{"id":63712,"date":"2022-03-31T05:35:07","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T09:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=63712"},"modified":"2022-04-05T14:02:34","modified_gmt":"2022-04-05T18:02:34","slug":"the-male-gaze-in-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-male-gaze-in-art\/","title":{"rendered":"The Male Gaze in Art &#038; the Objectification of Women"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is the male gaze? How are women objectified in art?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The male gaze is the practice of portraying women in the visual arts from a perspective of a male viewer. According to art critic John Berger, through the assumed male gaze, the depicted women are perceived as objects of sexual desire owned by the spectator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Continue reading to better understand the male gaze in art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-male-gaze-in-art\">The Male Gaze in Art<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Nude women were a prominent subject in European oil painting. Berger points out that, in the same way oil paintings depicted wealth using images of land and objects, women were also seen as property to be flaunted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This raises the issue of the male gaze in art. <strong>Nudes<\/strong>, Berger says, <strong>are characterized by the objectification of the female \u201csubject,\u201d who through the assumed gaze of the male viewer is made into an object.<\/strong> Men who were wealthy or powerful enough to buy and commission oil paintings wanted nudes for the same reason they wanted oil paintings of valuable objects: to remind others and themselves that they were rich, powerful, and <em>desirable<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nude women in European oil paintings <em>appear <\/em>for the benefit and use of the assumed male viewer, who Berger calls the \u201c<strong>spectator-owner<\/strong>.\u201d He calls them this because the man who owns the painting \u201cowns\u201d the nude woman, and (in his mind) he\u2019s also the reason why the nude woman is there\u2014to display herself for him, the spectator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/GJC1HEUwDaixOeTmAnqs09hfWN62CveCoP0v2U9G8gjui1PfI1dsyLtlmEOjQ7qehIv6PvKi1pD8BYc2NRQA8UeA1corch5W8zmmAO8ZL-PVCEoRiSLCGhtRTjNsRn0JPm_Qjxc\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>RECLINING BACCHANTE BY TRUTAT 1824-1848<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Berger notes that the nude woman is often being viewed by two or more men: A male within the painting, and the spectator-owner. Despite being desired by one or more men <em>within<\/em> the painting, the woman shows her loyalty to the spectator-owner through eye contact or by positioning her body to face him. Berger says that the owners of these paintings enjoyed and requested this because it made them feel dominant in an imaginary competition.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Look at how, in the following examples, the nude woman is receiving attention within the painting, but her gaze and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/body-language-crucial-conversations\/\">body language<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/systems-awareness\/\">focus outward<\/a> toward the spectator-owner:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/6Db0LBK4laICnrQlJ1vgqJnexAobfRZx6rU_-IU6NoF9mvzJWfmL_mUywfIljxyDl6sw1BC3L9YWXgRoJ9H36aLt6pGxU0V_v1A4mN9OXY7DdG8XYnta5sqWDr-M7MR5NyHUIpM\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>ALLEGORY OF FORTUNE BY DOSSO DOSSI 1538<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/xXTKN2Til5WIiuN-fzn150G4sRP5pypDy3uynfPf65KgiinDn0zUe06thz4uWO0w4RjcXQo3JPZRg_SnvA04WicRpYrtrQxSBePCwW_aXlxTiPt7h4ukg5hZoeGkNglaJPjg5p8\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>NELL GWYNNE BY LELY 1618-1680<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/QUpfQQ3n977aQqEin5U1r3fjQWg1v-7iLTdgG-niPdPy9EXkcldydxzhwil1Ib3MobOKB6dC6FuL1szN4NTxB6FSV8mnZNUPnpST9AUl8Nw-jhCl26ymhn3Xj4X4vpK9gE580Hs\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>SUSANNAH AND THE ELDERS BY TINTORETTO 1555-1556<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Contemporary Nudes<\/strong><br><br>According to Berger, the nudes of the oil painting tradition were highly focused on the spectator-owner and featured the male gaze within the paintings as well. Today\u2019s nudes are less focused on being desirable, and more focused on <a href=\"https:\/\/rdnarts.com\/articles\/nudity-in-art-modern-contemporary-nudes-paintings\/\">breaking taboos<\/a>. In many examples, the woman touches her own body and exudes a sexuality that up until recently was viewed as a character flaw. Since the \u201cMe Too\u201d movement of 2017, women have moved toward unapologetically embracing their sexuality and rebelling against the historical objectivity of their bodies.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Naked Versus Nude<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Not all naked paintings are nudes. According to Berger, to be naked is to be yourself, and to be seen by others for who you are\u2014it is vulnerability and honesty. To be nude, on the other hand, is to <em>hide<\/em> oneself and be seen by others as an object\u2014usually for sexual fantasy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-mystification-of-the-nude\">Mystification of the Nude<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Now that Berger\u2019s definition of a nude is firmly established, we can explore how this trend was and is mystified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Berger explains, the vast majority of paintings that depicted nudity were commissioned by wealthy men who wanted the illusion of owning the woman. The image was catered to his tastes in order to please him. This obscures the reality of what women actually looked like, how they behaved, and what their attitudes were toward their surroundings. What we are left with is not a record of how women <em>were<\/em>, but as of how the spectator-owners saw them, and how the painters depicted them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By depicting women as a prize to be won, paintings from this time period oppressed women by creating competition among them and manipulating their perspective of their own gender. Berger explains that as long as women believe they belong to men, and that they must fit a conventional and submissive standard to be desirable, the men can maintain social, economic, and political control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Filters: The Modern Mystification of Women<\/strong><br><br>Berger notes that we don\u2019t have an accurate idea of what women looked like during this time period because their image was manipulated and painted for the enjoyment of the male viewer. A similar phenomenon is taking place in social media in the 2020s\u2014the use of filters.&nbsp;<br><br>Hundreds of filters exist that can be placed over photos and videos (even live) with one tap of the finger on a smartphone. Though all genders use filters, the primary users are female.&nbsp;<br><br>A filter is essentially a set of image manipulations that can be applied simultaneously and instantly. One moment you look like yourself, and in the next, you look like someone completely different. <a href=\"https:\/\/vocal.media\/blush\/the-destructive-nature-of-beauty-filters-9sht5507na\">Their existence has changed beauty standards across the world<\/a> and mystifies what women really look like. Just as we don\u2019t have a clear understanding of what women looked like during the Renaissance, if someone 100 years from now looks back on photos from social media today, they too wouldn\u2019t know how women of the 2020s truly looked. Rather, they will see the idealized image of the time, which is constantly in flux.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the male gaze? How are women objectified in art? The male gaze is the practice of portraying women in the visual arts from a perspective of a male viewer. According to art critic John Berger, through the assumed male gaze, the depicted women are perceived as objects of sexual desire owned by the spectator. Continue reading to better understand the male gaze in art.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":63716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,21,24],"tags":[595],"class_list":["post-63712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-philosophy","category-society","tag-ways-of-seeing","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Male Gaze in Art &amp; the Objectification of Women - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is the male gaze? The male gaze is the act of portraying women in the visual arts from a perspective of a male viewer. 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