The Gaze and the Media
The gaze is voyeurism (freud) Sexual desire, Visual Culture (art and media) Looking at art/media images etc is not necessarily neutral. 'Men act women appear' (Berger,1972) That has finally been acknowledged but is a long way of to being changed. Is a Conventional idea. Men- Purpose/ Power Women- Subject/Object Broadly in our society visual representations are skewed, it is broadly represented by the attitudes and opinions of men.
Painting Hans Memling, Vanity 1400
http://www.artinthepicture.com/paintings/Hans_Memling/Vanity/
04/11/2013
Was saying that it is ok to look at this naked women because she is looking at her self in vain.
The women is looking out at the audience however she is holding a mirror to the side, but the reflection is a front view.
It is a painting of a nude women by a man. Art was primarily made by men up until the 70's the people who bought art would be bought by men. As the vast majority of wealth came from men. Men are in control of money, property and production. They were seen to have economical power.
The reason it is a women and not a man is because a man will buy it, he wouldn't want to look at a naked man. Designed to make the man feel secure about his sexuality and his own power.
Fantasy that never challenges the owner. The painting cant argue back or be confrontational. Designed to keep you looking.
The artist has called it vanity which is to kind of have a laugh at women for being vain. Sexualising women and then laughing at women for being concerned about the way she looks. Reveals the nastiness of culture for laughing at women with how society has been organised.
Alexandre Caranel 'Birth of Venus' 1863
Seen as acceptable however the Manet Painting was seen as a scandal. The image below is of a Women who was a prostitute, she is also looking straight at the audience as the image above is more flirtatious. The image above is a fantasy and the image below is a sordid reality. The image above is about admiring the beauty of the female form. The image below is shocking because it is challenging the stable world view. Not as sexually available as what you would like it to be. The gaze is met which makes you realize that the subject has been met.
EDOUARD MANET: "Olympia", 1863
The above image has been re worked into the one below. Cat is a symbol for independence where as a dog is seen as mans best friend. It is sanitised and normalised to be just Art. It is sexual and voyristic exploiting women.
Titian's Venus of Urbino 1538
Men dream of women, women dream of being dreamt of. John Bergers Documentary
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