruger presents us with statements that are ambiguous and difficult to read. She is offering us the side of the face as an alternative to a full, returned gaze. There is also a reference to violence... 'Your gaze hits the side of my face'. Kruger is better known for 'I Shop therefore I am'.
Sarah Lucas 'Eating a Banana' (1990)
Seemingly innocuous.
'Self Portrait with Fried Eggs'
Similar theme - she uses food to challenge the idea that the female body is there to be consumed.
Tracey Emin 'Money Photo' (2001)
Represents a pornographic pose - making money from her art/work.
The Gaze OF the Media
Article by Joan Smith on the Amanda Knox case. The article looks at the idea which came from the prosecution, that Knox is represented as an 'evil witch'. "The idea that women are natural liars has a long pedigree. The key document in this centuries-long tradition is the notorious witch-hunter's manual... they claimed that 'all witchcraft comes from carnal lust, which is in women insatiable'... it's not difficult to see these myths lurking behind Pacelli's description of Knox".
Amanda Knox is acquitted yet the Daily Mail online published the wrong verdict. 'Guilty: Amanda Knox looks stunned as appeal against murder conviction is rejected'. This is completely fabricated and the featured image is unrelated.
'The Daily mail has emerged as the major fall guy by mistakenly publishing the wrong online version of the Amanda Knox verdict. The Mail was not the only British news outlet to make the error. The Sun and Sky news did it too... so did The Guardian in its live blog. In time-honoured fashion, echoing the hot teal days of Fleet Street, it prepared a story lest the verdict go the other way. But it over-egged the pudding by inventing 'colour' that purported to reveal Knox's reaction along with the response of people in the court room.... The Mail exposed itself as guilt of fabrication"
Susan Sontag 'On Photograph' (1979)
'To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed'
The act of photographing is more than passive observing.
Paparazzi shot of Princess Diana
We are implicit in the cycle of the production of paparazzi images. The cycle is perpetuated every time we buy a publication featuring these images. Our desire to see a celebrities mask exposed drives the need for these images.
Reality Television
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
Editing means that there is no reality
Contestants are aware of their representation (eiher as TV professionals or as people who have watched the show)
The Truman Show (1988)
Directed by Peter Weir.
Whole world is fabricated and filmed for reality television. He is the only person that doesn't know his life is scripted.
'Looking is not indifferent. There can never be any question of 'just looking'.
- Victor Burgin (1982)
Further reading
John Berger (1972) Ways of Seeing, chapter 3
Victor Burgin (1982( Thinking Photography
Rosalind Coward (1984) The Look
