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
Slide 1: THE GAZE AND THE MEDIA
Slide 2:
John Berger quote
"According to usage and conventions which are at last being questioned but have no means been overcome- men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being look at"
Difficult for women to think there not looked at as they constantly looking at images of women
No equlivent of men
Women constantly survey there identity of femininity
Slide 3:
Female nude
Full body on display from the front
Holds mirror at herself but at an angle but the face is shown full frontal - distorted double view of her face
The image she sees
The mirror is the device to justify the act of looking
Excuse - allow us to look at her
Slide 4:
Contemporary - used in modern advertising
Drawn to most sexual part of the body - legs open
Allowed to as she looks at herself in deep thought
Makes it ok for us to look
Depict the female body without the female returning the gaze
Slide 5:
Berger looks at this painting
Repeated pose particularly in advertising
Women as a goddess of the sea
Looked over by cherubs
Sentimental/virginal image of the women
The position - on a wave but covers her own eyes and face by her arm
Often found in paintings and ads
The balance in the representation of the body and the head - percentage of the paintings is larger focus on the body than the character of her as person
Slide 6:
Opium advert - Sophie Dahl
Reclining figure
3/4 picture pane of body
More sexual image - contemporary than the paintings - touching of the breasts
Deemed to sexy for advertising and publishing
Slide 7:
Turned it around - vertical image is more concentrated on the face
Eyes drawn somewhere else with the different composition
Slide 8:
Titian's Venus of Urbino 1538
Hesd turned and eyes facing upwards - knowledge of presence of us but no distinct reaction
Passive mood
Covers self with her hand but very casual
As if we are spying
Slide 9:
MANET - 'Olympia' 1893
Subtle differences
Positons are a very similar
Details in hand - defensive action, pushing down, assertive act of the women pictured
Identifies her as a prostate - flower in the hair and the neck tie, the cloth she lays on - wealthily
She's offered flowers - gift
Head positions - lifts her as if she's addressing us
Snapshot quality like a photo - caught her
Slide 10:
Tradition of the nude
Ingres 'Le Grand Odalisque' 1814
Slide 11:
Used the traditional old painting nude pose for advertising of a survey
Object in the hand is ambitious - sexual suggestion
Poster was bad from public view
Slide 12:
MANET 'Bar at the Folies Bergeres' 1882
Mirroring of the gaze
Women stands at the bar, almost ready to serve us, bar is between us, arms opens
The mirror behind is and impossible reflection - slightly to her right
Allows us to see her from two viewing positions - as ourselves and as the character illuminated in the corner
Slide 13:
Placed at the other side of the bar as the male character
Society at the time - social life in modernist society
Mirrors - false social perception
Returns our gaze
Slide 14:
Jeff Wall 'Picture for Women' 1979
Clearly copies the MANET painting
Women at the bar and himself behind
Studio reflected in the mirror
Doubling of the gaze - women returns gaze and we are reminded of the gaze of the camera
Repetition of the picture frame being separated by the window frames
The ceiling showing perspective with the lights
Breaks the invisible barrier of the audience looking at the image
Slide 15:
R.Coward 1984
Camera in contemporary media has been put to use as an extension of the make gaze at women on the streets
Semi naked figure - unaware and unnoticed by clothed figures on the street
Don't consciously take note of these image
Women do in the subconscious somewhere take note of the image
Sunglasses - women can't look back, feel we can look
Slide 16:
Eva Herzigova 1994
'Hello Boys' - traffic stopping campaign - caused car crashes etc
Looking down on us
Comedy of the end line lightens the idea of a large naked women
Slide 17:
Peeping Tom 1960
A man who spies on women as there undressing
His verism leads him to murder
The camera he holds has a mirror in it and a spike
'The profusion of images which characterises contemporary society could be seen as an obsessive distancing of women, a form of voyeurism'
Slide 18:
Reinforcing the gaze not challenging it
Dr. Scott Lucas - there are men shown naked in this way but its the quantity of men and women images in the public media
Slide 19:
2007 - Dolce & Gabbana
Typically portrayed in a active manner whereas women are docile situations
Every guy is looking back at the camera - 'its ok to look at me' gaze
Slide 20:
Laura Malvey
Slide 21:
Marilyn: William Travillas dress from 'The Seven Year Itch' 1995
Examines 50s/60s of women in film
Body is broken down into compartments
Slide 22:
Infantile Lookifier
Darkness of the cinema one may look but not be seen
Perfect environment for voirism
Objectification of the female body
In patricharal society - active male and
Slide 23:
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
Active character
Visual spectacle to be consumed
