The Gaze & The Media

Lecture Notes

John Berger - Ways of seeing

Women carry around an idea of being looked at. This quote is not about vanity, but about the proliferation of images of women appearing to be vain. 

Hans Memling - Vanity

The mirror distracts, and makes it appear as if it is not just the painter or the viewer that enjoys looking at the woman's body, but it is the woman who enjoys looking at herself, relating to the title of this painting, 'vanity'. It makes you take a moral judgement. 

Advertisement Photo

The woman looks confused, absorbed in thought. We look at her without having the gaze returned. The camera is positioned in a low view point, with the woman sat with her legs open, so this is where we look.

Alaxandre Cabanel - Birth of Venus

Traditional nude oil painting shows female reclining, with her hand over her face covering her eyes. This allows us to look at her body without the challenge of her looking back. Her body covers 3/4 of the image, making it the focal point.

Sophie Dahl for Opium

This is a contemporary example of the Birth of Venus. This advertisement was originally not allowed, due to its overt nudity and sexual nature. Again, the body takes up 3/4 of the space, making it the focus of our gaze, in particular the breasts. For the advertisement to be allowed to be used in magazines, the image was turned 90 degrees anti clockwise, meaning that the focus is now on the face. 

Titan - Venus of Urbino & Manet - Olympia

The woman is aware of our presence but looks relaxed, and happy for us to be there. This is a contrast to Manet's Olympia (which was painted in modern times). Olympia looks at us directly, and is more sat up, and seems more assertive. She is a symbol of the modern feminine presence.

Ingres - Le Grand Odalisque & Guerrilla Girls Poster

Ingres' image of the female is used again in the Guerrilla girls poster, with a message about the high number of naked females in paintings in galleries, but the low number of female artists.

Manet - Bar at the Folies Bergeres

We see the scene from different views; a complex web of viewpoints. It is not a realistic mirror reflection. The woman is almost waiting for us to order, she seems approachable. There is a strange spacial depth with the mirror.

Jeff Wall - Picture for Women

This is a recreation of Manet's painting. There is no hidden recording device, as the camera is shown at the centre. The image is divided into thirds: we're in the middle, the woman is on the left, and the artist is on the right.

Coward - Study of Ad Campaigns

The woman's body is placed in a setting which makes it seem like it is a completely normal occurrence that she is half dressed out in public. The woman's eyes are covered by sunglasses to prevent the return of the gaze. She is posed in a way that makes her body inviting to look at.

Eva Herzigova for Wonderbra

These adverts normalise nudity or the semi clothed woman on the street. There is a playful flirtation with the words that makes it seem okay to look at her. She is looking down on her cleavage and also looking down on us, as we're tiny compared to the huge billboard. 

Peeping Tom - Film

The character spies on women, lures them in and then films them as he kills them. There is an idea here that women are to be looked at and not interacted with, which allows for pervesion to take place.

Men are also objectified. This advert shows a male in the reclining position in underwear with his eyes closed, so we can look at his body without the returning gaze.

Genderads.com

This is academic source which looks at the gaze in the media. The number of adverts where the male is objectified is much smaller than the amount of adverts with women in. It is about frequency, not whether or not males are objectified. 

D&G Advert

This is a display of male strength, about sport, the powerful body, the obsession with health and male beauty. All of the males return the gaze, looking us in the eyes, even the male who is reclining. 

Laura Mulby

Mulby looks at cinema from the 50's and 60's and examines it in turn of its treatment of the female body. The camera chops up the female body, focusing on the areas that are thought to be pleasurable to look at. 

Freud had referred to the pleasure of looking without being seen in cinema. In cinema, the roles of active male and passive female are split. Female's were generally an adornment to the film, where the male was the protagonist, however, now there are examples where this has been challenged.

Gentileschi - Judith beheading Holofernes

This is a reverse of the roles of the woman, with a grizzly representation. Pollock looks at women's exclusion of role, as their role is usually always almost left out.

Cindy Sherman - Film Still

Sherman says she wasn't making stills with theories of gaze in mind. Reconstruction of tradition. The woman is semi clothed on a bed, however, she plays on traditions as she is turned around, so not horizontally reclining. There is a mirror on the bed, but it is placed back to front. The woman's gaze looks away. It is an awkward, uncomfortable pose that doesn't look natural. Sherman always reproduces a paparazzi shot. The woman shown emerges from the bedroom with a glass. There is a sense of celebrity character created, as the woman tries to hide away wearing sunglasses. 

Barbara Kruger

This image is a combination of text and found imagery. It doesn't allow the gaze to go on to the body, and seems violent with the words, "Your gaze hits the side of my face". 

Sarah Lucas

Performing idea to be looked at. Women might be self-concious about eating a banana in public as it has phallic associations. Self-portait with fried eggs - challenges the idea as body as something that is there to be consumed.

Tracey Emin - Money Photo

She is stuffing money in herself. She has been criticised about how she makes her money from her art. She is bringing together the idea of woman making money through their body and their art.

Amanda Knox Trial

From the prosecution, an idea came that portrays Knox as an evil witch woman

 - 'A woman is beautiful to look upon, contaminating to touch, and deadly to keep' -

There is an idea that women are natural liars, and demonic characters.

The mail produced the wrong version of the result of Knox's appeal about false translations. Two articles were prepared beforehand, and the one saying she was guilty was released. The mail was guilty of fabrication as it made up un-related things to back up the verdict.

The cycle for production of images is fed by our desire to consume these images. If we buy magazines, it feeds the market for more imagery. Driven need.

Reality TV is a similar operation, it is the passive consumption of society. It isn't reality at all. The contestants are aware of their own representation, and know how they should act. Reality TV objectifies both males and females, turning voyeurism into an everyday activitiy. The characters are encouraged to sunbathe and go in the pool.