Male Gaze

Assignment How have women been portrayed through photography? 16/01/2009 How have women been portrayed through photography? The inspect deals with how the audience views the masses presented in visual culture, in this case, adverts, magazines and Cinema. The antheral gaze is the adolescent-begetting(prenominal) capacity to exercise control oer women by defending them in visual government agency as passive, internal objects of gentlemans gentlemanly desire. The power of men over women has ever so existed. They argon seen as the more than powerful and clever species. This control over women has been seen predominately in linguistics senses in past clock times.It is clear that on that repoint atomic number 18 more derogatory terms for women than there ar for men. Men skunk besides wolf whistle or cat-call in order to molest a womanhood only if there is no such answer for women. Men also have more linguistic power over women due to their social status in sophist icated society. In more current times men have turned to visual liberal arts to implement their control and power over women. In this essay I hope to demonstrate how women ar and have been portrayed in singing to the staminate gaze and how it is still very prevalent in coeval modern culture through photography and another(prenominal) mediums, such as, picture palace and advertising.I will be analyzing the photographic blend of Cindy Sherman, E. J. Bellocq, advertisement and the indite work of Laura Mulvey and John Berger. Traditionally imagined, written and produced by men, advertisements have great show women as men want them to be, sexy, obedient, fragile, instead of as they actually are. In this way, the priapic gaze is very predominant in modern advertising. John Berger put it in Ways of eyesight, Men act and women pop out. Men catch at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. i When women look at themselves in modern advertisements, they are encouraged to v iew themselves as a man might view them.Women have very few roles in the area of advertising. Mainly they are portrayed as domestic providers who do not make significant decisions, are dependent on men, and are essentially sex objects. This traditional representation of women is a problem, not because it is impose on _or_ oppress to want women to be sexy or striking but sooner because their beauty is being defined as a means to manlike power through strategic admiration. Most adverts on television and in magazines have pretty, sexy women with the idea being that if you buy what they are merc progressising than you will get the girl in the avert, or in a womans case, be the girl who gets her man.A good lesson of this is cigarette advertising in this case I will be tone at a 1960s ad campaign by Tiparillo. This campaign showed an off screen man offering a soma of women a choice in cigarettes and small schoolbook at the buns of the advert discussing the cigarette but also a cru de gossipmonger on the women pictured. The women appear to play strong roles, a Lab Technician, librarian and Violinist, but the male gaze is clear as though they whitethorn have strong positions, they are still portrayed as intimate objects.In the advert Tiparillo M 1967 we see on origin watch is what appears to be a strong, smart lab technician, the glasses help stress that she is intelligent. She is photographed from her cleavage upwards, The model dons a gormless expression, though it is state why she may have this expression on her hardiness in the text accompanying the advert, Underneath that pocket of pencils beats the heart of a digital computer, here we are made aware the women is actually a robot.This puts the women in the position of being passive, being programmed by the man. The way the male caliber is displayed off screen puts an emphasis on the spectator and how he identifies with the main male protagonist, he projects his look onto that of his life, his scre en surrogate. ii the last judgment of conviction in the text is which Tiparillo are you going to offer? Or are you honourable going to stand there and stare at her pencils? This signalise is obviously referring to staring at the womans chest, the pencils are in line with her breasts.Cindy Sherman first came to prominence in the late 197 0siii, when Sherman produced her ungentle Film Stills, which spotlights the complexities of the female persona as soon through the lens system of the media. With the photographs she takes of herself, she impersonates various characters and shows us the numerous roles women play in our world. In her pictures she depicts women as housewife, sex sign, lover, victim, monster and more, and causes us to reflect upon how we perceive women.The characters Sherman portrays, lighting, clothing and expressions are cliche of what is present in picture palace, so much that attestants of her work have told Sherman that they remember the movie that the im age is derived from, yet Sherman having no rent in mind at all. iv Thus showing that her word has a pastiche of past cinematic genres, and