Key notes on the Lecture
Voyerism (Freud)
Sexual Desire
Visual Culture (Art and media)
The Gaze
Looking is not neutral
'Men act, women appear' (Berger, 1972)
objectified
Women are objects to be looked at and the men are the subject.
Subject/object
Hans Leming
Nude women painted by a man
Artisits are mainly men
Men would have bought the paintings
Men are the ones with power, even shown today
Its a naked woman because a man will buy it and he doesn't want to see a naked man
It asserts his superiority and his manliness
The woman never confronts you, she doesnt hold your gaze, but she looks in the mirror to make sure your still looking. It creates a male fantasy
It is named 'Vanity' which takes the piss of woman, in the fact that there looking at themselves. Woman were always made to look desirable.
Comparison
One is looking away to invite you in to look
The other is much more confrontational
One is acceptable the other isnt (top is acceptable)
The woman is a prostitute and other is Venus, The God of Love
The top one is a perfect woman, unchallengeable for men to gaze upon in a fantasy. But the other is reality, she isn't as sexually available, covering up, it makes her a 'person'.
The cat at the ends of the bed resemble interdependency.
The images of naked woman are male fantasies, they look sexually available and hold the gaze but are not really resembling what reality is actually like.
A modern day example is many perfume adverts
Task
Using the text Coward, R. 'The Look', write one critical analysis of a media image (advert / TV commercial / publicity poster / magazine cover / news story) which, in your opinion, constructs a particular type of gender sterotype, or reflects the dominant patriarchal concepts of gender, critiqued in the lecture 'The Gaze & the Media' (31/10/13). Use at least five quotes, referenced according to the Harvard system, in support of your argument.
The advert i have chosen is the Aston Martin add, it provides the exact thing that Coward. R is talking about in 'the look'. The advert was created by a man and made for men, 'entertainment as we know it is crucially predicated on a masculine investigation of women, and a circulation of womens images for men', adverts like the one shown are portrayals of how men think women should look, and be seen as these perfect willing objects, this method of making adverts is exactly the same as the old oil paintings when men painted perfect representations of naked women for men.
Within this advert the women is looking away inviting us to look upon her, free to look wherever the male onlooker wants, this is a complete opposite to what it would be like within real life or society, a man staring at a woman's bum would be discriminated against, but because its behind a camera lens it becomes okay for the man to look and for fill his fantasy of being able to look at a beautiful women with no questions being asked, ' those fantasy women stare off the walls with a look of urgent availability', the real life doesn't meet their fantasy. This brings upon another point, men have a fear of rejection, they feel approaching a extremely attractive woman could lead to a rejection or slap in the face, but by looking at them this way through a lens and on screen they have no boundaries, 'sex at a distance', 'perhaps other forms of contact are too unsettling'. The advert showcases this by having the women in a overtly sexual position and men are left to think how they want about this women with no rejection what so ever.
Women are portrayed to be objects and sexual creatures within this advertisement, shes not there to be looked at for her beauty but what she can do sexually for men, with the slogan ' you know you're not the first, but do you care?' claiming she has slept around and that this is a bad thing, but if the roles were to of reversed and it was a man who had slept around it would of been a boost to his ego, showcasing that men have the power over women, women are objects to be looked at and the men are the subject.
In terms of how women view this advert they look at it and think that if they wish to be desired then this is how they have to look, they have to look like what they see on tv, 'women are bound to this power preciously because visual impressions have been elevated to the position of holding the key to our psychic well being, our social success, and indeed to whether or not we will be loved', all the things that we want are based upon how we look. Shown in the advert by having a beautiful women who other women will look at and think, if this advert is made by men and is for men and that's who i have to look good for each day, then they will feel the need to be exactly like this women who is being put on a pedastool because she can attract men so easily, and so i have to look like her. But they will always be unsatisfied because each ad of a beautiful nude women changes how they feel, they are always striving to be the best they can be.
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