The Gaze

‘according to 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, 45, 47)

Through out history men and women have never had an even footing, society has always been a male dominated with women being seen to be lower class, and admittedly this tremendous divide is ever getting smaller. But in terms of modern society it has still been a relatively short period of time since the suffragette’s movement of the late 19^th early 20^th century.

This discrimination towards women as something less important is highly prevalent in classic and indeed some modern works of art and pieces in contemporary media. This objectification of women through art has been described as the gaze, women are to be looked at by men, and women are merely to look at themselves being watched. 

Hans Memling 1485 piece titled vanity is a classic example of the gaze, in 15^th century the male domination of the art world allowed for this depiction of women through such works as this, the woman nude looking into a mirror might suggest vanity on her part as the name would imply. In truth the subject view to the mirror is a vessel to allow and justifies the gaze of viewing male, and it is this view into the mirror that is key, if the woman in the image where to be looking back at the viewer she would be aware of there presents and therefore opposed to the male gaze upon her. 

The idea of the gaze can seen not only in more classical pieces but also in some aspects of contemporary media for example Wonderbras 1994 campaign featuring Eva Herzigova, similarly to the previous image the subjects gaze is averted away from the view of any onlookers, again not challenging the gaze. The slogan used within this particular campaign only adds tot the sexualisation of the woman, creating sexual invitation and an invitation for gaze!