The Gaze and The Media
Helen Clarke
helenclarke@leed-art.ac.uk
The lecture introduces theories of The Gaze, through the writings of John Berger, Laura Mulvey, Rosalind Coward and Professor Griselda Pollock.
It proposes that The Male Gaze identified by Mulvey through film, and Berger through painting, is in fact synonymous with The Gaze of The Media in contemporary western culture.
The lecture provides readings which follow the message of the key texts and encourages the questioning of our contemporary privileging of the visual in the western construction of desire.
It also looks at the impact this has in the everyday, and how the prevalence of the male Gaze normalizes these perceptions of women and their bodies and is internalized by women themselves. This is a complex area of investigation, and rather than a simple ‘reversal’ of the Gaze onto the male body, the lecture seeks to address and question image makers as to the possibility of an alternative portrayal of the body.
FURTHER READING:
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
‘The preoccupation with visual images strikes women in a very particular way. For looking is not a neutral activity. Human beings don’t all look at things in the same way, innocently as it were. In this culture, the look is largely controlled by men. Privileged in general in this society, men also control the visual media. The film and television industries are dominated by men, as is the advertising industry. The photographic profession is no less a bastion of the values of male professionalism. While I don’t wish to suggest there’s an intrinsically male way of making images, there can be little doubt that entertainment as we know it is crucially predicated on a masculine investigation of women, and a circulation of women’s images for men.’
Rosalind Coward (1984) The Look
Helen Clarke
helenclarke@leed-art.ac.uk
The lecture introduces theories of The Gaze, through the writings of John Berger, Laura Mulvey, Rosalind Coward and Professor Griselda Pollock.
It proposes that The Male Gaze identified by Mulvey through film, and Berger through painting, is in fact synonymous with The Gaze of The Media in contemporary western culture.
The lecture provides readings which follow the message of the key texts and encourages the questioning of our contemporary privileging of the visual in the western construction of desire.
It also looks at the impact this has in the everyday, and how the prevalence of the male Gaze normalizes these perceptions of women and their bodies and is internalized by women themselves. This is a complex area of investigation, and rather than a simple ‘reversal’ of the Gaze onto the male body, the lecture seeks to address and question image makers as to the possibility of an alternative portrayal of the body.
FURTHER READING:
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
‘The preoccupation with visual images strikes women in a very particular way. For looking is not a neutral activity. Human beings don’t all look at things in the same way, innocently as it were. In this culture, the look is largely controlled by men. Privileged in general in this society, men also control the visual media. The film and television industries are dominated by men, as is the advertising industry. The photographic profession is no less a bastion of the values of male professionalism. While I don’t wish to suggest there’s an intrinsically male way of making images, there can be little doubt that entertainment as we know it is crucially predicated on a masculine investigation of women, and a circulation of women’s images for men.’
Rosalind Coward (1984) The Look
‘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), It's difficult for women to conceive themselves as not being looked. Women constantly survey their idea of femininity.
Female body with a mirror showing reflection of the woman's face, this makes it more acceptable for us to look at her body because she's not looking right back at us.
Alexander Gabanel, mythical representation of a woman, sentimental and virginal painting, she covers her own eyes/face with hands, this is a device used in advertising and photography quite regularly. Concentration on her body, not on her as a person.
Sophia Dahl for Opium, reclining figure, 3/4 picture plane taken up by the body. Legs parted and hand on breast - more contemporary, not allowed for use on billboards, magazines etc so they flipped it on its side and more attention is drawn to the face.
Berger puts forward the idea that Titians's Venus of Urbino, 1538 is a much more passive painting. Manet - 'Olympia' 1863 he identifies her as a prostitute, neck ties were common for prostitutes.
Contemporary artists have used similar poses to challenge old fashioned.
