The Gaze Seminar 2

Introduction:

In todays session we began to move on from what we have previously looked at within Freud's theories and how it links into our design, our last lecture was based on the gaze in media - In our society we are the subjects we all have a notion of who we are, but generally we group and judge people as objects however this is ok because this is in turn done back to us by the everyone else - a great example of this is our class people would look and instantly view us as students.   

Hans Memling

'Vanity'

We have analysed this image as a group: we as the viewer sexually objectify the women in the piece. She is looking at herself - this then gives us as the viewer more social power allowing us to feel comfortable with looking at her because she is being vein herself and looking in the mirror. 

John Berger - The Ways of Seeing

At this moment in time all artists where men, this continued to be the theme of things all the way through to the 20th century, The image above was painted by men for men. All of the art collectors and artists where all male. The subjects the males choose to paint was always going to be a naked woman - this was the begging of the art genre that is known as nude.   

All of the art critiques where also all men, it was men that wrote about how beautiful and delicate the female figure is to use as a subject of study for the artists. 
The imagery that is used is definitely linked in some way to pornographic material, however what we are dealing with here is the aesthetic situation - this is the male objectification of women, Nude painting is a way of men being allowed to look at the female body without feeling any guilt. 

Here is a great example of where female vanity has being taken to the next level, jordan is depicted to be; Vain, thick, sexy - and in combination with the fake enormous breasts. this is just a statement that she wants to please men with her appearance. 

The fact that she is depicted as being thick gives the make a feeling that she is easily dominated. 

  

As you can see the women in the image looks back at the viewer in a flirtatious manor. This women in the image is Venus she is the Goddess of Love as you can tell this adds to the sexualisation of the image. a challenge of fantasy. This image was a huge hit at the 'The Salon'

Confrontation and Challenge to the fantasy of the desirable dominate able woman 

-  Just a sexual body 

This image was rejected by the exhibition, the critiques said that the image was confrontational, the reasons for this include. the straight visual contact the woman is blatantly looking at the viewer, the assertive hand is covering the genitalia - as a prostitute she can be temporally owned but as she is being paid this puts her in the control. 

Covering herself in a defensive mannor 

- Can own a prostitute temporarily for money 

The image above shows a much more suggestive body position instead of the hand being in a dominating position, this image shows the hand in a sort of tickling seductive position. there are many other aspects to this piece for example the scattering of rose petals on the bed awaiting the husband. 

The first image represents female independence and the second is the ultimate male fantasy. this is women's sexualisation is used as weapons of power. 

Tipalet Cigarettes

Blow in her face and she'll follow you anywhere

This advertisement is not only a representation of male dominance within society but also shows how women are dominated.

"I cant cook who cares?" 

Although the image is aimed at women it is sexualised to appeal to men as they are the breadwinners - her pose is powerful and assertive and gives off a 

She makes up for not being able to cook with her breasts - This means that sex is used to make up for not being the housewife males dream of.

Makes up for her not being able to cook - with her aesthetics. 

The gaze - The objectification of women - power and domination, control over women.

The ad is aimed at both men and women. The males will buy the wonder bra in an attempt to turn their women into this passive figure as seen in the ad. 

5 quotes explained:

Coward, R., 'The Look', in Thomas, J. (ed.) (2000), Reading Images, Basingstoke: Palgrave, pahes 33-39

5 Quotes explained:

"The saturation of society with images of women has nothing to do with men's natural appreciation of objective beauty, their aesthetic appreciation, and everything to do with an obsessive recording and use of women's images in ways which make men feel comfortable. And women are bound to this power precisely because visual impressions have been elevated to the position of holding the key to our psychic well-being, our social success, and indeed to whether or not we will be loved."

The first sentence is basically saying that the reasons men find women aesthetically attractive is not natural but a manipulation of artificial feelings created by men for other men to feel powerful and dominant. The next sentence is saying that because of the trained appreciation of these fake feelings is becomes the normal for men to automatically think in this way and it turn women are trained to respond to these demands to conform and find love or a relationship because the vast majority of men have these preconceived ideas of aesthetic beauty. 

"Advertising is this society builds precisely on the creation of an anxiety to the effect that, unless we measure up, we will not be loved. We are set to work on an ever-increasing number of areas of the body, laboring to perfect and eroticise an ever-increasing number of erotogenic zones. Every minute region of the body is now exposed to this scrutiny by the ideal. Mouth, hair, eyes, eyelashes, nails, fingers, hands, skin, teeth, lips, cheeks, shoulders, arms, legs, feet - all these and many more have become areas requiring work. Each area requires potions, moisterisers, conditioners, night creams, creams to cover up blemishes. Moisterise, display, clean off, rejuvenate - we could well be at it all day, preparing the face to meet the faces we meet. "

I sum this up as advertisers are purposely creating areas of the body we can 'improve' in order for their to be a product for it. Basically a jobsworth of the human body which needs maintenance and needs money spending on it to be acceptable in current society.

"Where women's behavior was previously controlled directly by state, family and church, control of women is now also affected through the scrutiny of women by visual ideas. Photography, film and television offer themselves as transparent recordings of reality."

I think this is an easier quite to understand if not obvious but what its basically saying is that

times have changed and from the more predominate form of control being the church and state there is a more passive form of control which is the media. Controlling people through visual language which is current.

"True though it is that women, especially young women, are deeply concerned with their own images, it is radically incorrect to liken women's relation with media images to the happy state of Narcissus. Women's relation to their own self-image is much more likely to be dominated by discontent."

This can be summarised that women are interested in their own appearance but not in a vain manor but more in a forced annoyance of having to conform. Worrying that they are not socially aesthetically pleasing to men and that they will not be loved for being anything different from the cultural idea of beauty.

"Because women are compelled to make themselves attractive in certain ways, and those ways involve submitting to the cultures beliefs about appropriate sexual behavior, women's appearances are laden down with cultural values, or, with difficulty against them."

Because women are pressured to dress and make themselves attractive to a typical mans idea of beauty, they are submitting to the cultural beliefs about how women should behave both sexually and morally. The appearances of a women has lots of different connotations for example red lipstick might be seen as seductive.