Painter,
poet, and art critic John Berger once said, “Men act and women appear. Men look
at women. Women watch themselves being looked at…Thus she turns herself into an
object…a sight.” This objectification of women has been observed in almost
every, if not every, society since the beginning of civilization. Coupled with objectification
comes the inevitable gaze that the objects are subjected to. This gaze,
however, isn’t always appreciated by the object and is met with a retaliatory
gaze. Bell Hooks describes the female response to the male gaze as the “the
oppositional gaze”- a type of look that is meant to challenge the status quo
and, as the name states, oppose society’s gaze that objectifies women. In
either case, both Berger and Hooks explain society’s use of both the powerful
male gaze and the oppositional female gaze via art, culture, and examples
derived from their everyday lives.
In his
piece “Ways of Seeing,” Berger explains the different roles that both males and
females play in society and how the male gaze made its way into art. Berger
describes a man’s presence as “the promise of power which he embodies” (Berger
45) and how that power, or gaze that holds power, will inevitably be exercised (pervasively
and/or domineeringly) on other people, namely females. Contrarily, Berger describes the importance
that a woman places on being gazed upon and how “a woman must constantly watch
herself…because how she appears to others…is of crucial importance for what is
normally thought of as the success of her life” (Berger 46) despite the
pervasiveness of the male gaze. Is objectifying another human or wanting to
objectify yourself the nicest thing to do? No, it is not- but the fact that we
do it only stimulates the propagation of the gaze and causes the idea of gazing
and wanting to be gazed upon to permeate deeper in to the societal structure.
This idea of men wanting to gaze and women wanting to be gazed upon then made
its way into art where men drew naked women to stare at whilst the painted
woman held a mirror to “watch [herself] being looked at” Berger 47). This
single action, immortalized in art, gave society the excuse they needed to
continue to objectify women and further strengthen the power of the gaze,
solidifying the idea that “women of all classes were…inferior” (Guerilla Girls
11) for centuries to come.
This status
quo of female inferiority, however, would not be tolerated by Bell Hooks, who
wrote “The Oppositional Gaze” which describes a gaze that would finally
alleviate the pressure of the male gaze. Understandably, the idea of superior
males and inferior females would irk ninety-nine percent of the female population
and a good chunk of that ninety-nine percent would love to retaliate, just like
anyone who is stuck in a situation where they are the latter in a
superior-inferior relationship. The only issue with retaliating was the fear of
“repeated punishments” (Hooks 115) and further cementation of ones’ status as
the inferior individual. Bell Hooks, though, saw that there was “power in
looking” (Hooks 115) in situations where people would “not dare to look” but “[be
[fascinated by the gaze] and] stare dangerously” (Hooks 115-116). Hooks saw the
power that the male gaze held over females and decided that if a female were to
stare hard enough back, maybe “[their] look [could] change reality” (Hooks
116). Hooks stated, and courageously so, that simply staring back at the face
of adversity with a gaze stronger than that which adversity put forth can open
up the opportunity to challenge the social norm and begin to move forward
towards equality. Hooks wrote and verbalized what many women have held
fearfully in their hearts, giving females all over the world the strength to
stare back at the world and stand firm in their conviction.
The idea of
this oppositional gaze is strengthened even more by modern art and the
emergence of many famous female artists. Females who were once “ignored by
critics and art historians” (Guerilla Girls 8) finally, albeit slowly, began to
gain recognition. Initially, only a handful of females made a name for
themselves in the artistic world, but those few were enough to “put a foot in
the door” for other females to succeed, too. The real power, though, of art
produced by females doesn’t lie in hundreds of paintings- sadly, the number of
paintings produced by males still far outweighs that of female paintings. The
power lies in the few paintings that are widely viewed and accepted society
today. Women have spent all of history being stared at and have come to
understand the importance of one’s gaze, similar to the way someone stares at
and judges a painting. The painting is painted with the intent to portray a
certain idea or image just like a woman dresses or acts to portray their own
image. But the painting also has a metaphorical gaze of its own; staring back
at those who stare at it and challenging any ideas or beliefs that the observer
might have on the painting or - just like the female oppositional gaze has on
society.
None of the
books or articles quote, verbatim, that last portion I just said, but I drew
that conclusion upon extrapolating what I learned about the “power in looking”
that Hooks describes and the way we actually look at things on a day to day
basis according to Berger. I had always looked at a piece of art and took it to
mean whatever I thought it meant. Of course, I’d consider the intent of the
artist in creating a piece of art, but I’d only walk away with my own opinion
regarding the piece. But, now that I think about it, I realize that for as long
as you stare at a piece of art and try to judge it, that piece of art is
staring right back at you and daring you to think differently about it. The
piece of art wasn’t necessarily created to satisfy the observer (although it doesn’t
hurt to satisfy the general population with your art); it was created to make
the observer think about why the piece of art makes them react either
positively or negatively. When you bring together Berger who talks about the
power of the male gaze and Hooks who talks about the power of the oppositional
female gaze, what you get is a struggle for power and acceptance- an eternal
staring contest that will live on in every individual and the art they produce
for generations to come.
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| A girl staring into an infinite series of mirrors. Photo taken from: http://skullsinthestars.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/nickieatmirror.jpg |
What is art?
Love the image, post is a reiteration of the material. I am missing your voice regarding what these experts had to say.
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