Overly sexualised object
Pleasure in the fantasy of her destruction
Body image is visual spectacle
Seen as a powerful active character but is sexually objectified
Slide 24:
Artemisia Gentileschi 'Judith Beheading Holodernes' 1620
Example of painting by a women which portrays women in this active and grossum role
Holds his beard and hair - very physical
Alternative characterisation of a female role
Gaze is challenged
Slide 25:
G.Polock 1981
Woman marginalised winch the masculine discourses of art history
Slide 26:
Cindy Sherman: Untitled Film Still 6
1977-79
Insists they weren't made with those thoeries in mind
Female reclining - image turned round - emphasise is on face instead of body
Attempt to challenge to norm the expected
Includes the mirror but turned away from viewer so we can't see reflection
Disrupts the gaze because we don't no where to look and what we've caught in action
Not natural movement - arm on the chin
Staged
Slide 27:
Left image - similar - paparazzi shot
Right image - beheading copy - her version of the action is very different - no gore
Shows her awareness of her art history in her work
Slide 28:
Barbara Kruger "Your gaze hits the side of my face" 1981
Obviously challenging the gaze
Face turning away from the gaze
Implication of violence in the word 'hit' in the image
Slide 29:
'I shop therefore I am' 1983
Slide 30:
Sarah Lucas 'Eating a Banana' 1990
Photographs herself eating banana
Implies sexual act
Self conscious - innocent eating a banana in public might look slightly sexual
Critiquing the idea - look of confrontation
Slide 31:
'Self Portrait with Fried Eggs'
Reference of the expression - fired eggs being small chested
Slide 32:
Tracey Emin ' Money Photo' 2001
Challenge the gaze - been through art school
Stuffing money inside her
Criticising money made out of her work
Vulgar to make money out of the work
Slide 33:
Gaze in the media
Joan Smith article on
Amanda Knox
The portrayal of her in the court and media as a 'witch'
Slide 34:
Only women who got this dangerous lust
Article:
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.
Slide 35:
Photographs often used to misrepresent
'Looking stunned'
Headline trying to reinforce the story
Turns out it was a mistake
Trick of the media - two stories prepared for the result of the trail
Put the wrong article up on the web about trial
Slide 36:
Fabricated story
Distortion of the media - they decide on the portrayal of the people in the public eye
' The Daily Mail has emerged as the major fall guy by
mistakenly publishing the wrong online version of the
Amanda Knox verdict.
Knox won her appeal, but the paper's website initially
carried a story headlined "Guilty: Amanda Knox looks
stunned as appeal against murder conviction is
rejected.”
The Mail was not the only British news outlet to make
the error. The Sun and Sky News did it too and yes -
hands up here - so did The Guardian in its live blog.
It would appear that a false translation of the judge's
summing up caused the problem, leading to papers
jumping the gun.
So why has the Mail suffered the greatest flak? In
time-honoured fashion, echoing the hot metal days of
Fleet Street, it prepared a story lest the verdict go the
other way.
But it over-egged the pudding by inventing "colour"
that purported to reveal Knox's reaction along with the
responses of people in the court room.
It even included quotes from prosecutors that were,
self-evidently, totally fake.
In other words, by publishing its standby story, the
Mail exposed itself as guilty of fabrication. '
Slide 37:
Social networking used to perpetuate the male gaze
Body is broken into fragments - could be any female - no author
Plays on teenagers body consciousness, potentially carrying this perceptions into adult life
People liking image in reference to hating there body
Slide 38:
Susan Sontag 1979 'On Photography'
"To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed"
Act of photographing
Slide 39:
Desire of paparazzi to photograph celebrities looking good and bad
Theres a demand for this image - the public want it
Don't consume the images passively
Caused death because her image is so valuable - Princess Diana
Slide 40:
Reality Television
Appears to offer us the position as the all-seeing eye - the power of the gaze
Allows us a voyeuristic passive consumption of a type of reality
Editing mean that there is no reality
Voting contestants - what happens in the real world - there life in our hands
Aware of representation because the show exists - regarding themselves as this identity
Slide 41:
The Truman Show 1988
Dir Peter Weir
Whole life is reality television show
Slide 42:
Big Brother 2011
Male and female body to look at
Design of the chair - knees to the head - legs always open when sat down
Loose impact because we are saturated by the experience as its everywhere
People are aware of the representation - offering themselves as a type of passive viewing experience
Slide 43:
'Looking is not indifferent. There
can never be any question of 'just
looking'.
Victor Burgin 1982 - 'Thinking of photography'
Slide 44:
Further reading
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