OUGD501 - Lecture 3: The Gaze and The Media

'According to the usage and conventions which are at last being questioned but have by no means been overcome - men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.' (Berger 1972)

• Berger is saying women internalise the gaze - see themselves in the way they see images around them

• Hans Memling 'Vanity' (1485) - mirror is a device. She is looking at herself so we can look at her too. Berger picks up on the contradiction.
• 1485 is a time when there was harsh judgement on women outside the ideal at the time

• Mirror appears in contemporary advertising and fashion all the time

• Alexandre Cabanel 'Birth of Venus' 1863 - invited by the artist to gaze upon the woman

• Sophie Dahl for Opium - turned onto it's side so the emphasis changes so it could pass advertising regulations

• Titian's Venus of Urbino (1538), Manet's 'Olympia' (1863) - Berger draws the difference between them. Woman in 'Olympia' is looking straight, challenging the gaze. Hand position is more definite.
• Berger also looks at 'Le Grand Odalisque', Igres (1914)
• Gurrilla Girls challenge the amount of women in modern art vs the amount of nudes of women

• Manet - Bar at the Folies Bergeres (1882) - what's reflected in the mirror behind her is the Paris society that she's not a part of - her reflection in the mirror is not what it should be
• Jeff Wall 'Picture For Women' (1979) - Recreation of the 'Bar at the Folies Bergeres' - split reflection into thirds. Hard to work out where you are compared to the woman.

• Coward, R, (1984) - 'The camera in contemporary media has been put to use as an extension of the male gaze at women on the streets'
• Normalisation of the display of the female body referring to the billboard tradition
• Eva Hezigova, (1994)
• 'The profusion of images which characterises contemporary society could be seen as obsessive distancing of women...a form on voyeurism - Coward on Peeping Tom, 1960
• Objectification of male bodies in the media - D&G ad, 2007 - every male returns the gaze - no passive positioning that you get with the female

• Marilyn: William Travillas dress from The Seven Year Itch (1955)
• Zelda Pollock
• Atemisia Gentileschi - Judith Behading Holofernes (1620) - looks at this as there is unusual violent females.
• Pollock argues that women are generally being left out of art history.
• Women 'marginalised within the masculine discourses of art history'
• This supports the 'hegemony of men in cultural practice, in art
• There are artists who are addressing this issue - Cindy Sherman, 'Untitled film still #6' (199-79) - similar to what is going on in Sophie Dahl image - turned upright, more focus on her face. Mirror is face down, denied the narrative to look at her without her looking back - is an awkwardness to the gesture - challenges the gaze - not allowed to look on her without feeling the awkwardness. Comes up regularly in her film stills
• Sherman also creates history portraits

• Barbara Kruger, 'Your gaze hits the side of my face' (1981)- Uses text to look like cut out of the newspaper - reference to violence - challenges idea of looking at the female body
• Sarah Lucas 'Eating a Banana' (1990) - humorous work with a serious message
• Sarah Lucas 'Self portrait with fried eggs' (1996)
• Tracy Emin 'Money Photo' (2001)

• Caroline Lucas MP in June 2013 - wanted to bring the issue of page three - was asked to change her t-shirt in parliament even though The Sun is available to buy
• Criado-Perez argued that as the Equality Act 2010 commits public institutions to end discrimination - he received up to 50 threats a day via Twitter including threats to rape and murder - campaign to represent women on British currency
• Lucy-Ann Holmes, who founded the campaign to end the publication of topless 'Page 3 girls' in the sun newspaper last year - also received death threats
• Aspect of social networking that can be used to perpetuate the gaze
• Susan Sontag (1979) 'On Photography' - 'To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed'
• Paparazzi shot of Princess Diana
• 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 means there is no reality
• Contestants are aware of their representation (either is TV professionals or as people who have watched the show)
• The Truman Show (1988)
• Big Brother - making voyeurism an everyday activity
• 'Looking is not indifferent. There can never ben any question of 'just looking'.' - Victor Burgin (1982)