Feminism and Male Gaze

Male Gaze and Feminism

According to Lacan, ‘Gaze’ is used to describe a condition where the subject observes “the observation of himself” in a mirror. Laura Mulvey coined the term Male Gaze as an inscription of the image of woman as an object of male desire. For narrative she saw the camera adopted a male point of view to appeal to an assumed male audience where women were often represented in a sexualized way. I believe the same can be say as for the male gaze to be applied to art. Just like the camera, the same can be said about a painting or a work of art, where the perspective of the artist can adopt a male gaze (or point of view to appeal to a male audience).

Edward Snow stated that when feminism characterizes “the male gaze”, certain motifs are almost sure to appear: voyeurism, objectification, fetishism, scopophilia (the love of looking), woman as the object of male pleasure and the bearer of male lack, etc (30).  Thus, it can be assumed that the female spectator will see things differently than what the male will see.  Paula Rabinowitz used an example for the film All That Heaven Allows (1956) combines female sexual expression and maternal repression in a melodramatic film that creates contradictions for the female spectator that may not yield distance through excess but instead may seem all too familiar in their excess(163).

For example in our reading of the Foster article, Cindy Sherman was able to make the viewer feel implicated by her work seeming to be a spectacle of the world (Foster 148). Female subjects are self-surveyed, she captures the gap between the imagined and the actual body images by showing the distance of a self-made women and her mirror face. I believe Sherman’s art critiques the male gaze through a women’s voyeurism. She captures the moment of a women looking at herself in the mirror, that observation of herself is the very definition of the gaze. The woman in the picture is not to be the subject of gaze to an audience but only a subject to herself, thus creating a gap between the imagined  body and actual. To conclude a simplified way to understand Male Gaze as John Berger puts it “Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at” (Sullivan 191).

Artwork Ideas

                Being inspired from an episode of the reality show Cheaters, a boyfriend had cheated on his girlfriend through Craigslist hookups. To make artwork out of it, there would be this gigantic projection onto a wall at least 15 feet high to simulate a computer screen. On it, it would simulate as if a greater being was browsing the escort sections of Craigslist, where it will scroll down, click on links, go back, click on more links. The links would be the images Craigslist post, usually sexually explicit with attached pictures that would be projected 15 feet tall. Ideally, the craigslist posts exemplify the male gaze, where women are overtly sexualized in explicit in visuals as well as words. The scale of the piece will make the pictures of the women look giant like, and intimidating. Thus, will complicate the male gaze of the viewer by making him feel uncomfortable, powerless and weak; therefore the viewer will be unable to enjoy the pleasures of the male gaze.

                Going along a similar idea, this was inspired by the Haunted Mansion at Disney. At the very end of the ride, the viewer looks into a black mirror and sees a projection of a ghost hitchhiker in his dune buggy sitting next to them. For this art installation piece, there will be a small room set up like a private viewing area with a tv outside and a black mirror, sexy mood lighting/romantic velvet like decor and a camera inside. The camera records the viewer the whole time, and the viewer will go inside and watch the mirror. A projection of a sexualized woman (like Jessica Rabbit) will be on screen. After the viewer leaves the room, the tv outside will play the recording the viewer’s expression to the public with the viewer right there. Thus, the viewer performed the male gaze by watching the woman, then the viewer became subject of the male gaze to the public, and the viewer watched itself being watched by the public, thus taking the role of the female subject. As a result, the viewer switches roles by performing the male gaze and becoming the subject of the male gaze.

                The last idea is a sculpture. There will be three objects side by side on a blank white table/pedestal in this order: a birth control pack, a standup 360 mirror, and a baby’s bottle. These objects represent the contradictions a female spectator may feel or face through their gaze. The birth control represents sexual freedom, a baby’s bottle of maternal repression, and a mirror for reflection of the viewer, so they can observe themselves through the idea of the female gaze. Opposing to that table is another table with stilettos, a stand up 360 mirrors, and a playboy. The stilettos represent voyeurism; playboy represents pleasure, and the mirror a reflection of the spectator. These objects help the viewer observe themselves through a male gaze.

Discussion

1.       How do you interpret Cindy Sherman’s work in relation to the male gaze?

2.       Does the female gaze exists? How would you define it?

3.       What gaze does a female view another female? What gaze does a female view a male?

Mulvey believes female view themselves through the male gaze, thus creating the inequality. Females view males through a female gaze, such as teenybopper magazines coin term “boy toy”.

4.       Why do men usually possess the gaze and not subject of the gaze?

Possibly men can’t bear burden to be the objectified, they reject it while women just deals with it

 

Works Cited

Mulvey, Laura. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Brown Unviersity Wiki. Brown

University, 10 June 2009. Web. 4 Sept. 2012.

<https://wiki.brown.edu/confluence/display/MarkTribe/Visual+Pleasure+and+Narrative

+Cinema>.

Rabinowitz, Paula. "Seeing through the Gendered I: Feminist Film Theory." Feminist Studies 16.1

(1990): 151-69. Print.

Snow, Edward. "Theorizing the Male Gaze: Some Problems." Representations 25.1 (1989): 30-

41. Print.

Sullivan, Laura L. "Representations of Women and the Virtual Male Gaze." Computers and

Composition 14 (1997): 189-204. Print.