The gazes

From the moment of creation to the modern era, there has been the notion that women and men are different. Looking at this from an Art History perspective, it is noticeable that women and men have been been portrayed very differently. This can be seen from early history when the world was strangled by a Feudalistic structure, where women have been placed at the very bottom. Art expresses that, paintings have shown women in mostly nude. But art is not always about the subject, but can be categorized by the viewer. This is what we come to know as the male gaze.

The male gaze, as John Berger suggest is "a man's presence suggests what he is capable of doing to you or for you. His presence may be fabricated, in the sense that he pretends to be capable of what he is not. But the pretense is always towards a power which he exercises on others" (Berger 46). Berger argues that the male gaze is pervasive because it strips the control from the female population entirely because their presence is a reflection of what can the male do to you or for you. This is seen in the vast array of nudes that have been created throughout history. The very notion of nudes is for the enjoyment of males because the female form is pleasurable to the senses. The nudes are a pictorial representation of male power, and Berger continues to say "in contrast, a woman's presence expresses her own attitude to herself, and defines what can and cannot be done to her" (Berger 46). The male gaze is a perfect way to express the inequality in the world of Art which is a representation of the part, because it shows how women were mistaken for tools for male pleasure.

I different way, Bell Hooks talks about cinema and the art of photography. She argues that the Black community that was not directly in contact with the "white population" only experienced through images that either neglected or misrepresented the Black image. with that being the case, Bell Hooks argues that it has negatively shaped the perception of Blacks in general. "The oppositional gaze" notion talks about the manner that the viewers have responded to way whites were idealized and when cinema and photography was created about non-white, gender-less population, the community responded in a backlash. Hooks says, "Conventional representations of black women have done violence to the image. Responding to this assault, many black women spectators shut out the image, looked the other way, accorded cinema no importance in their lives"(Hooks 120). The fact that cinema was so gender-divided and color blind has had a humongous gap between Black and white spectators. Though Bell Hooks would say it has gotten better, the point that she tries to make is that it is not perfect yet and progress cannot come soon enough.

My experience with art and cinema has been changed quite recently. It was only about four years ago when i noticed the misrepresentation in cinema and the subjectivity of Art when it comes to gender. I would not consider myself the Art connoisseur by any means but when noticed, it is easy to spot how misleading Art and cinema is as a representation of Worldly people. Cinema was the main setting of change, it struck me when I realized that as white male spectator, it was hard to see a variation of races and both genders. After reinforcement from Bell Hooks and the works of  Berger, I have seen progress in the desire for complete and respectful (and truthful) representation in culture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_at9dOElQk

The link is to a scene from the very popular Disney movie, Peter Pan. it may have seemed childish and innocent but there are many underlying stereotypes, race injustices, and gender inequalities in this piece of cinema.

The image has been taken from google. Giorgione's painting of the Sleeping Venus, shows how female form, sexuality and image was tied to the intentions of male desire.