how women are portrayed in cinema and photography and how Sherman has manipulated the male gaze around her images so they become ironic and cliche. Laura Mulvey understands Shermans ignoble Film Stills as to be rehearsing this structure of the male gaze, The camera looks it captures he female character in a parody of divergent voyeurisms. It intrudes into moments in which she is ungraded, sometimes un positioned, absorbed into her own world in the privacy of her own environment. Or it witnesses a moment in which her guard drops and she is suddenly startled by the presence, unseen and off-screen watching her. v Voyeurism is near unpatterned Shermans work, in Untitled Film Still, 2 the lawsuit is a young Sherman wrapped in a towel, which is draped from her back, divine revelation her buttocks if the image was to be taken a second later.Sherma n stands out front her bathroom mirror, touching her shoulder and following her own gesture in its reflected image. viThe way Sherman has positioned herself, mouth slightly open, a longing gaze, her travel by caressing her shoulder, head tilt back, neck extended and in a profile position, the reflection appears to an extract from an issue of Vogue. A door is megascopic in the left of the image this puts the viewer outside room, peering in at a moment where the subjects guard is down, a moment of privacy and emotion.In 1981 Sherman produced a series of images called Centrefolds here Sherman photographed herself in series of narratives which have a soft-core pastiche to her Untitled Film stills and association her panoramatal framing to that of the put of cinemascope. In this series Mulvey focuses on the characters and the masquerade of felinitys interior, The young women that Sherman impersonates may be daydreaming about a future romance, or they may be mourning a lost one. They may be waiting, in enforced passivity, for a letter or a predict call. Their eyes gaze into the distance.They are not aware of their clothes, which are sometimes carelessly rumpled, so that, safe alone with their opinions, their bodies are, slightly revealed to the viewer. vii Untitled 96 shows Sherman sprawled out on a titled floor, almost merging in with her orange ensemble, a warm tone on her skin also matching her outfit. Sherman is gazing dreamily out of launch whilst clutching (what could be) a personals ad torn from a newspaper. Krauss states that, want Jackson Pollock, Sherman disturbs this verticality by using a downward camera pitch in her photographs.Yes, the angle makes one aware of the horizontal, but it also emphasizes the vertical (power/domination) position of the viewer in relation to the apparent weakness of the horizontally inclined woman (Sherman). viii Shermans Centrefold photographs have a to-be-looked-at-ness of femininity. Un handle with Shermans Untit led Film Stills which have a fake narrative, the subjects would always be looking of of frame, so that the camera doesnt drawn any unwanted attention, expectant it that film aesthetic.Where Shermans 1981 Centrefolds do the opposite, they announce themselves as photographs, and in a pin-up, the models eroticism, and her pose, are directed towards the camera, and ultimately towards the spectator. ix Sherman only thought of the relation of the male gaze in her 1981 work Centrefolds, The horizon/ centrefold type pictures I did, were meant to resemble in format a centrefold, but in content I wanted a man opening the magazine to suddenly look at it in mentality of something lascivious and then experience like the violator they would be. Looking at these women perhaps as a victimI didnt signify of them of victims at the time. I am trying to make someone feel bad for having this sort of certain expectation, and so that is the only real time Ive consciously thought of the male gaze. x Sh erman wants the viewer, in this case the male spectator, to feel wrong for applying the gaze, and stereotyping women into a passive, victim, love sick women which is often depicted in both cinema and photography. When opening the magazine Sherman wants to feel like a violator, having expected sexually orientated image, by almost manner of walking in on someone in a private moment.In one of Shermans more recent works, Untitled 276 we see her represent Cinderella, a famous female from western fairy tale. Sherman portrays this childhood character her in a way that is radically different from any other representation and is polar opposite to that of say Disney. The only similarity amidst Disneys Cinderella and Sherman as Cinderella is their blond hair. Disneys portrayal of Cinderella is innocent, sweet, modestly svelte in a beautiful gown and jewels with a perfectly proportioned form sterile for an glossy female, waiting for her prince to come and take her away from her problems. However, Sherman is made up to look like a whats could be resembled as white trash, her dress is see through and her breasts (presumably fake) are visible. Her legs are spread inviting the spectator and there is large black area between her legs, which could