Manet - Bar the the Rolio Bergeres
Jeff Wall 'Picture for Women' 1979
Coward, R 1984 (1984)The camera in contemporary media has been put to use as an extension of the male gaze at women on the streets
Eva Herzigova, 1994, THe Figure looking down
Coward R 1984, The profusion of images which characterise comtemporary society couldd be seen as an obsessive distancing a form of peeping tom
With male bodies within advertising they challenge your gaze
Lara Croft, over sexualised object
Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Beheading Holofernes, 1620. Alternative characterisation of an active female role, the gaze is challenged. Her arms are bulky and made to look strong.
Contemporary Artist challenging the idea of gaze, Cindy Sherman, "Untitled Film Still 6" 1977-79, we are looking at her face, she has a mirror in hand, Shermans work interrupts the gaze
Barbara Kruger - 'Your gaze hits the side of my face' 1981, turning away from the male gaze, the figure in the images in literally just turning away
Sarah Lucas - 'Eating a Banana' 1990 clearly implies sexual act, picturing here the self-consciousness. The side glance is almost saying ' what have you got to say about this'
Self Portratit with Fried Eggs 1996
Tracey Emin 'Money Photo' 2001 self referential work is a self-critisism of herself.
Female body with a mirror showing reflection of the woman's face, this makes it more acceptable for us to look at her body because she's not looking right back at us.
Alexander Gabanel, mythical representation of a woman, sentimental and virginal painting, she covers her own eyes/face with hands, this is a device used in advertising and photography quite regularly. Concentration on her body, not on her as a person.
Sophia Dahl for Opium, reclining figure, 3/4 picture plane taken up by the body. Legs parted and hand on breast - more contemporary, not allowed for use on billboards, magazines etc so they flipped it on its side and more attention is drawn to the face.
Berger puts forward the idea that Titians's Venus of Urbino, 1538 is a much more passive painting. Manet - 'Olympia' 1863 he identifies her as a prostitute, neck ties were common for prostitutes.
Contemporary artists have used similar poses to challenge old fashioned.
Manet - Bar the the Rolio Bergeres
Jeff Wall 'Picture for Women' 1979
Coward, R 1984 (1984)The camera in contemporary media has been put to use as an extension of the male gaze at women on the streets
Eva Herzigova, 1994, THe Figure looking down
Coward R 1984, The profusion of images which characterise comtemporary society couldd be seen as an obsessive distancing a form of peeping tom
With male bodies within advertising they challenge your gaze
Lara Croft, over sexualised object
Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Beheading Holofernes, 1620. Alternative characterisation of an active female role, the gaze is challenged. Her arms are bulky and made to look strong.
Contemporary Artist challenging the idea of gaze, Cindy Sherman, "Untitled Film Still 6" 1977-79, we are looking at her face, she has a mirror in hand, Shermans work interrupts the gaze
Barbara Kruger - 'Your gaze hits the side of my face' 1981, turning away from the male gaze, the figure in the images in literally just turning away
Sarah Lucas - 'Eating a Banana' 1990 clearly implies sexual act, picturing here the self-consciousness. The side glance is almost saying ' what have you got to say about this'
Self Portratit with Fried Eggs 1996
Tracey Emin 'Money Photo' 2001 self referential work is a self-critisism of herself.
The gaze in the media
Amanda Knox is a witch? Sorry are we living in 1468?
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, the Malleus Maleficarum or
The Hammer of Witches, which was
commissioned by Pope Innocent VIII. The
book was written by two Dominican monks
and published in 1486. It unleashed a flood of
irrational beliefs about women's "dual" nature.
"A woman is beautiful to look upon,
contaminating to the touch, and deadly to
keep," the authors warned. They also 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: "She was a diabolical, satantic, demonic she-devil. She was muddy on the outside and dirty on the inside. She has two souls, the clean one you see before you and the other." The lawyer's claim that she was motivated by "lust" could have come straight from the Malleus, which insists that women are more "carnal" than men.
It's not difficult to see these myths lurking behind Pacelli's description of Knox: "She was a diabolical, satantic, demonic she-devil. She was muddy on the outside and dirty on the inside. She has two souls, the clean one you see before you and the other." The lawyer's claim that she was motivated by "lust" could have come straight from the Malleus, which insists that women are more "carnal" than men.
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