possibly be (knowing Sherman) pubic hair. She looks anything but innocent as she assumes a confident, sexually charged military position in a take me or leave me kind of posture. She looks like she could give a damn if her princes comes and perhaps she wouldnt even acknowledge him if he did arrive.Ironically, she is holding a white lily, the traditional symbol of purity black-and-blue lilies represent the purity of the Virgin bloody shame. The Angel Gabriel was often painted presenting Mary with a white lily when he announced to her that she would give birth to the male child of God. xi Here Sherman has depicted a more realistic male moving picture of what Cinderella would look like. I think that this reaction is typical a s ymbol of the sexism present in society, traditional beauty is good, a whore, unconventional beauty, a promiscuous woman and nudity is bad.E. J. Belloqs images of prostitutes taken the town of Storyville, modern Orleans in the early 1900s encapsulate the male gaze. 12 All the photographs are portraits of individual women. Some are nude, some dressed respectably, and others posed as if acting a mysterious narrative. Even though Belloqs images contain nudity, this is not where the male gaze is prevalent, its the detail that his subjects are prostitutes and their sole function is to advertise what the body has to offer.The way Belloq has photographed his subject is in a documentary style, contrasted where Sherman has taken a film narrative to her images, Belloq photographed his subject full frame and frontal. Untitled 01 is of young women elegantly laid out on a chaise-lounge. Apart from the Zorro like mask she is only wearing black stockings and what appears to be a wedding ring. T his image is a prime example of the male gaze. The way she is laid out, naked, facing the camera so that she is displaying her goods to her client.Her face is covered by a mask, is can be seen as to nurture her identity, but also is can be related to women as a sexual object. This image has a come-hither quality, a relaxed pose and an inviting smile, with just enough room for the client/ spectator to sit on the chaise-lounge. The first things what strikes the viewer in Untitled 02, is that the face of the prostitute has been scratched out. Susan Sontag stated that these pictures of blacked out faces are actually painful to look at, at to the lowest degree for the viewer.But then I am and women xiii Even from a males point of view I do find these image subjective to women as without a face there is no identity, purely and object of sexual desire. The scratched out faces can be seen as violent towards women. The woman in the picture seems to have a back slightly arched and hand behi nd her head. She could be tying her hair or extenuating her breasts for the spectator, in this case the client. The woman appears to be quite petite, possibly young, maybe thats the reason why the face has been scratched away?We can conclude that the male gaze has been employ throughout Photography, from both male (Belloq ) and female (Sherman) perspective, but both have used the male gaze in different ways. Belloqs has used it unconsciously through his documentary/portraiture images, which depicts women as more of a sexual object and something to be desired. Where Shermans has used it consciously through her well composed narrative images, taking the stereotypical ideals of women and photographed them in a cliche style which is all but apparent in past and present cinema. i . John Berger, Ways of Seeing (London BBC, 1974) ii . Laura Mulvey, A Phantasmagoria of the female Body The Work of Cindy Sherman, New left review, vol. 188 July/August 1991 pp. 8 iii . http//www. artfact s. net/index. php/pageType/exhibitionInfo/exhibition/13349/lang/1 Accessed 28 December 2008 iv . Listbet Nilson Q & A Cindy Sherman, American photographer, September 1983 p. 77 v . Laura Mulvey, A Phantasmagoria of the Female Body The Work of Cindy Sherman, New Left review, vol. 88 July/August 1991 pp. 5 vi . Cindy Sherman 1975 1993 Rosalind Kraus, Rizzoli International Publications, 1993 pp. 56 vii . Laura Mulvey, A Phantasmagoria of the Female Body The Work of Cindy Sherman, New Left review, vol. 188 July/August 1991 pp. 5 viii . THE SHERMAN PHENOMENA The Image of Theory or a Foreclosure of Dialectical argumentation http//www. brickhaus. com/amoore/magazine/Sherman. html Accessed 29 December 2008 ix . Laura Mulvey, A Phantasmagoria of the Female Body The Work of Cindy Sherman, New Left review, vol. 88 July/August 1991 pp. 6 x . Ovation TV Cindy Sherman, Nobodys Here But Me http//www. youtube. com/watch? v=Xsow0QaKJAM Accessed 28 December 2008 xi . http//painting. about. com/cs/inspiration/a/symbolsflowers. htm Accessed 04 January 2009 xii . Graham Clarke, The Body in Photography, chapter 7 of The Photograph (Oxford Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 123-144 xiii . Bellocq Photographs from Storyville, the Red-Light district of New Orleans susan sontag http//www. masters-of-photography. com/B/bellocq/bellocq_articles2. html